The University of Kentucky College of Public Health welcomes Dr. Nancy Schoenberg to the College, as she begins her service as the Associate Dean for Research.  In addition to her new role with the College of Public Health, Dr. Schoenberg is the Marion Pearsall Professor in the Department of Behavioral Science in the College of Medicine at UK.  A medical anthropologist and gerontologist, she focuses her research, service, and instruction on addressing health inequities, specifically working on the prevention and management of chronic diseases, including nutritional disorders, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.  Throughout her work, Dr. Schoenberg has emphasized the cultural context of health decisions and community-based participatory approaches – approaches that she has used to develop and implement numerous community-engaged interventions in rural Appalachia.

In addition to her work at UK, Dr. Schoenberg has received continuous funding as primary investigator from the National Institutes of Health for 15 years, served as associate editor of The Gerontologist for seven years, a standing NIH study section member, is co-director of the Community Engagement and Research Core of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at Kentucky, and a consultant on projects addressing the cultural context of health, both nationally and internationally.

In her new role as Associate Dean for Research for the College of Public Health, Dr. Schoenberg will focus her efforts on supporting junior and other faculty to develop and refine research grant applications and other scholarly products; promoting collaborations across campus and universities; and enhancing the culture of scholarship through a dynamic speaker series, a robust pilot grant program, and a rigorous grant review process.