About Dr. Earnshaw

Valerie A. Earnshaw, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and CEHD Faculty Scholar in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on understanding and addressing stigma to prevent common risk factors for death and disability, including infectious disease, risky sexual behavior, drug abuse, and alcohol misuse. She applies her training in social psychology, quantitative methods, and patient-centered care to study how stigma acts as a fundamental cause of a wide range of diseases using rigorous methodologies (e.g., longitudinal designs, social network analysis) and data analytic techniques (e.g., multilevel analyses, structural equation modeling). Dr. Earnshaw’s most impactful work to date has been in the field of HIV primary and secondary prevention, wherein she has advanced understanding of the mechanisms through which stigma undermines health outcomes across the HIV continuum via her theoretical and empirical contributions. Supported by a National Institute on Drug Abuse K01 award, she is currently developing a brief intervention to support disclosure decisions among people recovering from substance use disorders to prevent relapse.

About Dr. Phillips

Siobhan Phillips, Ph.D., M.P.H. is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Behavioral Medicine in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Phillips’ interdisciplinary research uses technology and innovative study designs to better understand the determinants and outcomes of physical activity and the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying the relationship between physical activity and health and disease outcomes; develop and test physical activity behavior change interventions, and translate this research to practice with a particular focus on aging and cancer survivors. Ultimately, her work aims to reduce early mortality, prevent or delay the onset of morbidity, and improve physical and cognitive health and well-being. Dr. Phillips has published over 70 articles in the areas of aging, cancer, and implementation sciences. She obtained a Ph.D. in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and a M.P.H. in Quantitative Methods from Harvard University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Her work is currently supported by a Career Development Award (K07CA196840) and a R21 from the NCI to use a patient-centered approach to develop and test a technology-supported physical activity promotion intervention in a nationwide sample of breast cancer survivors using Multiphase Optimization Strategy methodology.

Jeffrey A. Sparks, M.D., M.M.Sc.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy
Department of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School