Jennifer Elston Lafata, Ph.D., has joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a full professor with tenure in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. She will serve as associate director of the UNC Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement and co-leader of the UNC Health Care System’s Cancer Care Quality Initiative.
Lafata’s principal research interests surround cancer screening, patient decision-making, and provider-patient communication and patient outcomes. She has published more than 110 peer-reviewed articles during her career and received funding from agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
“Dr. Lafata is nationally and internationally recognized for her work in cancer prevention and control and will bring this history of success and recognition to her new position at UNC,” said Betsy Sleath, Ph.D., the George H. Cocolas Distinguished Professor and chair of DPOP. “Her record of grant funding and publications makes it clear that she is a dedicated and talented researcher and that she has a long-standing interest in cancer care and in ways to improve that care.”
Prior to coming to UNC, Lafata was a tenured professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Policy at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. She was awarded the Outstanding Departmental Teacher Award in Health Sciences Education in 2014 and named interim chair of the department in 2015. She also co-led VCU’s cancer prevention and control program beginning in 2009.
Prior to joining Virginia Commonwealth University, Lafata held an appointment at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit where she served as acting director of the Center for Clinical Effectiveness from 1997 to 1999, director of the Center for Health Services Research from 1999 to 2005 and chairperson for the HMO Research Network Governing Board from 2005 to 2006. In addition to conducting peer-reviewed research while at the Ford Health System, she was responsible for working with health-system leadership and quality improvement teams to design, implement and evaluate preventive and chronic-care population management strategies.
“In returning to Chapel Hill, I’m returning to my roots,” Lafata said. “I’m excited to be part of such a distinguished institution while having the opportunity to advance my efforts to bridge between academic research and health-care quality improvement”
Lafata received her Bachelor of Science in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her Master of Health Services Administration, Master of Arts in applied economics and Ph.D. in health services organization and policy from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.