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 Rachel Ballard-Barbash, MD,MPH, has been the associate director of NCI’s Applied Research Program since October 1999. She has focused her research on defining the association of diet, weight, and physical activity with cancer risk and prognosis in order to identify targets for prevention and control of primary and recurrent disease. She has also focused on improving methods and systems for tracking cancer preventive measures in national and local populations, and on examining the delivery of health care utilization and services in screening and treatment. Dr. Ballard-Barbash joined NCI in 1987 as a staff fellow. She served as the DHHS nutrition policy advisor in the Assistant Secretary’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in 1990 and 1991, and returned to NCI in November 1991.
Dr. Ballard-Barbash received her MD from the University of Michigan in 1981 and her MPH in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota in 1985. She trained in internal medicine at Northwestern University, and in preventive medicine and clinical nutrition at the Mayo Clinic. In addition to her research career, she has also practiced in preventive medicine and clinical nutrition. She has authored over 90 peerreviewed publications and five book chapters, and has participated in major national and international reviews, including the 2002 International Agency for Research on Cancer’s 2002 Handbook of Cancer Prevention, Weight Control, Physical Activity and Cancer. She leads an NCI-wide effort to advance research efforts to improve our understanding of the role of energy balance on cancer, is NCI’s representative on the NIH Obesity Research Task Force, and is active in several NCI committees examining health services, quality of care and outcomes research.
Dr. Ballard-Barbash has been a member of several advisory boards, is the chair of NCI’s editorial committee for the JNCI Cancer Surveillance Series, and serves as a reviewer for many journals. She has been recognized with a DHHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, four NIH Merit Awards, two NIH Director’s Awards, and an NIH Plain Language Award.
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