Rachel Shelton, ScD, MPH

Dr. Shelton is a social and behavioral scientist with research expertise and training in dissemination and implementation science, community-based participatory research, and health equity research. She has over 15 years of experience conducting and leading qualitative and mixed-methods research in clinical and community settings focused on addressing cancer health inequities, with over 130 peer-reviewed publications. Using mixed-methods research, she has published extensively on social and contextual factors that influence health inequities in chronic disease and cancer prevention and screening, including factors related to social networks, discrimination, racism, and medical mistrust. She has expertise in implementation science, including in the areas of health equity and sustainability, and teaches one of the first courses offered nationally in dissemination and implementation science in public health (taught since 2013, training over 300 graduate students). Dr. Shelton has been an invited speaker nationally and internationally in implementation science for numerous conference panels and keynotes, and has been a mentor and core faculty for over 10 training institutes in the past 5 years, including for NIH’s Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer (TIDIRC), the Institute for Implementation Science Scholars at Washington University (IS-2), and implementation science training programs in Australia, Nigeria, Ireland, Mozambique, and Thailand. Dr. Shelton is the Co-Director of the Community Engagement Core Resource and directs an Implementation Science Initiative through the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Columbia University, where she helps lead research and capacity-building efforts in implementation science across the university. She currently serves as Deputy Chair of Research Strategy & Faculty Development in her department. She has over 15 years of experience being a study PI with funded grants in the area of health equity, community engagement, and implementation science, and has been funded through American Cancer Society, NCI, NIA, NIMHD, and NCATs. Dr. Shelton recently led a mixed-methods Health Equity Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society to study the sustainability and adaptation of a nationally disseminated peer-led Lay Health Advisor program for breast and cervical cancer screening led by African American cancer survivors in community settings (National Witness Project). Currently, she is MPI of a R01 grant and trial funded by NCI focused on understanding de-implementation of mammography over screening among older women and consequences for exacerbating health inequities. Additionally, she is an MPI of one of the NCI-funded global implementation science centers for health equity: The Empilisweni Center for Women's Health - Advancing Implementation of Equitable Cervical Cancer Control. Dr. Shelton has held numerous national leadership positions through the Society of Behavioral Medicine and is Associate Editor of the Annual Review of Public Health.