Mya Roberson, PhD, MSPH receives a two-year, $100,000 grant from the Prevent Cancer Foundation to support her study with Touch4Life

Roberson and Crandon, the principal investigator and co-investigator, respectively, will use a quantitative and qualitative mixed methods study design to assess the perceived benefits and barriers of cancer family history sharing among Black adults and pilot test an intervention to affect self-efficacy and encourage cancer family history sharing.

The Prevent Cancer Foundation has awarded Mya Roberson, PhD, MSPH, a two-year, $100,000 grant to support her study with Touch4Life to to develop and pilot culturally responsive educational content aimed at increasing cancer family history sharing, genetic testing knowledge, and awareness among Black families.

The grant will support a collaboration between Roberson and Laura Crandon, founder and president of Touch4Life, an organization whose mission is to increase the health IQ of Black, Indigenous, and people of color as well as underserved communities to eliminate disparities in breast cancer outcomes by advocating for biomarker and genetic testing parity. 

We Got Us: Promoting Cancer Family History Sharing Among Black Americans is an academic-community partnership designed to promote cancer prevention and early detection by addressing barriers to family health history sharing as well as genetic testing uptake within the Black community. The goal is to increase cancer prevention and early detection among Black Americans.

This partnership is notable for its novel approach to research collaboration, featuring Touch4Life, a patient advocacy group, as a co-investigator. This marks a transformative shift in the role of advocacy organizations in research, moving from advisory to active research collaboration roles from the project's inception.

“I hope this project will demonstrate the power of seeking meaningful collaboration beyond the walls of academia for the reduction of cancer inequities,” said Roberson, assistant professor of health policy and management at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a member of the UNC Lineberger Cancer Prevention and Control research program.