The Best of the AACR Journals Collection: Author Profiles

Emily M. Rencsok

Title & Affiliation:
MD/PhD Candidate, Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard Medical School and the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA

Most-cited Article:
Diversity of Enrollment in Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials: Current Status and Future Directions

Q: What is your primary area of study/research?
A: Prostate cancer epidemiology

Q: What influenced your decision to embark on a research career?
A: My first research experiences were in college, and I loved getting to think about unanswered questions in health and how to design experiments to learn more about them. I initially embarked on my graduate research journey thinking I wanted to run an immunoengineering lab for the rest of my life. After a gap year conducting a sociology research project and working for a couple of social justice nonprofits in Baltimore, I decided to shift my research focus to population health/epidemiology with a desire to center health disparities in my work.

Q; What excites you most about your research area?
A: I love the field of public health because the work is so collaborative, and the research can often have a direct impact on policy to improve the health of populations at a systems level. Working in public health also allows me to focus on health disparities and research ways to work towards all individuals receiving equitable care and being ethically represented in research regardless of their background.

Q: What do you do for fun outside of work? What are your passions and hobbies?
A: What are your passions outside of work? Hobbies? Outside of school, I love to volunteer with Vot-ER (an organization supporting nonpartisan voter registration efforts in the healthcare setting), watch SpaceX launches, make ice cream, and take my cat on walks.

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