Rachel Ballard-Barbash
Rachel Ballard-Barbash, MD, MPH, serves as the Associate Director of the Applied
Research Program within the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the
National Cancer Institute. The program's mission is to understand how and why cancer care
and control activities in the United States influence patterns of care and trends in
cancer incidence, morbidity, mortality, and survival through evaluation of patterns and
trends in cancer-associated health behaviors and risk factors, health care services,
economics, and outcomes, including patient-reported outcomes. Her own research focuses on
examining 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; improving systems for evaluating cancer control in national and local
populations; and examining health care utilization and quality of cancer care.
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 has published widely with 130
peer-reviewed publications, and five book chapters. Dr. Ballard-Barbash was the NCI program
director for the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium from 1995 to 2005, and has served as
the NCI director of the International Cancer Screening Network since 1995. She directs
the Health, Eating, Activity and Lifestyle (HEAL) study of Breast Cancer Prognosis.
She leads a NCI effort to advance research on the role of energy balance on cancer and
serves as the NCI representative on the NIH Obesity Research Task Force. She is an NIH
representative to the DHHS Interagency Working Group on Obesity Research and to the
Obesity Prevention and Control section of the Guide to Community Preventive Services.
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