USC is located at the center of one of the most diverse cities in the world, making diversity and inclusion a unique strength of our research programs. Our priority is to conduct research that benefits all segments of society, helping us produce innovative and important research within an inclusive research culture. Below, see highlights of diversity-centered research, centers, faculty and resources associated with the Department of Preventive Medicine. Learn more about USC’s efforts regarding diversity in research at research.usc.edu/diversity.
Centers, Programs & Projects
Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center is a major national resource for cancer research, treatment, prevention, and education. Studies conducted by the center, including tobacco research, cancer communications, nutrition, physical activity, obesity prevention, melanoma and HPV prevention, and screening, either oversample or exclusively focus on low-income minority populations, including but not limited to youth and young adults, taking advantage of LA County’s diversity. Examples include:
The Cancer Epidemiology Program
The Cancer Epidemiology Program investigates cancer through epidemiological studies, incorporating genetic and molecular epidemiology approaches, and has a defined focus on ethnic diversity, consistent with the populations within the USC Norris catchment area. Learn more.
The Multiethnic Cohort Study of Diet and Cancer (MEC)
One of the largest of its kind, and a collaboration with University of Hawaii Cancer Center, MEC examines lifestyle risk factors, especially diet and nutrition, as well as genetic susceptibility in relation to the causation of cancer; the study population comprises over 215,000 men and women, primarily of African American, Japanese, Latino, Native Hawaiian and Caucasian origin. Learn more.
The Cancer Control Research Program
The Cancer Control Research Program develops prevention interventions that modify cancer risk behaviors, with a focus on the diverse, vulnerable, and disadvantaged members of the LA catchment area, as it reflects the disparities seen in the US population. Learn more.
Translational and Clinical Sciences Program (TACS)
TACS studies cancer disparities, focusing on URM populations and the underserved, such as the African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer Study that has become a model for genetic studies in underrepresented populations and has led to the first genome wide scan for prostate cancer susceptibility genes in African Americans. Learn more.
Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC-CTSI) provides education, training and online resources for workforce development, with special focus on clinical research in diverse populations.
Research in Diverse Urban Populations
Research in Diverse Urban Populations is a certificate course on clinical and translational research in populations characterized by diversity in race, ethnicity, country of origin, and socioeconomic status. Learn more.
Study Population and Study Design in Clinical and Translational Research
This video lecture educates researchers on Study Populations, Target Populations, and Source populations, including challenges in diverse “mega-cities”, such as ethnic and cultural differences, subpopulations, and factors that can bias findings and impair generalization of research findings to broader populations. Learn more.
The Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research studies health disparities among minorities locally, regionally, and nationally by: (a) increasing understanding of the epidemiology, determinants, and consequences of disease; (b) conducting field trials to develop and test evidence-based prevention programs; and (c) disseminating model health promotion and disease prevention programs in national and global settings.
Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center develops scientific knowledge, investigator teams, and community engagement needed to reduce the burden of diseases and disability from environmental impacts. An important component of the program is its Community Outreach and Engagement Core that shares research findings with the public, trains community volunteers and student groups in community-based research and functions as a bridge to inform researchers about community concerns, building strong community-academic partnerships to address health impacts and environmental health disparities.
USC Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) Center for Environmental Health Disparities
USC Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) Center for Environmental Health Disparities is one of five national university centers funded by the NIH/EPA to work with local communities to better understand ways to improve environmental conditions for vulnerable populations. The MADRES research and outreach programs bring together clinical, environmental, social and public health scientists and community engagement professionals to elucidate the relationships between biological, chemical, environmental, genetic and epigenetic, and social factors. Learn more.
At the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, leaders work across disciplines to address the disparities, inequalities and broad determinants of health that impact our world. The institute aims to address those issues that are too complex to have a natural home with any single researcher, department or school.
USC Law & Global Health Collaboration
Supported by the USC Collaboration Fund, the USC Law & Global Health Collaboration tackles existing and emerging legal and global health concerns on a variety of topics using a cross-disciplinary approach. A year-long series has focused on transgender issues, including symposia such as: Transgender Youth Care in the New Millennium; In Transition: Gender [Identity], Law & Global Health Research Symposium; Generating Research to Support Transgender Populations; Legal and Other Barriers to Protection for Transgender Asylum-Seekers in the US, among others. Learn more.
The Keck School of Medicine Center for Health Equity in the Americas conducts and promotes national and international research and collaborations on solutions to health disparities throughout the Americas that will contribute to closing gaps in vulnerable populations in achieving health equity. Efforts include “Promoting Health Equity in Cancer Prevention Health Equity Research Summit,” which focused on the development of a strategic plan for the direction of health equities in the Americas.
Faculty
Meet some of our researchers doing work in diversity below.
Ann Hamilton is a cancer epidemiologist whose research has focused on breast, prostate, and testicular cancer, as well as Kaposi’s Sarcoma. She has studied cancers in twins and is currently involved with an investigation of the relationship of exercise to endogenous estrogen levels in healthy identical twins.
Professor of Preventive Medicine
Associate Dean for Social Justice
rbluthen@usc.edu
Dr. Rob McConnell directs the NIH/Environmental Protection Agency-supported Southern California Children’s Environmental Health Center. He has studied the effects of air pollution on children’s health, including susceptibility to the effects of environmental exposures conferred by psychosocial stress and social factors, exercise, genetics and co-exposures associated with housing conditions.