Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
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Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health
Rachel Shelton, Sc.D., M.P.H. is a social and behavioral scientist with training in cancer and social epidemiology, and expertise in implementation science, sustainability, health equity, and community-based participatory research. She is an Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where she is Co-Director of the Community Engagement Core Resource at the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (CTSA) and Director of a university-wide Implementation Science Initiative. Dr. Shelton developed one of the first courses offered in implementation science in public health and has been an invited speaker and mentor for implementation science programs and trainings globally for the past ten years, including NIH’s Training Institute for Dissemination & Implementation Research in Cancer (TIDIRC), the Institute for Implementation Science Scholars (IS-2), and implementation science training programs in Australia, Nigeria, Ireland, Mozambique, and Thailand. Additionally, she is a lead author in chapter for foundational textbooks in the field, including Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health and Practical Implementation Science, and has co-led several task forces and research cores focused on application of implementation science to promote health equity. Dr. Shelton has 15 years of experience conducting and leading mixed-methods, community-engaged research on advancing the science of implementation and sustainability of evidence-based interventions in community and clinical settings to address health inequities, particularly in the context of cancer prevention/control. Her research program is supported by several NIH institutions and foundations, including NIA, NCI, NIMHD, NCATs, and the American Cancer Society.