Lourdes Baez Conde, PhD

Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, PhD, MPH, is Distinguished professor in Population and Public Health Sciences (DPHHS) and Senior Associate Dean for Commmunity and Workforce Developoment Initiatives at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati is also a Member of the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center where she is Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement (COE). She is in a Multiple PI structure in the Office of Community Engagement of the Southern California Clinical Translation Institute (CTSI), and oversees community efforts in the DPPHS. She oversees the Center for Health Enhancement (CenHealth) which has provided health information especially in times of crisis to the public, such as during the Wildfires in Los Angeles in 2025. She has a Courtesy Appointment at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Her work is known for its creativity, and transdisciplinary nature, where academic disciplines and community talent converge with ingenuity to produce unique programs of research that advance science while fulfilling community needs. She develops and tests innovative interventions that help modify risk factors and reduce the burden of cancer and other chronic diseases in the population. She teaches courses in health promotion and disease prevention and on community engagement for health. She has mentored some 300 students in research from undergraduates to doctoral and postdoctoral fellows and is widely sought out as a mentor among Junior Faculty. She is strongly engaged in community participatory and population-based research and serves as a community/academic broker for community grounded research. For these purposes she has developed a bidirectional system of communication between communities and academic settings, based on participatory principles and shared resources with communities through community advisory boards. Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati has a strong record of extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She received a prestigious transformative RO1 from the NCI to look at the role of narrative in the delivery of cancer messages to community audiences. Her work on narrative has been done with a team from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and the USC School of Cinema. Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati has received multiple awards and recognition for her work, and is well published in a variety of relevant topics. She received the NIH 10 Year Common Fund Award and the American Public Health Association Health Education and Health Promotion Award for her educational film on cervical cancer to reduce the cancer burden. Another of her signature programs is It’s Time, a project to increase cervical cancer screening in the East Los Angeles. It’s Time was developed in collaboration with the Art Center College of Design, Designmatters program, and is a key signature program of the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition to these films and programs, she has worked on 6 other films including Granny’s Birthday, Of Reasons and Rumors, Team Player, and has supported the production of another three educational films with the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati earned an MPH and a PhD in public health with an emphasis in Community Health Sciences from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She can be reached at baezcond@usc.edu.

• American Association for Cancer Research: Outstanding Services to the Research Community, 2024
• Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA: Induction into the Public Health Hall of Fame, 2023
• University of Southern California: Distinguished Professor, 2023
• Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA: Lester Breslow Lifetime Achievement Award, 2023
• Lazarex Cancer Foundation: Hands of Hope Award, 2022
• Celebrate Life Cancer Ministry: Humanitarian of Hope Award, 2022
• National Library of Medicine: Board of Regents, 2019-2023
• NIH Director’s award: Winner of the National Institutes of Health Common Fund 10-Year Commemoration Video Contest, 2014
• National Institutes of Health: Transforming Cancer Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors (cervical cancer), NIH-10 Year Common Fund, 2014
• American Public Health Association: Cervical cancer film, Public Health Education and Health Promotion Best Multimedia Award, 2013
• HCI International Conference on Technology: Technology-based Medical Interpretation for Cross-Language Communication: In person, telephone, vide, 2013
• The George Mason University, 2013 Health Communication Conference: Winner of the Top Scientific Translational Research Award, 2013
• University of California Irvine (UCI) Chancellor’s Commendation for Outstanding Community Based-Part: UCI Chancellor’s Award in Clinical and Translational Science, 2011
• Design Conference: It’s Time Award, 2011
• California State Senate, 34th Senate District: Certificate of Recognition for National Community Based Participatory Research, 2011
• U.S. House of Representatives: Certificate of Congressional Recognition in recognition of extraordinary dedication and continued ef, 2011
• St. Vincent Medical Center Multicultural Health Awareness and Prevention Center in Partnership wit: Obesity and Nutrition Award Leadership, 2010
• National Cancer Institute and the American Legacy Foundation: Recognition for Services to the Research Community, 2010
• Annual Design Review Exhibition, Best Category in the Student Division in 2010: It’s Time Award, 2010
• Mike Davis, 48th Assembly District, California State Legislature: Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions and Community Service, 2010
• California Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee, State of California: In honor and appreciation of dedicated and distinguished services, 2009
• National Cancer Institute: Certificate in recognition of valuable contributions to the Cancer Information Services (CIS), 2009
• Research America: An Alliance for Discoveries in Health: Public Health Hero Award, 2009
• Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers: 2004-2005, 2004-2005
• Journal of the National Medical Association: Award for Excellence, Outstanding Performance and Lasting Contributions as Scientific Journal Revi, 2004
• Society for Prevention Research: Community, Culture and Prevention Science Award, 2001
• American Public Health Association, Latino Caucus: Most Distinguished Career Award, 1999

