Meet the AMPLIFY Team!

Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD is the Lead Investigator of the AMPLIFY Project. She is Professor of Nutrition Sciences, and Associate Director of Cancer Prevention and Control at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center. She also is a Komen Professor of Survivorship and an American Cancer Society (ACS) Clinical Research Professor.

For roughly three decades, starting with her tenure at Duke and then MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Demark-Wahnefried has developed and tested lifestyle interventions for cancer survivors where she has led several large NIH- and foundation-funded projects.

Because of her expertise in diet, nutrition, and cancer, she has served on numerous national and international panels that address lifestyle guidelines for cancer survivors, e.g., ACS, American Institute of Cancer Research/World Research Fund, National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, American Society of Clinical Oncology and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Laura Rogers, MD, MPH is a Co-Investigator on the AMPLIFY project with a focus on physical activity and program dissemination and implementation. She is a Professor and Associate Director of the Division of Preventive Medicine in the School of Medicine and co-Program Leader for the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Research Program within the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

She is a board certified internal medicine and obesity medicine physician with decades of research experience related to physical activity in individuals living with a chronic disease. She has developed, tested, and applied research related to healthy lifestyle behavior change for nearly 30 years and has specifically focused on cancer survivors for over 15 years. Because of her research and clinical expertise, she is a Fellow in the American College of Sports Medicine (currently serving on its Board of Trustees) and the American College of Physicians.

Dori Pekmezi, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior, School of Public Health at UAB. She is a Co-Investigator on the AMPLIFY Project and brings expertise in using behavioral theory and technology to encourage healthier lifestyles from numerous NIH- and ACS- funded trials.

More specifically, her research has focused on developing and testing websites, mobile applications, text messaging, interactive voice response systems, and computer expert system-tailored interventions for physical activity promotion in underserved and/or at-risk populations (cancer survivors, people with physical disabilities and multiple sclerosis, cardiac rehabilitation patients, Latinas, African American women in the Deep South). In addition to research, Dr. Pekmezi teaches graduate level courses on social and behavioral science theories on how people change.

Kevin Fontaine, PhD is Co-Investigator on the AMPLIFY Project. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Behavior, Associate Director of the Physical Activity and Exercise Core at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) Nutrition and Obesity Research Center and Senior Scientist at UAB’s O’Neil Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Trained as a psychologist, he has conducted hundreds of intervention groups to promote lifestyle changes. He specializes in developing and testing ways to promote greater adherence to lifestyle interventions in adults with chronic disease, including cancer.

Michelle Martin, PhD Co-Leads the Recruitment and Retention Core of the AMPLIFY Project, serves as an investigator on the Adaptation and Dissemination Core and is an investigator on two of the AMPLIFY projects. She is a Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Director of the Center for Innovation in Health Equity Research at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC).

At UTHSC, Dr. Martin Co-Directs the Tennessee Clinical and Translational Science Institute (TN-CTSI). The TN-CTSI seeks to increase the quality and efficiency of research and identify innovative ways to accelerate the translational of scientific discoveries to community and clinical settings to improve public health. Dr. Martin is a Clinical Psychologist with an emphasis in Medical Psychology. Over the course of her career, she has developed and evaluated lifestyle interventions for individuals managing a chronic disease. Her most recent work has involved physical activity interventions with cancer survivors.

Teri Hoenemeyer, PhD, is a health behavior research scientist with over 10 years of experience in developing and implementing a wide variety of evidence-based oncology patient support programs. Her research expertise includes cancer survivorship, symptom management, health perception and bio-psychological responses.

Dr. Hoenemeyer received her PhD in health behavior from the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Public Health and completed her post-doctorate training with the Harvard School of Medicine’s Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS).

Nataliya Ivankova, PhD, MPH co-leads the Adaptation, Implementation and Dissemination (ADI) Shared Resource Core of the AMPLIFY Project. She holds a dual appointment as Professor in the Department of Health Services Administration (School of Health Professions) and the Department of Acute, Chronic and Continuing Care (School of Nursing) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Ivankova is an internationally recognized expert in qualitative and mixed methods research due to her multiple publications and her authorship of two books (Mixed Methods Applications in Action Research: From Methods to Community Action, 2015, Sage; and Mixed Methods Research: A Guide to the Field, 2016, Sage, co-authored with Vicki Plano Clark). She has been involved as investigator and consultant in projects addressing the issues of health disparities, cancer prevention, survivorship and chronic pain management. She also serves on a peer review committee focusing on psychosocial and behavioral research for the American Cancer Society.

Kelly Kenzik, MS PhD is a co-investigator on the AMPLIFY project, with her efforts directed to the Assessment Core. She is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology with an appointment in the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship.

Dr. Kenzik is an epidemiologist by training, with her research interests aimed at providing evidence for patient-centered risk-based survivorship care for older adults diagnosed with cancer. In addition to epidemiologic methodology, she has expertise in structural equation modeling and latent variable analysis, statistical approaches through which she has aimed to untangle to complex effects of cancer and aging on long-term outcomes. Dr. Kenzik is currently funded through an American Cancer Society Mentored Research Scholar Grant focused on examining trajectories of health care utilization among older cancer survivors.

Dr. Robert Oster, PhD is Professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine. He is the Co-Director of the AMPLIFY Assessment and Analysis Core, and is the biostatistician for AMPLIFY. He is also the Co-Director of the UAB CCTS Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Program and the Director of the UAB CCTS Biostatistics Clinic. He has over twenty-five years of experience in working with scientists on medical research studies, including many cancer research studies. He will work closely with AMPLIFY team members to ensure that appropriate statistical methods are used.

Maria Pisu, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She received her PhD in Economics at the Pennsylvania State University, and trained at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before joining UAB.

Dr. Pisu’s research examines several aspects of cancer survivorship, such as the long term effects of cancer and its treatment including the economic burden. In the AMPLIFY project Dr. Pisu leads efforts to invite cancer survivors to participate and to conduct periodic participants’ assessments. Dr. Pisu will also conduct analyses to determine if the interventions tested in the AMPLIFY project are cost-effective.

Yu-Mei Schoenberger-Godwin, PhD is a Co-Investigator on the AMPLIFY Project. She is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine and an Associate Scientist in the O’Neil Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Schoenberger-Godwin specializes in health communication and communications technology, with particular interest in mobile technology. She has conducted numerous studies focused on exploring strategies to increase the reach and effectiveness of health information as well as how technology can be used to disseminate health information.

Amber W. Kinsey, PhD is a Research Scientist in the Division of Preventive Medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Alabama (UAB).

Dr. Kinsey earned her PhD in exercise physiology at Florida State University and completed postdoctoral training in the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at UAB with emphasis in public health and behavior medicine. She has extensive experience in the design and development of research projects in the areas of physical activity, exercise training, and weight management. Dr. Kinsey’s research interests focus on optimizing weight management and physical activity interventions for at-risk and chronic disease populations. In addition to her PhD, Dr. Kinsey holds three credentials, including a certified exercise physiologist (ACSM-EP), a certified cancer exercise trainer (ACSM/ACS-CET), and certified sports nutritionist (CISSN).