Alan Geller has been a Social and Behavioral Science (SBS) faculty member since 2010. He took a very circuitous path to a public health career, moving to Boston in 1973 and working for years as a day care worker, steelworker, and then obtained his nursing degree in 1984. He worked on a surgical oncology floor and through caring for many patients with preventable but late-stage cancers, began to see first-hand the strong and compelling need for cancer screening and prevention research. Dr. Geller’s current projects are varied and challenging with strong interests in cancer disparities, cancer screening, and work around COVID-19 mitigations in schools and in Massachusetts communities. For many years, Dr. Geller has taught an SBS class entitled ‘Successes and Challenges in Health Behavior Change’ where they look at some of the more successful comprehensive public health initiatives such as tobacco campaigns to see what lessons we can learn for modern-day epidemics such as those for tanning beds and obesity. Alan is principal investigator on the study focused on understanding and addressing utilization of immunotherapy for melanoma.
