SP2’s Dr. Tamara J. Cadet collaborates on Penn research awarded $6.5 million grant

Core project in community-based prevention and public health to focus on older adults with early-stage cancer

The University of Pennsylvania Prevention Research Center (UPenn PRC) has been awarded a grant totaling $6.5 million over five years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As a co-investigator, Associate Professor Tamara J. Cadet, PhD, LICSW, MPH, of Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) will collaborate on UPenn PRC’s work with communities in the Philadelphia area to develop, test, and evaluate solutions to public health problems, with a particular focus on cancer.

The signature initiative of the UPenn PRC will be its five-year core research project. Penn researchers will collaborate with colleagues at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center to implement a study focused on improving communication between doctors and older patients with early-stage breast, rectal, or lung cancer. The UPenn PRC team will collaborate with a wide group of people important to patient care, including care teams, caregivers, and community health workers. The team will also leverage state-of-the-art technology, including deploying patient-reported outcome and experience measures directly via the electronic health record.

Dr. Cadet is a public health social work researcher who advances health equity by conducting conceptually grounded research to promote health interventions and translate research to practice. In addition to being a member of SP2’s faculty, Dr. Cadet is co-director of SP2’s PhD in Social Welfare Program and holds an appointment at Penn Dental. She is also a senior fellow of both Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute and Penn’s Center for Public Health, as well as associate director of Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I) and director of PC3I’s Program in Community Engagement Innovation.

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