The UW Department of Medicine has selected UW-CTRI Research Director Dr. Danielle McCarthy for an Outstanding Senior Faculty Research Award for her exceptional contributions to research, mentorship and leadership.
“Danielle continues to elevate UW-CTRI’s impact through her work to improve the reach and effectiveness of tobacco treatment, especially for populations disproportionately impacted by tobacco use and in cancer care settings,” said UW-CTRI Director Dr. Hasmeena Kathuria. “Her leadership of the NCI’s Cancer Center Cessation Initiative (C3I), development of the Tobacco Treatment Implementation Roadmap and work applying chronic care models to tobacco use are just a few examples of her impact.”
She was honored alongside other outstanding awardees during the virtual UW Department of Medicine Town Hall on October 22. Kathuria and UW-CTRI Researcher Dr. Jesse Kaye nominated McCarthy.
“Danielle’s research truly epitomizes the Wisconsin Idea,” said Kaye, a mentee of McCarthy. “She rigorously pursues new innovations that are not meant to stay within the ivory tower of academia, but are bound to positively impact the health of people who use tobacco in Wisconsin and throughout the country. Danielle’s research partnerships with the Salvation Army, the Wisconsin Tobacco Quitline and Cancer Centers around the country all reflect her relentless efforts to ensure that everyone who smokes has access to high-quality, evidence-based tobacco treatment.”
McCarthy leads a program of research focused on the development, refinement and implementation of treatments to help people stop smoking cigarettes. As part of this research program, she studies the psychological changes that people experience leading up to and during an attempt to quit smoking and ways in which treatments do (or do not) affect these experiences. She has also worked with colleagues to apply longitudinal data models to better understand the processes of change in smoking and the way treatments affect these processes.
Her recent work focuses on ways to enhance quitline services for socioeconomically disadvantaged adults who smoke and ways to equitably enhance the reach of evidence-based treatment in healthcare and community settings to help more people who smoke to quit. The overall aim of this work is to find new and improved ways to help people stop smoking for good.
McCarthy is a named UW-CTRI Director of Research Professor.
“Thank you to Hasmeena and Jesse for nominating me for a departmental award,” McCarthy said. “I am very touched and grateful. Working with UW-CTRI colleagues is a joy – that is the real reward! This recognition is icing on an already delicious cake.”