Felicia Tharpe, MPH

Felicia Tharpe, MPH is a Lead Public Health Advisor in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC). She has worked in cancer prevention and control at the federal level for more than 20 years, applying expertise in health education, program planning, partnership, training, and capacity building to support program implementation and dissemination of evidence-based interventions (EBIs).

Mrs. Tharpe serves on the management team in the Program Services Branch, where she contributes to strategic planning for division and branch priorities. She supervises the project officers who monitor and provide technical assistance to award recipients of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program and the Colorectal Cancer Control Program. She also develops program guidance, tools, and other resources to support program implementation and oversees training to enhance award recipients’ capacity to achieve outcomes. Finally, she works with award recipients to translate their promising practices, like the New Hampshire Colorectal Cancer Screening Program’s patient navigation model, into research-tested interventions.

Prior to joining CDC in 2009, Mrs. Tharpe worked in the Office of Communications and Education at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for almost 10 years. At NCI, she developed and evaluated models for disseminating EBIs; managed partnership initiatives to enhance dissemination and adoption of EBIs; developed training and education materials on topics across the cancer continuum for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and health professionals; developed and conducted trainings to support dissemination of clinical trials education materials; and coordinated evaluation capacity-building activities for staff.

Mrs. Tharpe has authored or coauthored a number of articles, including foundational work establishing beauty salons as viable health promotion settings and methods to improve Spanish-language materials. She earned her MPH in health education and behavior with a minor in epidemiology from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and her Certificate in Evaluation Practice from The Evaluators’ Institute, now housed at Claremont Graduate University. Mrs. Tharpe completed Project Imhotep in 1996 and the Public Health Sciences Institute Fellowship Program in 1997; both programs are funded by CDC to increase the representation of minority students at the agency and in public health.

Selected publications Mrs. Tharpe has authored or co-authored include—

• 2022 Pairing Project ECHO and patient navigation as an innovative approach to improving the health and wellness of cancer survivors in rural settings.
• 2019 Assessing the implementation of a patient navigation intervention for colonoscopy screening.
• 2014 Public education and targeted outreach to underserved women through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.
• 2009 Evaluating a national dissemination approach: The National Cancer Institute’s clinical trials education program.
• 2006 A needs assessment of barriers to cervical cancer screening in Vietnamese American health care providers.
• 2005 Development of a linguistically and culturally appropriate booklet for Latino cancer survivors: lessons learned.
• 2005 Using community-based participatory research methods to reach women with health messages: results from the North Carolina BEAUTY and Health pilot project.
• 2004 Observational study in ten beauty salons: Results informing development of the North Carolina BEAUTY and Health project.
• 2001 Working with licensed cosmetologists to promote health: results from the North Carolina BEAUTY and Health pilot study.
• 2000 Behaviors associated with neisseria gonorrhoeae and chlamydia trachomatis: Cervical infection among young women attending adolescent clinics.
• 1999 Sexually transmitted diseases in abused children and adolescent and adult victims of rape: Review of selected literature.
• 1997 Receipt of home health care after early discharge: Results from a national managed care organization.