Professor Joins Susan G. Komen Advisory Group.

Julie Palmer, professor of epidemiology, has been named a Komen Scholar by the breast cancer research nonprofit Susan G. Komen.

She is one of 10 new Komen Scholars, joining an advisory group of leaders in breast cancer research and advocacy. Chosen for their knowledge, leadership, and contributions to breast cancer research, Komen Scholars lead and participate as reviewers in Komen’s scientific peer review process. They also serve as experts and advocates for Komen’s nationwide network of Affiliates and in communities around the globe.

Palmer is associate director of the Slone Epidemiology Center. Her research focuses on the disproportionately high incidence of hormone receptor negative breast cancer in African American women, and on understanding and reducing racial disparities in breast cancer mortality. She is a founding leader of the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS), a prospective cohort study of 59,000 African American women begun in 1995. She is also the associate director for population sciences at the BU-BMC Cancer Center, serves on the steering committees of the National Cancer Institute’s Cohort Consortium and the American Association for Cancer Research’s Molecular Epidemiology Group, and is the immediate past chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Cancer, Cardiovascular, and Sleep Epidemiology Study Sections.

“I am honored to be selected as a Komen Scholar,” Palmer says. “Susan G. Komen has a long history of working to decrease breast cancer health disparities, most recently with their African American Health Equity Initiative, which makes community engagement the foundation of change. I hope to contribute to these activities in my role as an advisor, while continuing with my own research projects.”

Susan G. Komen is the world’s largest breast cancer organization. Since its founding in 1982, Komen has funded more than $956 million in research and provided more than $2.1 billion in funding to screening, education, treatment, and psychosocial support programs, serving millions of people in 60 countries worldwide.