Meet the Staff

Principal Investigator: Melissa Troester, MPH, PhD

Dr. Melissa Troester, Professor of Epidemiology with joint appointment in Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, leads the CBCS. Dr. Troester is co-leader of Lineberger’s Program in Cancer Epidemiology and the Director of the UNC Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility. Her research focuses on biomarker development and validation, genomic methods, epidemiologic methods, and breast cancer. She has been leading CBCS molecular research since 2012 and has more than a decade of experience working with genomic data and molecular biology of breast cancer risk and progression.

You can learn more about Dr. Troester and her research by visiting her university websites here and here.

Telephone Interviewers

The aim for CBCS3 is to follow-up with its nearly 3,000 enrolled participants for 15 years after their diagnosis with breast cancer, or at least as long as those participants are willing and able to generously share their lives with the study. To make participation, as easy as possible, CBCS3 conducts its annual or biennial surveys over the telephone.

Erin and Linda make all of the follow-up calls for CBCS3. If you received a newsletter and want to complete your follow-up call, please don’t hesitate to contact them! They are always happy to hear from you. In case they don’t hear from you first, one of them will call you to get updated information on your general health and treatment history. All active participants receive a follow-up call from either Erin or Linda.

Project Director: Heather Tipaldos

Heather Tipaldos, MS, CRA is a highly positive, innovative individual who thrives on consistently raising the standards of personal and professional excellence.  She is deeply committed to community engagement and is dedicated to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in the research sector.  She has proven experience in project management within top University Research Institutions. Heather brings to the study creativity, resourcefulness, and innovation with a firm commitment to delivering outstanding service to all those she serves.

With over 25 years of research administration management and government/regulatory compliance and oversight experience in both public and private University Systems, Heather has experience in management, team building, professional development, strategic implementation, and project collaboration. Heather is currently the Research Project Director for the Carolina Breast Cancer Studies, Carolina Head and Neck Cancer Study, Carolina Endometrial Cancer Study, and is the Facility Director for Rapid Case Ascertainment, a collaboration between UNC Lineberger, the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry (CCR), and participating hospitals in North Carolina.

Project Manager: Jamie Hunter

Jamie Hunter, PMP, is a dedicated research professional who works, along with the study team, to seek excellence in all aspects of the Carolina Breast Cancer Studies. She desires to ensure study participants have quality research experiences while maintaining precision in the execution of the specified CBCS aims and outcomes. Within CBCS, Jamie is responsible for oversight of human subjects research approvals, quality control, and data integrity activities. She also manages day-to-day administration of the Carolina Breast Cancer, Carolina Endometrial Cancer, and Carolina Head and Neck Cancer Studies, managing staff and coordinating enrollment and data collection for over 4,000 study participants.

Study Coordinator: Chris Halloran

Chris Halloran, MTS, MPH candidate, is a research specialist and the study coordinator of the Carolina Breast Cancer Studies. He works with the principal investigator and co-investigators to the design and running of the studies’ day-to-day processes to achieve their research goals and standards. Chris also makes works closely with all of the staff working on the study to make sure that the needs of the participants and of the studies are being met. Chris comes to CBCS with a background in the natural sciences, public health, and the humanities. His research experience includes the UNC Skipper T. Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, the Carolina Population Center, the Center for Mind and Culture at Boston University, and the Boston VA Hospital. Outside of work, Chris is a proud, always busy father of three young children, an avid fan of all UNC sports, and a Masters of Public Health student at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health in the Leadership in Practice concentration.

There are also many research assistants and specialists who work behind the scenes at CBCS every day with more than 75 years of combined research experience. They produce and send mailings, obtain medical records and tumor specimens, and clean, code, and enter survey data. Some of their lives have been personally touched by breast cancer, but all are dedicated to the success of this important research.

Michele Smith, Research Assistant

Michele Smith also has a long tenure with CBCS has been a research assistant with the team since 2010. She has been a key figure in the study’s longevity and success. Her current role includes mailing thank you letters and incentives, sending and receiving mail-in surveys, recording data entry, and entering medical record requests.

Michele also works on the CHANCE-2 study, where she is central to that study’s acquisition of medical records for abstraction.

In Memory of Robert Millikan

Dr. Robert Millikan, Barbara Soren­son Hulka Distin­guished Professor of Cancer Epide­miology, died Sun­day, October 7, 2012. He was 55 years old. Bob had been involved in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study since its inception in 1993. He had designed and directed CBCS3 study until his death. A member of the epidemiology faculty at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center since 1993, Dr. Millikan’s research in cancer epidemiology brought hope for bet­ter understanding and treatment of breast cancer, particularly for young African-American women who dis­proportionately die from the disease.

Bob was an exceptional scholar, teacher, mentor and colleague. He will be missed not only for his contributions to the department, school and university, but also to the larger community, including the national breast cancer advocacy community. The UNC Department of Epidemiology website includes a tribute and memorial page in Bob’s honor.