Theoretically Grounded Community-based Research

The speaker is a professor in the Department of Community Dentistry and Behavior Science at the University of Florida College of Dentistry. She joined the faculty in 1999 after a successful career at the University of Iowa. She was the 2009 recipient of the University of Florida Research Foundation professorship. Among her honors is the Giddon Award for distinguished research in the Behavior Sciences awarded both in 1997 and again in 2002 and selection for the 2010 Advanced Training Institute on Health Behavior Theory. Dr. Logan's program of research represents the convergence of several areas of investigation: the integration of models of pain as a complex multifactorial experience; models of health behavior and health promotion; and health disparities, with a focus on head and neck cancer. Her earlier research focused on psychological and biological correlates associated with human stress and pain. This line of research was of interest because it tested a model that is applicable to cancer pain and cancer disparities. During this period, she initiated studies of risk factors and predictors of health outcomes related to head and neck cancer. Her work in head and neck cancer is a natural extension of interest in individual differences as they relate to health outcomes. This work culminated in the 2009 funding by NIDCR of the Southeast Center for Research to Reduce Disparities (SCRRDOH), whose focus is on head and neck cancer prevention, early detection and improved survival.