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2008 Application Catalog

Staff Profiles

David E. Nelson, MD, MPH

David Nelson is the Director of the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at the National Cancer Institute. He came to the program after working as the Senior Scientific Advisor with the Alcohol Team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this position, he conducted epidemiologic research on public health approaches to reduce excessive alcohol use among adolescents and adults, and mentored junior scientists. Prior to beginning his position with the Alcohol Team, he spent many years as an epidemiologist and health communication scientist in CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. He previously led the Behavioral Surveillance Branch at CDC, which houses the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), the largest telephone health survey in the world. From 2000-2002, he was a Senior Health Scientist in the National Cancer Institute’s Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch, where he led efforts to develop the Health Information National Trends Survey.

Dr. Nelson has conducted applied research on a wide range of topics, including alcohol, tobacco, and other risk factors; health services; communication; survey methodology; and injury prevention. He received his medical degree from the Oregon Health Sciences University, his master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan, and his master’s degree in communication from the University of Delaware.

He is an author on 90 articles in the peer-reviewed literature, and was the lead editor of the book Communicating Public Health Information Effectively: A Guide for Practitioners, which was published by the American Public Health Association in 2002. He is the lead author of a forthcoming book, Making Data Talk (with coauthors Brad Hesse and Bob Croyle from NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences), which will be published by Oxford University Press in early 2009.

Jessica Faupel-Badger, PhD, MPH

Dr. Jessica Faupel-Badger is currently an Associate Director of the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at the National Cancer Institute and an alumna of this postdoctoral program. During her time in the fellowship, she received a Masters of Public Health degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from The George Washington University. Her research focused on the hormone prolactin and its role in human breast cancer in the Mammary Biology and Tumorigenesis Laboratory. Prior to coming to NCI, Dr. Faupel-Badger completed her Ph.D. in tumor biology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, MN. In July 2008, Dr. Faupel-Badger joined the scientific staff of the CPFP. Her research interests continue to be the role of hormones in breast tumorigenesis, including exposures in mothers and their offspring during pregnancy that may be associated with risk of developing breast cancer later in life.

Dr, Faupel Badger also is an Active Member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She has served on the AACR Associate Member Council since 2006, including a term as Chair of this Council (2008-2009). In this capacity, she has helped organize professional advancement and scientific sessions focused on the career development and accomplishments of early-career scientists for the annual AACR meeting.

Dana M. van Bemmel, PhD, MPH

Dana M. van Bemmel is Associate Director of the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program. She received her BS in Biotechnology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her doctoral research focused on understanding the mechanism of epigenetic gene regulation through kinetic studies of purified mammalian C5-DNA methyltransferase. In 2006, Dr. van Bemmel entered the CPFP as a Cancer Prevention Fellow and obtained her MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While at JHSPH, she examined the association between occupational EPTC pesticide exposure and cancer incidence in the Agricultural Health Study (National Cancer Institute). As a post-doctoral fellow at the NCI, Dr. van Bemmel worked in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, carrying out molecular epidemiology studies of renal and bladder cancer related to epigenetics. In August, 2008 Dr. van Bemmel joined the scientific staff of the CPFP. Her current research interests continue to involve epigenetics and DNA methylation; including understanding the role of environmental exposures, chromatin stability and remodeling, and folate metabolism as related to epigenetic changes that occur during tumor initiation and progression.

Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, 2008

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