Karen Winkfield, MD, PhD, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, has been named associate director for Community Outreach and Engagement at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC).
She is professor of Radiation Oncology and serves as executive director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance. In this additional role, she will be responsible for leading, coordinating, and growing VICC-associated community outreach and engagement strategic initiatives.
“Karen is an internationally recognized leader in community engagement, health disparities, and workforce diversity,” said Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, the Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology, and the director of VICC. “She is recognized for her research expertise in the design and implementation of programming to reduce sociocultural and economic barriers that contribute to disparate health outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities and underserved populations. Her leadership as the executive director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance will continue to strengthen our connection and joint initiatives with Meharry Medical College and collaborations toward addressing health disparities.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden appointed Winkfield to a six-year term on the National Cancer Advisory Board, which advises the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the director of the National Cancer Institute. As a member of that board, she chairs the ad hoc subcommittee on population science, epidemiology, and disparities.
Winkfield was recruited to Vanderbilt in 2020 from Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center where she served as associate director for Community Outreach and Engagement and as director for of the Office of Cancer Health Equity. She has a BS in Biochemistry from Binghamton University, an MD from Duke University, and a PhD in Pathology from Duke University. She completed her residency in the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program.
She succeeds Debra Friedman, MD, MS, the E. Bronson Ingram Chair in Pediatric Oncology, who has served in the role since 2020. Friedman, a professor of Pediatrics and the director of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, was recently named deputy director of VICC.