Noted health equity researcher spoke on Oct. 13
Today, Lucile Adams-Campbell, PhD, is an internationally recognized expert on health disparities. She is professor of oncology and associate director of minority health and health disparities research at Georgetown University. But when Adams-Campbell, the first Black woman to earn an epidemiology PhD in the United States, enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to begin her doctoral studies, it was what you might call a fortunate accident.
After finishing her MS at Drexel University, Adams-Campbell withdrew her applications to several doctoral programs when serious illness required several weeks of hospitalization and a lengthy recovery. She forgot one.
“Pitt offered me admission and tuition so that’s where I ended up,” Adams-Campbell says, laughing. Her interest—and remarkable career—in epidemiology, however, is no accident.
Adams-Campbell spoke on “A Community-Engaged Approach to Cancer Health Equity” on Thursday, Oct. 13, in Room G23 as part of the Department of Epidemiology’s fall seminar series that is held in memory of Ronald E. LaPorte, PhD, who died a year ago. The seminar can also be viewed online.
“We were delighted to have Lucile back at Pitt,” says Jane Cauley, DrPH, Distinguished Professor and interim chair of epidemiology. “Her presentation was of great value to our students, faculty, postdocs, staff and alumni.”
“I talked to Ron LaPorte every day, seven days a week, when I became his student,” says Adams-Campbell, who graduated in 1983. She was the only person of color in the school’s epidemiology doctoral program, she says, praising LaPorte and Lewis Kuller, MD, DrPH, emeritus professor of epidemiology, for their encouragement and confidence at a time when few people on campus were supportive of her goals.
“Lew always said ‘Don’t listen to the noise in the room,’” she recalls, adding that LaPorte “was hard-working and he expected no less of me. He told me ‘You can do it!’”
Since then, Adams-Campbell has built a career in health disparities research, with particular emphasis on cancers that disproportionately affect Black people. As senior associate dean at Georgetown University Medical Center, she is actively involved in clinical trials that focus on lifestyle interventions targeting obesity, metabolic syndrome and oral health among minority an underserved populations. She has contributed to large epidemiological cohort studies, including the Women’s Health Initiative and the Black Women’s Health Study, for more than 20 years.
“Epidemiology is a science that lets you go on to embrace nearly any other field of science you can imagine,” says Adams-Campbell, adding that a master’s student she had mentored was recently recruited by NASA. “You can be visionary in this field,” she says.
The key to success, Adams-Campbell explains, is to build collaborations not only with colleagues, but with the communities in which you work. “People say ‘You’re empowering the community.’ No. The community is empowering my science,” she says.