Judith Lee Smith, PhD

Judith Lee Smith, PhD, is a Senior Behavioral Scientist and Team Lead in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control’s Epidemiology and Applied Research Branch. Prior to joining DCPC in 2004, Dr. Lee Smith was a National Institutes of Health post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago.

Since 2008, Dr. Lee Smith has led the Behavioral and Applied Research Team, a group of behavioral scientists, epidemiologists, statisticians, and fellows dedicated to examining cancer-related health outcomes and translating research findings into public health practice and programs. Dr. Lee Smith’s research investigates the multilevel determinants that influence cancer-related health inequities among patients, cancer survivors, and caregivers. She collaborates extensively with various partners, agencies, organizations, and institutions throughout many communities in the United States.

Dr. Lee Smith is a co-creator of AMIGAS, a theory-based and evidence-based bilingual educational outreach intervention designed to help promotoras (community health workers) and other lay health educators increase cervical cancer screening among Hispanic women who have rarely or never been screened for cervical cancer. A randomized controlled trial demonstrated the intervention’s effectiveness and cost effectiveness. In recognition of these achievements, AMIGAS was awarded the CDC/ATSDR Honor Award for Health Equity. AMIGAS was featured as a Community Guide in Action story for its use of evidence-based research. Dr. Lee Smith recently completed an adaptation of AMIGAS for African American women who have rarely or never been screened for cervical cancer. The new intervention, Face Your Health, was developed in collaboration with a work group of community health workers and community health worker administrators from across the United States.

Dr. Lee Smith leads component C (survivors) of CDC’s Reducing Inequities in Cancer Outcomes through Community-Based Interventions on Social Determinants of Health. This project focuses on ways to improve care coordination, meet cancer survivors’ needs, reduce cancer health disparities, and increase awareness of systemic racism in the medical field and its effect on communities of color.

Dr. Lee Smith is the former chair of DCPC’s Health Disparities Work Group and Translation to Practice Work Group. She previously represented CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion on the Prevention and Control Sub-Committee and the Full Committee for the Charles C. Shepard Award. Dr. Lee Smith is a peer reviewer for several academic journals and served as a member of technical advisory groups for the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable and the World Health Organization.

Dr. Lee Smith’s research has been presented extensively at national and international conferences. Selected recent publications Dr. Lee Smith has authored or co-authored include—

• 2023 Lack of awareness of human papillomavirus testing among U.S. women.
• 2022 Multilevel small area estimation for county-level prevalence of colorectal cancer screening test use in the United States using 2018 data.
• 2021 Multilevel small area estimation of prostate-specific antigen screening test in the United States by age group: 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
• 2021 Racial and ethnic disparities in health status, chronic conditions, and behavioral risk factors among prostate cancer survivors, United States, 2015.
• 2020 A comparison of general, genitourinary, bowel, and sexual quality of life among long term survivors of prostate, bladder, colorectal, and lung cancer.
• 2020 Interventions to increase breast and cervical cancer screening uptake among rural women: a scoping review.
• 2020 Impact of informal cancer caregiving across the cancer experience: A systematic literature review of quality of life.
• 2019 Perceived risk of colorectal and breast cancers among women who are overweight or with obesity.
• 2018 Perspectives of screening-eligible women and male partners on benefits of and barriers to treatment for precancerous lesions and cervical cancer in Kenya.
• 2018 Information seeking and satisfaction with information sources among spouses of men with newly diagnosed local-stage prostate cancer.
• 2017 Environmental and psychosocial barriers to and benefits of cervical cancer screening in Kenya.
• 2017 Disparities in breast cancer survival in the United States (2001–2009): Findings from the CONCORD-2 study.
• 2015 Advancing health equity in cancer survivorship: opportunities for public health.
• 2014 Capsule commentary on Davis et al., Improving mammography screening among the medically underserved.
• 2014 Cervical cancer screening with AMIGAS: a cost-effectiveness analysis.
• 2014 Meeting the information needs of lower income cancer survivors: results of a randomized control trial evaluating the American Cancer Society’s “I Can Cope.”
• 2014 Surveillance instructions and knowledge among African-American colorectal cancer survivors.
• 2013 AMIGAS: Building a cervical cancer screening intervention for public health practice.
• 2013 Assessment of the status of A National Action Plan for Cancer Survivorship in the USA.
• 2013 AMIGAS: A multicity, multicomponent cervical cancer prevention trial among Mexican-American women.
• 2013 Variation in primary care physicians’ colorectal cancer screening recommendations by patient age and health status.
• 2012 Using intervention mapping as a participatory strategy: Development of a cervical cancer intervention for Hispanic women.
• 2012 Physician over-recommendation of mammography for terminally ill women.
• 2011 Tailoring cancer education and support programs for low-income, primarily African-American cancer survivors.
• 2011 Physicians’ colorectal cancer screening discussion and recommendation patterns.
• 2011 Colorectal cancer screening use among insured primary care patients.
• 2009 Addressing cancer survivorship through public health: An update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.