Meet the Team

CECS Investigators

Hazel Nichols, Ph.D. is a Professor of Epidemiology at UNC and multiple investigator of the Carolina Endometrial Cancer Study. She is a cancer epidemiologist focused on improving cancer care by providing sound epidemiologic evidence to guide personal and medical decision-making around cancer risk and survivorship. Her studies investigate health outcomes after breast, endometrial, and adolescent or young adult (AYA) cancers.

Andrew Olshan, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor in the Epidemiology Department at UNC. Dr. Olshan is multiple principal investigator of the Carolina Endometrial Cancer Study as well as the principal investigator for epidemiologic studies of adult and childhood cancers and reproductive and pediatric outcomes. He is experienced in evaluating environmental, clinical, and genetic predictors of survival among cancer patients. Recent research led by Dr. Olshan focuses on the impact of lifestyle, behavior, genetic, and social factors in cancers of the head and neck.

Victoria Bae-Jump, MD, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Gynecologic Oncology Department at UNC. Dr. Bae-Jump’s research focuses on understanding the interactions between cell signaling pathways implicated in endometrial cancer pathogenesis as a means to target therapy for this disease. She is experienced in investigating many novel targeted therapies for the treatment of endometrial cancer and the impact that obesity has on endometrial cancer development and progression. In the CECS, she will investigate the clinical and other characteristics in relation to endometrial cancer patient outcomes.

Russell Broaddus, MD, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor and the chair in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UNC. Dr. Russell’s current research focuses on the molecular pathogenesis of endometrial cancer, including the development of molecular diagnostics for predicting endometrial cancer metastasis and recurrence and identification of patients with Lynch Syndrome. In the CECS, he plans to perform a central pathology review and assess gene mutation and molecular subtypes of endometrial cancer.

Temitope Keku, MSPH, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hematology. Dr. Keku’s research focuses on understanding the causes and development of diseases in the digestive system with assessments of genetic factors, tumor characteristics, and gut microbiome. Her research addresses cancer health outcomes, as well as methods for early detection of cancer. In the CECS, she will investigate the microbiome samples of some of the study participants to look at markers that may be related to outcomes.

CECS Support Staff

The CECS support team includes phone interviewers, study coordinators, research assistants, and others who work behind the scenes to do phone calling, send out mailings, and obtain medical records and survey data. The Carolina Endometrial Study team is a passionate and dedicated group who are thrilled to bring their expertise in clinical and cancer research and who are dedicated to the success of this important research.

Heather Tipaldos, MS, CRA is the Project Director for CECS. With over 25 years of research administration management and government/regulatory compliance and oversight experience in both public and private University Systems. 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.

Jamie Hunter, MPH, PMP is a dedicated research professional who works, along with the study team, to seek excellence in all aspects of the Carolina Endometrial Cancer Study. She desires to ensure study participants have quality research experiences while maintaining precision in the execution of the specified CECS aims and outcomes. Within CECS, 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.

Linda Shaw is a Telephone Interviewer for CECS. She is responsible for conducting phone surveys with CECS participants to obtain valuable information that you contribute. Linda has been involved in cancer research at UNC since 2010. She really enjoys getting to know women in the study and hearing about their experiences.

Endometrial Cancer Center of Excellence

CECS can draw on the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s new Center of Excellence devoted to understanding and addressing endometrial cancer in North Carolina. The center will leverage UNC Lineberger’s scientific expertise to conduct large scale population studies, investigate cancer disparities, and study the pathology, epigenetics and genetics of endometrial cancer. In addition, researchers will investigate the connection between the microbiome – the trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi and viruses, that live in a person – and endometrial cancer. Watch the video to learn more: