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DR. DAVID ABRAMS TO DIRECT SCHROEDER INSTITUTE FOR TOBACCO RESEARCH AND POLICY STUDIES
12/13/2007
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following a national search, Dr. David B. Abrams has been named the Executive Director of the Steven A. Schroeder National Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at the American Legacy Foundation®.
The new Schroeder Institute will be located in Washington, D.C., and collaborate with the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in its efforts to advance the science behind social marketing, smoking cessation and tobacco control policy -- and then translate those findings into practice.
Dr. Abrams currently directs the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) in the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He leads the Office in its mission to stimulate and coordinate behavioral and social sciences research throughout NIH, with the ultimate goal of improving our nation’s health. Before joining OBSSR, Dr. Abrams was Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Professor of Community Health at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. He joined Brown University in 1978, and was the founding Director of the Brown University’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine for 16 years. Dr. Abrams is a licensed clinical psychologist, specializing in health psychology, behavioral and preventive medicine.
“I am honored to be selected to direct Legacy’s new Schroeder Institute. While research on tobacco use behavior and dependence has made great strides, the landscape is always changing and there is much urgent work that needs to be done,” said Abrams. “Reducing the needless suffering, disease burden and cost of this addictive behavior remains the single most important public health contribution we can make right now to improve our nation’s health. There are still more than 45 million smokers in America, and - every day - more than a thousand will die prematurely while thousands more will try their first tobacco products.”
The Institute is named in honor of Dr. Steven A. Schroeder, whose well respected commitment to tobacco control spans his career at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, his leadership as a founding board member and former chair of the American Legacy Foundation, and now his role as Director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Medicine.
“David Abrams is one of the world’s leading scholars in tobacco control. It is wonderful that he will be leading this new institute,” Dr. Schroeder said.
“Throughout his career, Dr. Abrams has demonstrated a remarkable passion for behavioral medicine and expertise in tobacco use research and cancer prevention,” said American Legacy Foundation President and CEO, Cheryl Healton, Dr. PH. “He will be invaluable to our mission to educate Americans about the serious toll of tobacco and tobacco-related disease in this country. Under his leadership, I am confident that the work of the Schroeder Institute will help make significant contributions to the public health field.”
“Dr. Abrams is a world class scientist who excels at bringing together social and biomedical sciences to effectively prevent and halt smoking behaviors,” said Dr. David Holtgrave, Professor and Chair, Department of Health, Behavior & Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Tom Glynn, PhD, director of Cancer Science and Trends at the American Cancer Society, served as Chair of the Search Committee.
In addition to his professional experience, Dr. Abrams has published more than 220 scholarly articles and has been a Principal or Co-Investigator on more than 65 research grant awards from various NIH Institutes.
The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit www.americanlegacy.org.
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Contact: Julia Cartwright, 202-454-5596, jcartwright@americanlegacy.org