Jamie Zoellner, PhD
The Committee on Women in Medicine and Science (COWIMS) is honored to spotlight the work of Jamie Zoellner, PhD, as October’s Woman of the Month, in celebration of Health Literacy Month. Dr. Zoellner contributes significantly to health literacy — a topic that continues to play a critical role in preventative care, patient compliance, and overall quality of life.
Dr. Zoellner is a professor and registered dietitian in the Department of Public Health Sciences, where she provides leadership for the Community-Based Health Equity Research Program. She also serves as the co-program lead for the Cancer Prevention and Population Health program for UVA’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and leads efforts to expand the research and outreach mission across Virginia and beyond. Her research includes engaging medically underserved areas in community-based participatory research and discovering solutions to the causes and consequences of limited health literacy. She focuses on lifestyle risk factors that have direct relevance to obesity and cancer prevention efforts.
Dr. Zoellner has several funded research projects including those targeting sugar-sweetened beverage behaviors among rural Appalachian residents, childhood obesity treatment, colorectal cancer screening, and building capacity for rural cancer control in southwest Virginia. Collectively, her research involves developing the capacity of health and community systems in rural regions to adopt and sustain evidence-based programs
COWIMS thanks Dr. Zoellner for her dedication and ongoing commitment to advancing health literacy and improving the degree to which individuals and communities obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services, empowering them to make well-informed health decisions.
Filed Under: Faculty