Dr. Mary Charlton is an epidemiologist and health services researcher at the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Principal Investigator of the Iowa Cancer Registry funded through the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program. She has conducted numerous studies of risk factors, quality of care, practice pattern variation and outcomes related to cancer, with an emphasis on rural populations. Her recently completed NCI-funded K07 award focused on developing qualitative and survey methodology expertise to determine how rural patients with rectal cancer make decisions about where to receive care, and how physicians make decisions about where to recommend treatment. Dr. Charlton is currently directing an NCI-funded Rural Cancer Supplement to the P30 Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Support Grant focused on implementing and evaluating approaches to engage rural critical access hospitals in cancer prevention and control initiatives. She is also directing a COVID-19 P30 Supplement, in which she is surveying both rural and urban Iowans about the impact of COVID-19, social distancing and pandemic-related restrictions on cancer-related risk factors and preventive/screening behaviors. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Iowa Rural Health Association and the Iowa Cancer Consortium, which is a statewide coalition of over 400 healthcare providers, public health professionals, researchers, cancer survivors and advocates working together to reduce the burden of cancer in Iowa.