Dr. Glorian Sorensen, PhD, MPH, is Professor of Society, Human Development and Health in the Harvard School of Public Health and Director of the Dana-Farber’s Center for Community-Based Research.

The mission of the center is to:

1. promote behaviors that reduce cancer risk (e.g., tobacco cessation, fruit and vegetable consuption, physical activity, adherence to recommended screening tests);
   
2. reduce potential exposures that increase cancer risk (e.g., to sun, secondhand smoke, occupational carcinogens);
   
3. modify social policies to reduce cancer risk; and
   
4. increase access to and comprehension of cancer risk information. The core of Dr. Sorensen’s research is randomized worksite- and community-based studies that test the effectiveness of theory-driven interventions targeting individual and organizational change.
   

These interventions are designed particularly to be effective for low income, multiethnic populations, including blue- and pink-collar workers. These behavioral interventions are embedded in the social context or environment in which people live. Her research has focused on a range of community settings, including worksites, labor unions, and low-income housing developments.

Dr. Sorensen conducted the first randomized controlled worksite intervention trials to integrate messages on occupational health and health behaviors.

She was the Principal Investigator of the National Cancer Institute-funded Harvard Cancer Prevention Program Project focusing on “Cancer Control in Working Class, Multi-Ethnic Populations,” which included intervention research in small businesses and health centers, and the development of a cancer prevention policy model that extends the results of these interventions to estimate long term benefits in terms of cancers avoided and costs saved.

Dr. Sorensen is also conducting research in collaboration with several labor unions, which offer an important channel for increasing workers’ access to cancer prevention interventions.

Dr. Sorensen leads the Massachusetts Cancer Prevention Community Research Network, a collaboration with Boston University to foster collaborative research with community partners.

She was recently awarded a Fulbright to conduct collaborative tobacco control research in Mumbai, India in late 2003.

She has served on numerous Institute of Medicine committees.

Ph.D., 1983, University of Minnesota