The Cancer Outcomes Research and Education Program (CORE) is a unique, collaborative research team with members from oncology, nursing, palliative care, psychiatry, and psychology.

Faculty

Jennifer Temel

Jennifer Temel, MD
Co-Director, Cancer Outcomes Research & Education Program

Research Interests: Palliative care, symptom management, and patient-clinician communication.

 

Joseph Greer

Joseph Greer, PhD
Co-Director, Cancer Outcomes Research & Education Program

Research Interests: Development and testing of supportive care interventions for patients with cancer.

 

Areej El-Jawahri

Areej El-Jawahri, MD
Associate Director, Cancer Outcomes Research & Education Program
Director, BMT Survivorship Program

Research Interests: Investigating patient-reported outcomes, developing interventions to enhance patient-centered decision-making, & designing supportive & palliative care interventions to improve the care of patients with hematologic malignancies & their families.

 

Zeba Ahmad, PhD

Zeba Ahmad, PhD
Research Interests: Applying evidence-based intervention strategies to improve mental health among young adults with cancer.

 

 

Anna Barata

Anna Barata, PhD
Research Interests: Examining patient-reported and neurocognitive outcomes, testing supportive care interventions and developing relevant patient-reported outcomes measures in patients diagnosed with hematological cancers and treated with adoptive cellular therapies.

 

Amy Clara

Amy Clara, Psy.D., MA
Research Interests: Psych-Oncology, dyadic distress management during cancer treatment, and cognitive-behavioral and integrative medicine coping strategies for health anxiety.

 

 

Amy Corvelyn

Amy Corvelyn, MSW

 

 

 

Tejaswini M Dhawale, MD

Tejaswini M Dhawale, MD
Research Interests: My research is focused on developing communication interventions directed at improving the patient experience. Specifically, I have been working on projects focused on improving communication between physicians and patients about CAR-T therapy and palliative care integration with hematology oncology care.

 

 

Lucy Finkelstein-Fox, PhD

Lucy Finkelstein-Fox, PhD
Research Interests: Cognitive-behavioral mechanisms of stress reduction among individuals impacted by major medical illness, with a focus on cancer-related changes to intimate relationships and women's sexual health.

 

 

Deborah Forst

Deborah Forst, MD
Research Interests: Palliative and supportive care for patients with brain and spinal cord tumors.

 

 

Daniel Hall

Daniel Hall, PhD
Research Interests: Cancer-related uncertainty, cancer survivorship, mind-body interventions for symptom management.

 

 

Kelly Irwin

Kelly Irwin, MD
Director, Collaborative Care and Community Engagement Program

Research Interests: Understanding health disparities for individuals with severe mental illness.

 

 

Vicki Jackson

Vicki Jackson, MD, MPH
Research Interests: Early integrated outpatient palliative care and palliative care communication education.

 

 

Jamie Jacobs

Jamie Jacobs, PhD
Director, Caregiving Research Program

Research Interests: Coping with cancer diagnosis and treatment, and evidence-based interventions to improve physical and emotional outcomes and symptom management for patients with cancer, cancer survivors, and cancer caregivers.

 

 

Patrick Johnson

Patrick Johnson, MD

Research Interests: Investigating patient-reported outcomes, end-of-life outcomes, and health care utilization in hematologic malignancies; developing interventions to enhance patient quality of life, therapy tolerability, and care delivery; developing and testing palliative and supportive care interventions to improve the care of older adults with aggressive lymphomas; integrating patient-reported outcomes into clinical trials of novel therapies.

 

 

Kelsey Lau-Min, MD

Kelsey Lau-Min, MD
Research Interests: Developing and testing interventions to improve care delivery and outcomes for patients with gastrointestinal cancers.

 

 

Debra Lundquist, PhD

 

 

 

Cynthia Moore

Cynthia Moore, PhD

 

 

 

 

Ashley Nelson

Ashley Nelson, PhD
Research Interests: Understanding quality of life impairments stemming from cancer diagnosis and treatment, and adapting psychosocial interventions to alleviate physical and emotional side effects for patients with hematologic malignancies.

 

Richard Newcomb

Richard Newcomb, MD
Research Interests: Improving the quality of life of those with malignant and benign hematologic diseases.

 

Elyse Park

Elyse Park, PhD, MPH
Prevention & Survivorship/Implementation Data Science

Research Interests: Development and integration of motivational and behavioral intervention treatments, particularly for chronic stress and smoking cessation, into cancer and survivorship care.

