Vida Henderson, PhD, PharmD

Public health researcher Dr. Vida Henderson focuses on preventive health services utilization as well as cancer prevention and early detection, particularly in underserved populations and high-risk communities. An expert in racial and gender health inequities; minority health; women’s health; health communication and community-engaged research, her goal is to improve gender and racial health inequities by exploring multi-level associations between socio-economic status, health literacy, structural bias and other social determinants of health, and physical and mental health as well as behavioral outcomes. Dr. Henderson is currently leading an NCI-funded randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of a culturally tailored decision aid promoting genetic counseling among African American women with a risk for hereditary breast cancer; she also helped develop the decision tool. Past projects have focused on breast, colorectal and cervical cancer screenings; patient navigation programs; community engagement with cancer research and other work designed to boost cancer screenings, treatment and overall health in under-resourced communities. She has expertise in qualitative and mixed methods research methodology as well as program evaluation and implementation and dissemination science. Diversity, inclusion and health equity are central to Dr. Henderson’s work.