Member Biography

I am currently the Principal Investigator for a 5-year R01 funded from NIMHD to explore the causes and consequences of supportive care medication use racial disparities in patients with pancreatic cancer. The goal of this mixed-methods study is to examine the use of supportive care medications (SCM) in patients with pancreatic cancer. Specifically, we seek to understand the relationship between race, contextual-level social determinants of health (SDoH), psychosocial, and sociocultural factors on the use of SCM, and ultimately develop a sociobehavioral phenotype of SCM-use disparities in patients with pancreatic cancer. Previous literature in other types of cancers identified that racial minorities were less likely to be prescribed multiple types of SCM, as compared to White patients. Our preliminary data confirms the presence of racial disparities in the use of SCM in patients with pancreatic cancer. However, the funded R01 research project extends our previous work, by exploring how race, contextual-level SDoH, psychosocial, and sociocultural factors influence SCM use, and explores this relationship across multiple stakeholders including patients, caregivers, and providers. Our central hypothesis is that race, SDoH, psychosocial, and sociocultural factors influence how SCM is utilized by patients and prescribed by healthcare professionals. By utilizing a mixed-methods approach, we will seek to characterize the relationships between these factors and SCM use, and to better understand facilitators and barriers to SCM use in racial minorities with pancreatic cancer. We hypothesize that reduced SCM use among racial minorities with pancreatic cancer ultimately contributes to observed racial differences in health-related quality of life that has previously been reported. Successful completion of the current project will inform the use of tools and strategies to reduce SCM-use disparities among racial minorities with pancreatic cancer, and thus improve health-related quality of life in this patient population. I have recently transitioned from the University of Florida College of Pharmacy (UFCOP), and now serve as Professor and Department Head of Pharmacy Practice at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy. These experiences provide me with a unique perspective to lead this project. As a clinician-scientist with training as a clinical pharmacist, and a focus on research exploring disparities in cancer survivorship, specifically on the use of pain medication and other supportive care therapies, I am keenly aware of the factors that drive racial cancer health disparities, and their impact on outcomes. The long-term goal of my current research is to optimize medication use for symptom management in patients with cancer. Most of my previous research has centered on analyzing secondary data to evaluate medication use outcomes. I have broad expertise and specialized training in clinical pharmacy and critical care (including SCM used in palliative care and cancer).

Post-doctoral Fellowship - Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, FL 06/2011

Post-doctoral Fellowship - Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, FL 06/2010

Pharm.D. - Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, FL 05/2009