Pioneering cancer public health and community advocate Georgia Robins Sadler, PhD, MBA, was recently awarded the Margaret Hay Edwards Achievement Medal from the American Association for Cancer Education (AACE) for her outstanding contributions to cancer education. Sadler is clinical professor of surgery at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and an associate director of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, where she leads the Cancer Center’s community outreach programs. Sadler is also the immediate past president of the California chapter of the American Cancer Society.
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Georgia Robins Sadler, PhD, MBA
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Sadler has been the principal investigator of many National Cancer Institute-funded studies, including a 12-year study to find ways for oncologists to more easily refer patients to promising new clinical trials, and for members of the community to become involved with research studies.
Much of her research has focused on increasing the representation and participation of minorities in cancer research and awareness programs, including a Komen for the Cure-funded cancer awareness program for the Pacific Asian community in which Asian American college students are trained to communicate cancer prevention and early detection information to shoppers at Asian grocery stores. Sadler has also headed innovative research projects such as the Black Cosmetologists Promoting Health Program, which is concerned with reducing the disproportionately high mortality rates for breast cancer and diabetes among African Americans, and studies related to women coping with fatigue following breast cancer, problem-solving for couples coping with prostate cancer, and African Americans dealing with post-cancer treatment fatigue.
“This award is only the latest and another well deserved recognition of Georgia’s outstanding contributions to improving cancer education and raising awareness in the community,” said Dennis Carson, MD, director of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center.
Sadler has developed many studies aimed at finding ways to increase the Deaf community’s access to cancer information and cancer care. These include an internet-based cancer education program in American Sign Language, a Deaf-friendly ministry-based cancer education program, and a program to train medical students in American Sign Language and Deaf culture to ultimately work with the Deaf community.
She directs the Cancer Center’s Continuing Umbrella of Research Experience for underrepresented college students and several other NCI-funded programs to increase the number of scientists and clinicians from traditionally underrepresented communities.
Sadler has published more than 200 articles and abstracts and frequently presents at scientific conferences. She has also provided hundreds of cancer education programs for lay audiences through radio and television and has reached thousands more through award-winning videos her team has produced to educate the public about cancer.
Trained as a nurse at the University of Pennsylvania, Sadler went on to earn an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a doctorate in public health and resource management. She was a Thouron British-American Scholar at the University of London.
The Margaret Hay Edwards Achievement Medal is named after a founding AACE member who was chief of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Training Branch for many years.
The Moores UCSD Cancer Center is one of the nation’s 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, combining research, clinical care and community outreach to advance the prevention, treatment and cure of cancer.
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Media Contact: Steve Benowitz, 619-543-6163, sbenowitz@ucsd.edu