 

 

Michael Parsons

Michael Parsons, PhD

 

 

 

 

Jeff Peppercorn

Jeffrey Peppercorn, MD, MPH
Director, Survivorship Program

Research Interests: Issues related to quality of care and survivorship for patients with breast cancer as well as health policy and bioethics issues related to oncology.

 

 

Giselle Perez

Giselle Perez, PhD
Research Interests: Development of integrative mind-body and behavioral interventions to promote health behavior change, treatment adherence, and treatment outcomes for patients throughout the cancer spectrum.

 

 

Laura Petrillo

Laura Petrillo, MD

 

 

 

Kathryn Post

Kathryn Post, PhD, RN, ANP-BC
Research Interests: Improving the lives of cancer survivors through developing tailored, evidence-based survivorship interventions and programs.

 

Lara Traeger

Lara Traeger, PhD
Research Interests: Behavioral aspects of symptom management and quality of life among adults with cancer.

 

 

Nneka Ufere

Nneka N. Ufere, MD
Research Interests: Palliative care for patients with advanced liver disease.

 

 

Affiliated Faculty

Ryan Nipp

Ryan Nipp, MD, MPH
Research Interests: Optimizing the care delivered to patients with cancer and their family.

 

 

Hermioni Amonoo

Hermioni Amonoo, MD
Research Interests: Understanding the wellbeing needs of vulnerable cancer populations, especially those with hematologic malignancies, to inform the development of novel behavioral and psychological interventions for patients and their caregivers. Incorporating positive psychological wellbeing in the care of patients with cancer and their caregivers.

 

 

Tamryn Gray

Tamryn Gray, PhD, RN, MPH
Research Interests: Patient-family centered care, disparities, and health services research.

 

 

Biostatisticians

Nora Horick

Nora Horick
Nora Horick is a biostatistician at the MGH Biostatistics Center who specializes in the design and analysis of cancer studies. Nora provides statistical support for CORE investigators, including assistance with planning and design considerations for trials and data analysis.

 

Dustin Rabideau

Dustin Rabideau, PhD
Associate Director, Biostatistics and Strategic Initiatives, MGH Biostatistics

Research Interests: Robust analysis methods for cluster randomized trials and innovative methods to account for participant dropout in clinical trials.

 

Post-Doctoral and Oncology Fellows

Stephen Lo

Stephen Lo, PhD
Research Interests: Supportive treatments to improve outcomes and quality of life in adults with cancer.

 

 

Project/Program Managers

Emily Gallagher

Emily Gallagher, RN

 

 

Marie Iannone

Marie Iannone, MS, CCRP

 

 

Porsha Lark

Porsha Lark, MS, MPH

 

 

Upeka Samarakoon

Upeka Samarakoon, MS, PhD, MPH

 

 

Chardria Trotter

Chardria Trotter, MBA, MPH, CPH

 

 

Research Coordinators that work with CORE

Malia Armstrong

Malia Armstrong

 

 

Grace Bizup

Grace Bizup

 

 

Ella Caruso

Ella Caruso

 

 

Bridget Coffey

Bridget Coffey

 

 

Anushka Dalvi

Anushka Dalvi

 

 

Laura Dunderdale

Laura Dunderdale

 

 

Emelia Farnam

Emelia Farnam

 

 

Anushka Fernandes

Anushka Fernandes

 

 

Madison Freese

Madison Freese

 

 

Jess Giorgio

Jessica Giorgio

 

 

Max Hernand

Max Hernand

 

 

Katie Holmbeck

Katie Holmbeck

 

 

Mia Holtze

Mia Holtze

 

 

Brianna Jewett

Brianna Jewett

 

 

Evie Jin

Evie Jin

 

 

Emma O’Neil

Emma O’Neil

 

 

Julia Pepper

Julia Pepper

 

 

Roshni Sarathy

Roshni Sarathy

 

 

Tessa Stewart

Tessa Stewart

 

 

Alex Tse

Alex Tse

 

 

Shruthi Venkatachalam

Shruthi Venkatachalam

 

 

Braelyn Wekwerth

Braelyn Wekwerth

 

 

Jessica Whitman

Jessica Whitman

 

 

Ally Wood

Ally Wood

 

 

Victor You

Victor You