Rick Kittles, PhD, a national leader on cancer health disparities and the role of genes and environment in disease, and a pioneer in DNA testing to trace the ancestry of African Americans, has been appointed Director of the new Division of Population Genetics, part of the new Center for Applied Genetics at the Arizona Health Sciences Center at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Kittles also has been appointed Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Urology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tuscon, a joint appointment in the Division of Health Promotion Sciences at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. He is also a member of the University of Arizona Cancer Center and the Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program.
Dr. Kittles joined the University of Arizona in July.
Population Genetics, Cancer Genomics, Health Disparities
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Kittles to the University of Arizona,” said Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia, MD, UA Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and Interim Dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tuscon. His leadership will be critical to our efforts to establish a multi-campus (Tucson and Phoenix) and statewide network focused on population genetics, cancer genomics, and the reduction of health disparities,” Dr. Garcia added. “Dr. Kittles will provide critical leadership in our efforts to advance precision health approaches to population health outcomes, the development of personalized diagnostics and therapeutics in complex diseases, and the development of well-phenotyped racially and ethnically diverse patient groups for genomic study.” ■
