The Fineberg Fellowship was created to honor Harvey V. Fineberg, the former Dean at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Provost of Harvard University. It is a competitive, honorific award that will be given to Ph.D. in Population Health Science (PHS) students who are undertaking a dissertation related to cancer prevention and control. The research may include studies in etiologic research, health services, survivorship, behavioral research, or a related field.
2023 Fineberg Fellows
Nayiu Chen, MPH is a Ph.D. candidate in Population Health Sciences, Epidemiology. Her dissertation research revolves around prostate cancer survivorship through three lenses: physical activity, social support, and the built environment. The population of prostate cancer survivors are substantial and growing. Most of these survivors experience both acute and chronic side effects because of either the cancer or its treatment. As a result, there is a need to assess individual, interpersonal, and contextual level factors that maintain or improve the quality of life of this growing population.
Jennifer Cruz, MPH is a Population Health Sciences Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her overall research interests are at the intersection of social epidemiology, implementation science, and health equity. Through her dissertation, she will be exploring the heterogeneity of rurality in the US and how to leverage contextual differences in identifying setting-appropriate interventions to address persistent inequities in breast cancer screening.
Lindsay Kephart, MPH, is a Population Health Sciences doctoral candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her research interests center on examining how the built environment shapes health outcomes, and how people and policy shape the built environment, with a strong emphasis on incorporating a racial justice lens in policy implementation and evaluation. Her current work focuses on evaluating the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of tailored smoke-free housing implementation strategies for reducing secondhand smoke exposure in low-income housing to prevent cancer-related disparities. Through her graduate studies, she is interested in examining how local and state policies impact cannabis dispensary locations, including proximity to tobacco & alcohol products, in order to provide policy recommendations that support racially equitable outcomes.
2022 Fineberg Fellows
Ilkania Chowdhury-Paulino, MPH is a Population Health Sciences Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Epidemiology. Her dissertation studies how the neighborhood environment impacts prostate cancer incidence and mortality. Prostate cancer has a very limited number of known risk factors, with only advanced prostate cancer having modifiable risk factors. Her dissertation work will elucidate if and how the places where people live, and work impact their prostate cancer risk and will potentially identify additional modifiable risk factors that can be leveraged for prostate cancer prevention. Further, her work will inform future research on how the neighborhood context impacts racial disparities in prostate cancer incidence and mortality
Dr. TomotakaUgai, MD, Ph.D. is a physician epidemiologist with expertise in pathology, clinical oncology, cancer epidemiology, and molecular epidemiology. His current research focuses on evaluating tissue-based biomarkers, especially immune and microbial characteristics of cancer, utilizing population-based prospective cohort studies. His research also focuses on early-onset cancers, incidence of which has increased worldwide for unknown reasons. In addition, he has taken the lead in several global collaborative projects in the epidemiological consortium, including Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium (GECCO).
