Endowed Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
Dr. Lauren E. McCullough received her BA from Vanderbilt University in 2005, MSPH from Meharry Medical College in 2007, and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013. Her overarching research interests are in the life-course epidemiology of breast cancer, specifically the contributions of obesity and the social environment to the tumor epigenome and microenvironment, as well as disparities in cancer outcomes. The abiding goal of her research is to improve cancer outcomes in underserved populations by bridging molecular and social epidemiology to identify targets for pharmacologic, behavioral, and policy intervention.
Since joining Emory in 2016 as Rollins Endowed Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, she has built a transdisciplinary research program in breast cancer disparities at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) and the Winship Cancer Institute. She has cultivated strong internal and external collaborations with investigators working in all areas of cancer disparities research, including clinical care, health services research, and cancer epidemiology—providing valuable infrastructure for her growing research program. Her collaborative research has resulted in 61 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier epidemiology and clinical journals.
As a new and early-career investigator, Dr. McCullough has been awarded extramural research grants from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the National Cancer Institute. Her work has achieved national recognition and has impacted public health practice. In 2019, Dr. McCullough received the SER Brian MacMahon Early Career Award—presented annually to recognize an early career epidemiologist who has made substantial contributions to the field. Importantly, her work has led to several invited presentations to state legislators and Georgia’s Department of Public Health. The data generated by her research efforts are being used to improve cancer care delivery in priority areas and to identify geographic regions for state programmatic cancer funding.
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