Chanita Hughes-Halbert, PhD, will join the University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center as Associate Director for Cancer Equity, a newly created position, and the Keck School of Medicine of USC as Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Preventive Medicine. Her appointment will begin on July 1, 2021.
Dr. Hughes-Halbert will join USC from the Medical University of South Carolina, where she is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Co-Leader of the Cancer Control Program, holder of the AT&T Distinguished Endowed Chair at the Hollings Cancer Center, and Associate Dean for Assessment, Evaluation, and Quality Improvement at the College of Medicine.
Chanita Hughes-Halbert, PhD
A nationally recognized leader in cancer prevention and minority health research, Dr. Hughes-Halbert has dedicated her career to reducing the disparities in cancer outcomes that affect patients from underrepresented communities, with a primary focus on Black communities. She has identified sociocultural, psychological, genetic, and environmental determinants of cancer health disparities and translated this information into interventions to improve health equity among racially and ethnically diverse populations as well as other medically underserved groups.
In 2017, Dr. Hughes-Halbert was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and in 2010 she received the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Control Award. Former President Barack Obama appointed her to the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Advisors in 2012, and in 2014, she joined the National Advisory Council of the National Human Genome Research Institute. The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) named her Chair of its Minorities in Cancer Research Council the same year, and she received the AACR’s Distinguished Lecture Award on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in 2018.
Before her time at the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Hughes-Halbert was on the faculty at Georgetown University and at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Howard University after graduating summa cum laude from Hampton University.
