Lalita Shevde-Samant, PhD (left), Elizabeth Brown, PhD (center), Isabel Scarinci, PhD (right), and Eve Phillips, MPH (far right)
Dr. Lalita Shevde-Samant is a Professor in the UAB Department of Pathology and leads her research program thematically focused on the Biology and Ecosystem of Cancer. Her independent research is supported with grants from the NIH, DoD, and other funding agencies to investigate the dynamics of interactions between tumor cells and their microenvironment. Research led by her group discovered novel roles of Hedgehog signaling in regulating tumor cell resistance to therapy and in fostering a tumor-supportive immune microenvironment.
Dr. Shevde-Samant is co-leader of the UAB ENRICH (NCI R25) grant with Dr. Brown and co-leads the RACE21 (NCI R25) grant at UAB. Dr. Shevde-Samant serves as the Associate Director for Education and Training at the UAB O’Neal and is Director of the Cancer Biology PhD Theme at UAB. She is highly accomplished, with more than 100 peer-reviewed research publications and book chapters and enjoys mentoring diverse trainees and early-career faculty.
Dr. Elizabeth E. Brown is co-leader of the UAB ENRICH (NCI R25) grant with Dr. Shevde-Samant. She is an epidemiologist with expertise in genetics, immuno-epidemiology and cancer health disparities. She obtained her PhD in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and subsequently completed two fellowships at the National Cancer Institute (NCI); the first in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics and the second, in the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, Section of Immunogenetics and Molecular Epidemiology. Dr. Brown joined the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2006 and served as an Adjunct Scientist at NCI from 2006 to 2010. She currently serves as the UAB Endowed Professor in Cancer Pathobiology in the Department of Pathology and as Associate Director for Population Sciences in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The research of Dr. Brown is grounded in large-scale cancer epidemiology research studies that bridge multiple disciplines including molecular epidemiology, medicine, immunology, genetics and cancer health disparities. The research conducted in her wet and dry laboratories is primarily focused on using a multidisciplinary genomics approach to characterize pathways involved in chronic immune perturbation and inflammation as modifiers of disease and underlying health disparities in the etiology, natural history, pathogenesis and outcomes associated with multiple myeloma and other plasma cell dyscrasias. The objective of this research is to transform the current paradigm for disease surveillance by advancing a set of biomarkers aimed at targeting high-risk populations who may benefit from early detection, disease surveillance and monitoring, leading to changes in clinical practice and significant reductions in morbidity and mortality.
Isabel Scarinci, PhD MPH will lead the ENRICH Program short-term evaluation team. Scarinci is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, Associate Director, O’Neal Community Outreach and Engagement and Vice Chair for Global and Rural Health with over a decade of experience in program evaluation spanning information technology, healthcare, research evaluation and community outreach. Scarinci is focused on underserved populations, specific to the development, implementation, and evaluation of theory-based, culturally relevant interventions to promote behavior change for improvements in cancer prevention and control targeted toward African American and Latinx populations. Scarinci has extensive experience in multi-center program evaluation, in partnership with underserved communities, including but not limited to: Deep South Network for Cancer Control (NCI), the O’Neal/Morehouse School of Medicine/Tuskegee University U54 Partnership (NCI), REACH US (CDC), Mid-South Transdisciplinary Collaborative (NIMHD), Gulf States Collaborative Center for Health Policy Research (NIMHD), and the National Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center for African American Men’s Health (NIMHD). She serves on several NCI-funded Comprehensive Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity (CPACHE) programs nationwide. In addition, she leads the Training and Career Development Core in multiple U54 awards and has a longstanding history of mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and early stage investigators with a particular focus on health disparities and underserved populations in low-resource settings, including rural areas and low- and middle- income countries. Scarinci is uniquely positioned to lead, implement and execute the ENRICH Program evaluation component.
Eve M. Phillips, MPH is the Program Manager of the ENRICH Program.
