April Oh, PhD, MPH

April Oh, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Senior Advisor for Scientific Outreach and Engagement in the Office of the Director in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Oh facilitates and coordinates organizational and strategic scientific goals for internal and external workforce in cancer prevention and control to reflect the diversity of communities that DCCPS serves: all people with cancer and those at risk for cancer. In this position, Dr. Oh seeks to advance efforts to engage with the population sciences grantee community across career stages and diverse backgrounds on grants, partnerships, resources and tools in cancer prevention and control. Dr. Oh also supports the DCCPS Deputy Director to coordinate diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility activities for DCCPS in response to NCI and NIH organizational objectives. Dr. Oh leads the NCI’s Advancing Cancer Control Equity Research Through Transformative Solutions initiative.

Dr. Oh’s scientific expertise is in public health, health disparities and health equity research, behavioral health, implementation science, health communication, community engagement, social determinants of health and neighborhood built, policy, and social contextual influences on community health. Dr. Oh is a skilled communicator, manages, initiates, and leads large scale evaluations, strategic scientific planning, and implementation. She has authored over a 100 manuscripts and presentations and has been awarded the 2021 Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Service and NIH Director’s Award in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 for her leadership in large initiatives related to health disparities and health equity research, and NCI awards for leadership in leading diversity and equity initiatives, mentorship awards and other research and training initiatives.

In prior roles, Dr. Oh served as a Senior Advisor for Implementation Science and Health Equity as part of the Implementation Science Team at NCI. She co-led the Implementation Science Centers for Cancer Control and developed the NCI Speeding Research Tested Interventions into Practice training program. She was a former Program Director in the NCI Behavioral Research Program in Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch. She previously served as Senior Policy Advisor to the 19th U.S. Surgeon General on nutrition and obesity-related programs. In this role she engaged with community partners across both the non for profit, advocacy, and federal sectors. In other prior roles, Dr. Oh worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Leidos; served as a management consultant to state governments in Medicaid managed care in contract monitoring; and managed fellowship training for scholars in health disparities research, community based participatory research, and health policy. Dr. Oh holds a doctoral degree in public health (community health sciences) from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a master's degree in public health in Health Management and Policy from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor's degree in public health in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.