With the creation of three new positions at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC), Dr. Electra Diane Paskett has been recruited to help bring cancer awareness and prevention to the community in several ways.

Paskett’s position will be threefold once she gets here in January 2002. She will be working at the OSUCCC as an associate director for population sciences. This position will help to develop and organize the ongoing program designed to reach into the community.

She will also be working in the school of public health in the area of bio-statistics and epidemiology in order to train students to work with all areas of cancer.

Paskett will also be working at The Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital as director of diversity enhancement. The purpose of this position is to connect the cancer hospital with all areas of the community.

“These positions have been created to add to the depth and breadth of the researchers at the James and to extend the research even further,” Paskett said.

Paskett will draw on her extensive experience with cancer hospitals and research to help the cancer hospital grow as a program. She is currently working as an associate professor of epidemiology and social sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and is also the health policy program director at the cancer center.

She has also worked at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington at Seattle. She has a master’s degree in epidemiology and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah.

Paskett and two of her senior staff members from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine are all excited to join the team at the cancer hospital.

“We are excited about coming and doing good research in the community. We want to find out what are the barriers to people getting screened and medical care,” said Cathy Tatum, senior staff member.

Paskett also knows that there will be challenges when coming to a hospital as large as the Ohio State University Medical Center, but she is excited about that challenge.

“There (are) lots of opportunity and lots of great people to work with. The university is so large it offers a lot of colleagues in different areas and disciplines that will allow us all to form a team together,” Paskett said.

Community, however, is the focus of Paskett’s work.

“We want to get the programs at the James into all aspects of the community,” Paskett said.