Scherezade Mama, DrPH

Assistant Professor
The Pennsylvania State University

Scherezade Mama is an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Public Health Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University. She earned her doctorate in public health from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, Texas. She joined Penn State after completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in cancer prevention and health disparities research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She has over 13 years of research experience and a broad background in public health, with specific training and expertise in behavioral science and dissemination and implementation research. Mama’s research focuses on the development and cultural-adaptation, implementation, and dissemination of community-based interventions to promote physical activity in underserved populations. She is particularly interested in rural cancer health disparities and the translation of evidence-based interventions into sustained practice within community settings. Mama has formed an extensive network of over 72 community partners and organizations whom are interested in implementing a physical activity intervention in the rural communities they serve. She has leveraged these resources to gain further expertise in adapting evidence-based interventions for implementation in community settings and for wide-spread dissemination, and was awarded an NIH career development award (K07 CA222335) to extend this work to rural cancer survivors. To date, my creative scholarship has resulted in 71 peer-reviewed publications (534 citations, h-index=15), and has received continuous funding for health disparities and cancer prevention and control research program since 2011.