Dr. Fagan is a Health Scientist in the Tobacco Control Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She received her B.A. in Rhetoric/Communications and Afro-American Studies from the University of Virginia (1990), her M.P.H. in Health Education/Communications from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (1994), and her doctorate in Health Education from Texas A&M University (1997).  Dr. Fagan completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (2001).   

Her current research and publications focus on youth tobacco cessation, young adult tobacco use, and tobacco-related health disparities. Dr. Fagan led efforts to facilitate the publication of the NCI report, Eliminating Tobacco-Related Health Disparities Summary Report (2005); Tobacco and Health Disparities, American Journal of Public Health (2004); Advances and Challenges in Youth Tobacco Research, Tobacco Control (2003); and the NCI Bibliography of Tobacco-Related Literature on Hispanics, 1990-2001 (2001).  Dr. Fagan led efforts to organize the National Conference on Tobacco and Health Disparities in 2002, worked with other NCI colleagues to organize the Minority Investigator Career Development Program Planning Meeting in 2003, and the 1st and 2nd Biennial Career Development Workshop to Increase Diversity in Research Funding in 2004 and 2006. Dr. Fagan is collaborating with partners within NCI, the American Legacy Foundation, and extramural researchers to support the activities of the Tobacco Research Network on Disparities (TReND). Through this transdisciplinary national network, she is helping to stimulate novel research that advances our understanding of tobacco health disparities science, translates that science into practice, and informs public policies. TReND activities include hosting the Health Disparities Research Methods Training Symposium in 2006; the LGBT of Color Sampling Methodology Meeting in 2006; and publishing Tobacco Control Policies on Low SES Women and Girls, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2006 and Conceptual and Methodological Issues for Research on Tobacco-Related Health Disparities, Addiction, 2007.  

In 2006, Dr. Fagan received a National Cancer Institute Director’s Award for her collaborative work on training minority investigators and was recognized by Aetna Insurance in the Aetna African American History Calendar, 25th Anniversary Edition for her work in tobacco-related health disparities.  In 2007, she received the National Institutes of Health Merit Award for her leadership in tobacco related health disparities research. Dr. Fagan serves as a standing member of NCI Health Disparities Interest Groups, the NCI Tobacco Research Opportunities Team and Surveillance Workgroup, Partners Addressing Disparities in Priority Populations, the Tobacco Control Research Branch Community Policy Team, the Youth Tobacco Cessation Collaborative, and the NCI Women, Tobacco, and Cancer Communications Workgroup.  She is a member of the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Health Behavior, and serves as Co-Chair of the Tobacco and Health Disparities Committee of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. She has presented research at national and international conferences and has published in peer-reviewed journals.  She has served as a guest and co-editor of special journal issues. Dr. Fagan also mentors student trainees interested in tobacco-related health disparities or youth prevention and cessation.

Executive Plaza North, Room 4042
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Email: faganp@mail.nih.gov

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