Dr. Erin Kobetz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and also the Director of the Disparities and Community Outreach Core Resource at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. She joined the faculty at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in September 2004 after completing her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to her doctoral degree, Dr. Kobetz earned a master’s in public health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University (1999). In her role as Core Director and in her own research, Dr. Kobetz relies on the methods of Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) to understand and address cancer health disparities. CBPR is a methodology that engages community members in the research process to ensure that study findings are culturally relevant and amenable to change. Over the course of her academic career, Dr. Kobetz has successfully collaborated with community members in Little Haiti, the predominately Haitian neighborhood in Miami, Florida, to address breast and cervical cancer disparities. She helped create Patne en Akyson (Partners in Action), a campus-community partnership between academic investigators from the University of Miami and civic leaders from Little Haiti. Patne en Akyson currently supports six ongoing research initiatives funded by the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen Foundation and Lance Armstrong Foundation. Dr Kobetz has been personally recognized for her contributions to disparities research by various agencies and organizations.
