Joanne Elena, PhD, MPH

Scientific Director
Clinical and Population Sciences Research

Why I Work at ACS

I started my career in cancer research because it was scientifically interesting to me, but what motivates me today is seeing how the research we support at ACS directly affects people with cancer. Knowing that the next grant I see may have the potential to prevent, treat, or ease the suffering of people with cancer is a great privilege.”

At ACS since 2023

Joanne Elena, PhD, MPH, oversees the Extramural Discovery Science Clinical and Population Sciences program.  In this role, she’s responsible for the research program’s development, peer review, and grant management for studies in humans related to the areas of cancer prevention, screening and early detection, cancer care and delivery, treatment, palliative care, and survivorship.

Research in this program requires data from human populations and may include behavioral research, healthcare delivery, comparative effectiveness research, health outcomes studies, secondary data analysis, implementation science, community based participatory and practice-based research, and health equity research.

Research focus and accomplishments

Elena’s personal research interests include:

  • Diet and lifestyle factors that influence cancer progression, recurrence, and survival
  • Body composition as a measure of cancer outcomes
  • Optimizing the use and design of cohort studies (particularly those enrolling cancer survivors)
  • Incorporating new technologies to assess exposures and outcomes.

She has published approximately 50 peer reviewed manuscripts and several book chapters. Before coming to the American Cancer Society, she was a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, the Scientific Director of the NCI Cohort Consortium, and was responsible for developing and managing several large funding initiatives, including for cancer epidemiology cohorts (PAR 22-162, RFA 20-030, PAR 20-294, PAR 17-233) and contributed to a RFA supporting Exercise and Nutrition Interventions to Improve Cancer Treatment-Related Outcomes (ENICTO) in Cancer Survivors.

Publications

For a full list of Dr. Elena’s publications, visit her Google Scholar page.

Contact 

joanne.elena@cancer.org  
757-275-0189

Work before ACS

  • National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, Program Director and Cohort Coordinator
  • National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Post-Doctoral Fellow
  • MD Anderson Cancer Center, Division of Epidemiology, Visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow

Professional organizations

  • American Association of Cancer Research, Member of Population Science Working Group

Education

Personal life 

I live in Virginia Beach, VA with my husband, 2 sons, and dog Luna, who loves to make an occasional Zoom appearance.