Ross C Brownson, Ph.D.

Approved Mentor (Primary, Mentoring Committee)
Washington University in St. Louis, Brown School

Dr. Brownson is the Lipstein Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the Brown School and the Medical School. He is involved in numerous community-level studies designed to understand and reduce modifiable cancer risk factors such as physical inactivity, obesity, and tobacco use. In particular, he is interested in the impacts of environmental and policy interventions on health behaviors and he conducts research on dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions. He has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles and 16 books. His books include Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Control, Applied Epidemiology, Handbook of Obesity Prevention, Communicating Public Health Information Effectively: A Guide for Practitioners, and Evidence-Based Public Health. His book (co-edited by Drs. Colditz and Proctor), Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health: Translating Science to Practice, is in its 2nd edition and is highly relevant for this K12 program. He is associate editor of the Annual Review of Public Health, and on the editorial board of six other journals. He is a former and founding member of the 15-person CDC Task Force developing the Guide to Community Preventive Services. Dr. Brownson is the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Prevention Research and Research Translation in Chronic Disease (2000, from CDC), the Abraham Lilienfeld Award for outstanding contributions in teaching and mentoring (2003, from APHA), and the Award for Excellence (2016, from APHA). He has also been a leader on the NIH Dissemination and Implementation in Health study section (member for 5 years; chair for 3 years). Dr. Brownson is currently the PI of a 5-year NIH funded R25 grant providing training to a national
cohort of early career implementation researchers in cancer and diabetes prevention.