Imani Canton, PhD, MPH, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch of the Behavioral Research Program.
Dr. Canton’s research examines neighborhood social, economic, and built environment factors impact on the health and well-being among cancer survivors. Specifically, Dr. Canton is interested in understanding the interplay between the neighborhood contextual factors on physical activity, health-related quality of life, and physical functioning.
Dr. Canton earned her PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her MPH from Yale University on the Applied Biostatistics and Epidemiology track. For her dissertation, she conducted an 8-week culturally-tailored community gardening intervention to examine if community gardening could be an effective approach to increase physical activity levels and improve psychological health among middle-aged African American women.
Scientific Interests
- Social epidemiology
- Long term cancer survivorship
- Neighborhood built environment
- Physical activity as cancer preventive behavior
Publications
- Canton, I, Jakachira, V, Blackman, D, Rose, H, & Aguiñaga, S. A culturally tailored community gardening approach to improving physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and psychological health among African American women: A pre-post feasibility study. Health Promot Perspect. 2025 Aug;15(2): 122-137. doi: 10.34172/hpp.025.43243
- Beldon MA, Clay SL, Uhr SD, Woolfolk CL, Canton IJ. Exposure to Racism and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes for Black Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Immigr Minor Health. 2025 Feb;27(1):149-170. doi: 10.1007/s10903-024-01641-2. Epub 2024 Oct 31. PMID: 39480598.
- Canton I, Guzman J, Soto Y, Selzer Ninomiya AL, Morales D, Aguiñaga S. Isotemporal Substitution of Sedentary Time With Physical Activity Among Middle-Aged and Older Latinos: Effects on Episodic Memory. Am J Health Promot. 2024 Jun;38(5):607-614. doi: 10.1177/08901171241233404. Epub 2024 Feb 14. PMID: 38352993; PMCID: PMC12118372.