David Lakey, M.D. is the vice chancellor for Health Affairs and chief medical officer at The University of Texas System, and Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center. He also serves on the state’s COVID-19 Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel. Prior to joining U. T., Dr. Lakey was the commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. From 1998 to 2006, he served as division chief of clinical Infectious Disease and medical director of the Center for Pulmonary and Infectious Disease Control at the University of Texas Health Center in Tyler. Dr. Lakey graduated from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology and Indiana University School of Medicine, and completed his internal medicine, pediatrics and infectious disease training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Ernest Hawk, M.D., M.P.H., is the Vice President and Head of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Prior to working at MD Anderson, Dr. Hawk worked at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for 12 years in chemopreventive drug identification, preclinical testing, and clinical development, participating in phase I-III trials of several agents including calcium, aspirin, celecoxib, DFMO, and combinations. During his tenure at MD Anderson he has gained experience in T1-T4 research through oversight and collaborations with the Division’s five academic departments - Epidemiology, Behavioral Science, Clinical Cancer Prevention, Health Disparities and Health Services Research. He also co-leads MD Anderson’s Cancer Prevention and Control Platform which implements evidence-based actions in public policy, public and professional education, and delivery of community-based clinical or public health services at a population level to promote health and affect a significant and lasting reduction in the burden of cancer and its antecedent risk factors.

Dr. Everett's work is focused on making it harder for youth to start – and easier for people to quit – using tobacco. He also wants to eliminate the population’s exposure to the toxic chemicals produced by tobacco use. His projects have included organizing youth leadership programs designed to prevent tobacco use, developing innovative treatments to help people quit smoking, and supporting coalition-building approaches to creating healthier, smoke-free environments in the workplace. Dr. Everett is particularly interested in identifying “teachable moments.” These moments happen when patients – in the presence of a healthcare professional – have increased motivation for change. He wants to capitalize on these opportunities by providing patients effective strategies to help them stop using tobacco.

TBD

Roger Anderson, Ph.D. is a professor of public health sciences, and the inaugural associate director for population sciences. Anderson is also the director of the new PHS Division of Prevention, Equity, & Population Health Research, which covers cancer research as well as social inequities in healthcare with a focus on how we can bring services to underserved groups. His work brings a population health perspective to cancer prevention, treatment and outcomes to UVA Cancer Center to further its mission to improve the health and well-being of the population it serves.

Specifically, Anderson works to develop sound knowledge and evidence on how to effectively lower the cancer burden among diverse populations; reduce cancer health disparities locally and nationally; and facilitate, test and implement the translation of new knowledge and technology to practice in our communities. For his work, he was honored in 2022 as American Cancer Society Researcher of the Year.

Anderson has a 30-year background in academic research. His clinical research interests include cancer health disparities, evaluating benefits of health care and treatments on patient outcomes, access to healthcare in rural Appalachia, and healthcare system and policy effects on population health.

Jennifer is the Director of the EndTobacco® Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Employing 22 years of experience in public health and tobacco control, she collaborates with internal and external partners to promote evidence-based cancer prevention and tobacco control initiatives across the domains of policy, prevention and cessation. Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s in Health Administration & Education and a Master of Public Health, both from the University of Southern Mississippi; and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program at UT Health School of Public Health. She is a certified health education specialist.

Dr. Priscilla Callahan-Lyon is an internist and pulmonologist. After 20 years of private medical practice, she joined FDA in 2008 as a medical reviewer in Center for Drug Evaluation and Research where she worked extensively on nicotine replacement therapies. She moved to the newly formed Center for Tobacco Products in 2012 and currently serves as Senior Science Advisor in the Center Director’s Office of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. Dr. Callahan is part of several cross-center groups within FDA that are involved with nicotine policy and regulation, the FDA investigation of e-cigarette, or vaping, associated lung injury (EVALI), and the association of tobacco use with COVID. She also serves as the FDA contact on the Tri-Agency workgroup (CDC, NIH, and FDA) focusing on smoking cessation.

Adam Leventhal, Ph.D., Professor of Preventive Medicine and Psychology at the University of
Southern California Keck School of Medicine and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, is
an addiction psychologist and public health scientist. In addition to his role as Founding Director
of the USC Institute for Addiction Science, Dr. Leventhal is the Founding Director of the USC
Health, Emotion, & Addiction Laboratory (USC-HEAL; heal.usc.edu), a group of six faculty
investigators and 30 staff and trainees who study the causes, consequences, treatment, and
prevention of addiction and mental illness across the lifespan. Having been awarded more than
$40M in grant funding from the NIH and other agencies, USC-HEAL’s current areas of focus
are: (1) adolescent and young adult use of tobacco, cannabis, and opioids; (2) the co-occurrence
of addiction and mental illness; (3) the development of new medications to promote smoking
cessation; (4) science to inform public policies for regulating tobacco and other addictive
consumer products; and (5) cancer and cardiovascular disease prevention.
Dr. Leventhal has authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including publications in
JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and other journals. His work has been covered by the
Associated Press, NBC Nightly News, New York Times, and other media outlets. Dr. Leventhal
is active in policy arenas, having served on expert panels on the health effects of e-cigarettes and
tobacco products for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the US
Surgeon General. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior and
American Psychological Association and recipient of awards for early and mid-career
contributions to science and mentoring. His personal interests include running, playing guitar,
watching football, and spending time with friends and family.

Dr. Mignonne C. Guy is an associate professor with tenure and chair in the Department of African
American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University where she teaches courses on health inequities in Black populations, race and racism in the U.S., and interdisciplinary research methods. Dr. Guy is a member of the Massey Cancer Center Cancer Prevention and Control Group at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Dr. Guy also holds several national advisory positions including as a member of the FDA Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, co-chair for the Racial and Equity Task Force in the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, a Mid-Atlantic Regional Lead for the Intercultural Cancer Council and an advisory board member for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Building Capacity to Reduce Tobacco Inequities in the South and Midwest Initiative.
Dr. Guy’s research centers on social, behavioral, biological and environmental determinants that
contribute to health inequities among minoritized populations and other marginalized groups. She has a strong interest in using critical race, epistemic oppression and socioecological lenses to examine the complex interplay between distal and proximal factors that influence health and how they shape the health behaviors and outcomes in people of African descent. Recently, she has expanded her research focus to examining the ways in which structural racism is reproduced in academia and in biomedical and health inequities research. Dr. Guy has published over 52 manuscripts in tobacco prevention and control research and tobacco regulatory sciences. She is the principal investigator of the project entitled, Advancing an Antiracist Black/African American-centered Commercial Tobacco Control Research to Move Toward Health Equity funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation where she leads a transdisciplinary team to engage a variety of stakeholders from communities, academic institutions, policymakers, funding agencies and publishing entities from across the nation to interrogate the role of research in reproducing tobacco-related health inequities and to develop and disseminate an antiracist and equity-centered road map focused on eliminating tobacco-related inequities among Black tobacco
users. She is a coinvestigator and site lead investigator on the FDA/NIDA funded VCU Center for the Study of Tobacco Products (VCU CTP), Contextual Knowledge Core (U54DA036105; MPIs: Eissenberg & Breland) where she develops innovative methods to surveille emerging tobacco products on the market and use these data to inform tobacco regulation. As director of social justice implementation and integration in the NIH/NIMHD funded Center for Research, Health and Social Justice (1P50MD017319-01, MPIs: Cornell & Fagan), Dr. Guy assesses implementation of the core elements of social justice and leads the development and training of scientists and community members in anti-racist methods to conduct cancer and cardiovascular disease prevention research in Black communities.