Drake named associate director of community outreach and engagement

Bettina Drake, PhD, MPH, associate professor of surgery in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named associate director of community outreach and engagement for Siteman Cancer Center.

In this newly formed position, Drake will work to promote cancer disparities research that impacts Siteman patients and the larger community. She will also support clinical and community-based outreach, and provide leadership to strengthen partnerships with external healthcare organizations. Drake will work with clinicians and researchers to address regional health disparities through innovative research, and will be responsible for sharing the results with Siteman leaders. In this role, Drake will collaborate with Lee Ratner, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and a Siteman research member, to integrate health disparities education throughout unique training opportunities on Siteman’s campus.

Drake is a member of Siteman’s Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD) and serves as co-chair of PECaD’s Prostate Cancer Community Partnership. She has served as a scientific reviewer for the National Cancer Institute and has received health disparity and prostate cancer-related funding from the Department of Defense’s Prostate Cancer Research Program.