Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
Dr. Elizabeth Dodson has academic and professional interests that involve utilizing evidence-based policy to facilitate healthy decision making, thereby decreasing risk factors for chronic diseases. She is currently engaged with an NCI-funded project ongoing in the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis, which seeks to increase the dissemination of evidence-based interventions to control cancer, focusing on the uptake of effective environmental and policy approaches among state-level policy makers. Dr. Dodson’s previous research focused on the effectiveness of policy to increase physical activity and prevent obesity and diabetes. It identified several research gaps in this and similar areas, which she hopes will be addressed through the her current work; namely, the manner in which researchers communicate with those actually making policy, and the challenge of doing so as effectively, clearly, and efficiently as possible.