Lynn N. Ibekwe, PhD, MPH is a postdoctoral research fellow whose primary research interest is to reduce the disproportionate burden of cancer morbidity and mortality among Blacks and African Americans in the United States. To that end, she pursues research geared towards (1) documenting individual and contextual level determinants of racial and ethnic cancer-related disparities, including investigating racism as a fundamental cause of such disparities; (2) developing and testing culturally relevant cancer prevention and control interventions in community and clinical settings; and (3) using implementation science, through a health equity lens, to improve implementation of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) in real-world settings, including explicitly focusing on structural racism as a determinant of inequitable adoption, implementation, and sustainability of EBIs.
Dr. Ibekwe holds a dual academic appointment as a Cancer Prevention Fellow within the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also an affiliate-FXB Health and Human Rights Fellow within the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. Dr. Ibekwe obtained a PhD in Behavioral Sciences from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, an MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Boston University, and a BA in Medicine, Health, & Society and Sociology from Vanderbilt University. Lynn is project lead on the Tools to Close Screening Gaps pilot.