Joni Mayer

Bio

Joni Mayer (emeritus: 2010) was a full-time faculty member in the Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences for 24 years. Her research interests included skin cancer prevention, early detection of breast cancer, and promoting healthier food choices and increased physical activity. She won three mentoring awards and under her supervision, many of her students published their thesis or dissertation research findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Mayer was recognized for her creativity combined with her commitment to stringent research designs and more specifically for developing: 1) objective measurement strategies for behaviors that are challenging to measure, 2) interventions that are tailored for and integrated into real-world environments, and 3) low-cost, user-friendly interventions that have a high likelihood of dissemination. For example, as a consequence of her large, randomized controlled trial with U.S.P.S. letter carriers, for the first time and on a nationwide level, the Postal Service began to offer as an option a canvas wide-brim hat as part of the official uniform. Dr. Mayer won the Dissemination Research Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, where she was a Fellow. She was principal investigator on multiple research grants from the National Institutes of Health (primarily the National Cancer Institute–NCI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program. Moreover, in the latter portion of her career in academia, Dr. Mayer was the recipient of the NCI’s prestigious, highly competitive 5-year Established Investigator  Award (K05) in Cancer Prevention, Control , Behavioral and Population Science Research.

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