Our Team | UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center

Professor for Department of Public Health Sciences, Associate Director for the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement, Co-Director of the Women’s Cancer Care Program

Dr. Fejerman is a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Placer Breast Cancer Endowed Chair. She is the Associate Director of the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement and the Director of the Women’s Cancer Care and Research Program (WeCARE). She is an internationally renowned scientist focused on breast cancer genetics in Hispanic/Latina/Latine individuals as well as cancer prevention related outreach, education, risk identification and navigation in underserved communities. 

Assistant Professor for Department of Public Health Sciences, Executive Director for Office of Community Outreach and Engagement

Dr. Dang is a mixed methods cancer health disparities behavioral scientist with over 15 years of experience engaging diverse and underserved communities and health systems to advance cancer health equity. Her research focuses on implementation of cancer control and prevention evidence-based practices/interventions into community and clinical settings. 

Professor for Department of Internal Medicine and Senior Advisor to the Director, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center for Community Outreach and Engagement and Population Science

Dr. Chen is a Professor for the Division of Hematology and Oncology for the Department of Internal Medicine and is Senior Advisor to the Director of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center for Community Outreach and Engagement and Population Science. Dr. Chen has a long history of leading NCI and NIH and other national programs focused on mitigating cancer health disparities in various racial/ethnic populations. He was the principal investigator of the National Center for Reducing Asian American Cancer Health Disparities and helps lead the NCI-funded Minority Patient-Derived Xenograft Trial and Development Center. 

Health Education Supervisor

Marissa serves as the Health Education Supervisor for the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement. She received her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Master of Public Health from UC Davis. She serves as the Chairperson to the Greater Sacramento Smoke and Tobacco Free Coalition, Chairperson to the Coalition’s Policy Taskforce, and Co-Chair to the Community Arm for the Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center. 

Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator

Laura serves as a liaison between the Spanish speaking communities that the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement serves. She is a native Spanish speaker who is passionate in developing and fostering relationships with community organizations to help reduce cancer health disparities within culturally diverse and underserved communities. Laura received a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Environmental Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and has years of experience within public health specifically with health education and community engagement. 

Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator

Alex develops, implements, and evaluates a variety of cancer control and prevention programs targeting diverse, underserved populations. She has a passion for developing and fostering relationships with communities to address cancer health disparities and works to promote cancer prevention and screening. Alex has years of experience working in the field of public health as it relates to cancer prevention and received her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition Science and Master of Public Health from UC Davis.

Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator

Bao serves as a Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator and Health Educator for the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement. She develops, fosters, and maintains collaborative relationships with community-based organizations and federally qualified health centers to promote cancer control and prevention activities. She is passionate on providing cancer education to community members and clinical staff, while emphasizing the importance of early detection for successful and dignified aging in place. She holds a B.S. in Health Sciences and an M.S. in Health Care Administration. 

Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator

Mayra, with over 8 years of experience in public health, research, and community engagement, is currently serving as a liaison between communities and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. She works with community-based organizations and health centers to promote cancer screening and prevention. Mayra's area of interest is cancer disparities in Hispanic, Native American, and rural communities. 

Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator

Neha assists in the coordination, recruitment, and retention of participants (e.g., patients and community members) into interventional treatment, interventional non-treatment, and non-interventional cancer clinical trials. She supports the Clinical Trials Diversity Task Force at the Cancer Center. Neha also serves as the COE liaison for the Cancer Therapeutics Program and encourages bidirectional engagement between researchers and community members. Neha attained her Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior from UC Davis. 

Junior Specialist

Ramneek is a Junior Specialist who develops and manages WeCARE-affiliated programs such as Teens for Screens, HPV Cancer Free, and Tu Historia Cuenta. Ramneek is dedicated to addressing the cancer burden in California by boosting screening rates, reducing incidence, increasing vaccination uptake, and improving patient outcomes. Aspiring to be a physician, she aims to advance public health, research, and medicine, believing their collaboration is key to enhancing patient health outcomes. 

Professor and Chief for Division of General Thoracic Surgery, African American Program Leader, Cancer Therapeutics Program (CTP)

Dr. David Tom Cooke is a Professor at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine.  He is the founding Chief of the Division of General Thoracic Surgery, the Associate Director for the Office of Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEAL) and the Interim Physician-in-Chief, UC Davis NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Cooke specializes in the surgical treatment of lung and esophageal cancer. 

Associate Professor for Department of Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical Technology Program (BTP)

Dr. Carney develops new platforms for early-stage cancer diagnosis by applying spectroscopic methods to characterize circulating exosomes and related extracellular vesicles (EVs). His lab builds cutting-edge Raman spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tools to investigate the broad range of EVs, with the goal of more sensitively and specifically identifying tumor-associated subpopulations. 

Professor for the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine,
Molecular Oncology Program (MOP)

Dr. Ghosh’s research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of prostate and bladder cancer progression, especially through understanding the signal transduction pathways involved.  Her current research concentrates on the study of signal transduction pathways involved in prostate cancer development and progression. This includes studies on the EGFR family of receptor tyrosine kinases, leading to the PI3K/Akt pathway and finally to the mTOR signaling pathway. She has interests in developing new targets for therapy and the re-purposing of drugs for novel uses. 

Assistant Professor for the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine and Department of Urologic Surgery,
Molecular Oncology Program (MOP)

Dr. Lombard's research aims to understand and target prostate tumor progression mechanisms to improve therapeutic efficacy and patient outcomes. His lab focuses on employing a multi-pronged strategy, including in vitro and in vivo models, molecular/cellular biological, biochemical, and omics approaches, and bioinformatics, to understand tumor biology and response and resistance to therapy. 

Associate Professor Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology
Cancer Therapeutics (CTP)

Dr. Tushir-Singh’s research focuses on using protein engineering and multi-targeting antibodies in the context of human cancers and other pathologies. He is particularly interested in targeting the differential clinical response of immunotherapies and chimeric-antigen receptor (CAR) cells in solid vs. liquid tumors. For testing hypothesis-driven tumor therapeutics approaches, he extensively uses ovarian and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) models in the lab. 

Professor for the Department of Internal Medicine, Director, Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center, Medical Director for Stop Tobacco Program and Assistant Director for Population Sciences, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, Population Sciences and Health Disparities Program (PSHD)

Dr. Tong is a general internist at UCDH with a special clinical interest in tobacco treatment. In addition to serving as the Medical Director for the Stop Tobacco Program at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, she founded CA Quits, a statewide project to integrate tobacco treatment into health systems, and the Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center a multidisciplinary collaborative to bring together researchers, community, and advocates to generate evidence for and advance tobacco cessation policy. 

Chief Science Officer, Associate Director for Basic Science
Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Comparative Oncology Program (COP)

Dr. Wang’s laboratory has developed many genetically engineered mouse models of skin and head and neck cancers. These models are unique resources for evaluating mechanisms and efficacy of clinical trials for cancer prevention and treatments, and develop interventions for biomarker discoveries and novel therapies.  

Senior Public Information Officer, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, COE Cabinet Member

Stephanie is a Senior Public Information Officer for UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, managing media relations and communications. She is also editor of the cancer center’s magazine Synthesis and co-hosts the podcast Beat Cancer. Previously, she led media advocacy for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.