• Adult harm perceptions, purchase, and use related to synthetic vstobacco-derived nicotine vaping products: A mixed-methods study. Prev Med Rep. 2024 May; 41:102692. . View in PubMed
• Evaluating trends in recruitment challenges in vape shop research, e-cigarette product characteristics and use among shop customers from 2019 to 2023: A mixed-methods study Tob Induc Dis. 2024; 22. . View in PubMed
• Strategies to promote language inclusion at 17 CTSA hubs J Clin Transl Sci. 2024; 8(1):e67. . View in PubMed
• From art to health action: lessons from a community-based, culturally tailored arts-meets-health educational campaign in Hispanic communities Front Public Health. 2024; 12:1385916. . View in PubMed
• Hypothetical flavour ban and intention to vape among vape shop customers: the role of flavour preference and e-cigarette dependence Tob Control. 2023 01; 32(1):110-113. . View in PubMed
• Compliance to FDA’s elimination of free tobacco product sampling at vape shops Addict Behav. 2022 02; 125:107148. . View in PubMed
• Prevalence of disposable pod use and consumer preference for e-cigarette product characteristics among vape shop customers in Southern California: a cross-sectional study BMJ Open. 2021 10 05; 11(10):e049604. . View in PubMed
• Project Forward: A Population-Based Cohort Among Young Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancers JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2021 10; 5(5). . View in PubMed
• Association between federal and California state policy violation among vape shops and neighbourhood composition in Southern California Tob Control. 2021 09; 30(5):567-569. . View in PubMed
• Peer Crowd Identification of Young and Early Middle Adulthood Customers at Vape Shops J Drug Educ. 2021 09; 50(3-4):98-107. . View in PubMed
• Vape Shop Employees: Do They Act as Smoking Cessation Counselors? Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 03 19; 23(4):756-759.. View in PubMed
• Signs and customer behaviors at vape shops: Multivariate multilevel model analysis Addict Behav Rep. 2020 Dec; 12:100299. . View in PubMed
• Californians Linking Action with Science for Prevention of Breast Cancer (CLASP-BC)-Phase 2 Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 11 28; 17(23). . View in PubMed
• Perceptions of E-cigarettes and Flavor Restrictions among Tobacco Retailers in Los Angeles Am J Health Behav. 2020 11 01; 44(6):893-901. . View in PubMed
• Doing What We Know, Knowing What to Do: Californians Linking Action with Science for Prevention of Breast Cancer (CLASP-BC) Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 07 14; 17(14). . View in PubMed
• Comparison of e-cigarette marketing and availability in tobacco retail outlets among diverse low-income communities in California Tob Control. 2020 07; 29(4):469-471. . View in PubMed
• Notes From the Field: Vape Shop Business Operations Compliance in the Wake of COVID-19 Eval Health Prof. 2020 06; 43(2):135-137. . View in PubMed
• Predictors of Vape Shops Going out of Business in Southern California Tob Regul Sci. 2020 May; 6(3):187-195. . View in PubMed
• Commentary: The Problems of Grouping All Adversity Into a Special Populations Label Eval Health Prof. 2020 03; 43(1):66-70. . View in PubMed
• A Tobacco Control Framework for Regulating Public Consumption of Cannabis: Multistate Analysis and Policy Implications Am J Public Health. 2020 02; 110(2):203-208. . View in PubMed
• A review of tobacco regulatory science research on vulnerable populations Prev Med. 2019 11; 128:105709. . View in PubMed
• Barriers and innovative interventions for early detection of cervical cancer Salud Publica Mex. 2019 Jul-Aug; 61(4):456-460. . View in PubMed
• Contemp Clin Trials. 2019 05; 80:1-8. . View in PubMed
• Retailers’ Perceptions of FDA Tobacco Regulation Authority Tob Regul Sci. 2019 May; 5(3):291-300. . View in PubMed
• Tobacco Advertisement Liking, Vulnerability Factors, and Tobacco Use Among Young Adults Nicotine Tob Res. 2019 02 18; 21(3):300-308. . View in PubMed
• Retail marketing for chewing tobacco in Los Angeles, California Tob Prev Cessat. 2019; 5:11. . View in PubMed
• Adolescent tobacco coupon receipt, vulnerability characteristics and subsequent tobacco use: analysis of PATH Study, Waves 1 and 2 Tob Control. 2018 07; 27(e1):e50-e56. . View in PubMed
• Tobacco regulatory compliance with STAKE Act age-of-sale signage among licensed tobacco retailers across diverse neighborhoods in Southern California Tob Induc Dis. 2018 Jun; 16. . View in PubMed
• Depressive Symptoms and Quality of Life Among Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors: Impact of Gender and Latino Culture J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol. 2018 06; 7(3):384-388. . View in PubMed
• A Descriptive Longitudinal Study of Changes in Vape Shop Characteristics and Store Policies in Anticipation of the 2016 FDA Regulations of Tobacco Products, Including E-Cigarettes Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 02 11; 15(2). . View in PubMed
• Support for electronic cigarette regulations among California voters Tob Control. 2017 05; 26(3):334-337. . View in PubMed
• The Associations between Yelp Online Reviews and Vape Shops Closing or Remaining Open One Year Later Tob Prev Cessat. 2017; 2(Suppl). . View in PubMed
• Each Medium Tells a Different Story: The Effect of Message Channel on Narrative Persuasion Commun Res Rep. 2017; 34(2):161-170. . View in PubMed
• Testing the Parent-Adolescent Acculturation Discrepancy Hypothesis: A Five-Wave Longitudinal Study J Res Adolesc. 2016 Sep; 26(3):567-586. . View in PubMed
• Commentary: Forces That Drive the Vape Shop Industry and Implications for the Health Professions Eval Health Prof. 2016 09; 39(3):379-88. . View in PubMed
• Vape shop retailers’ perceptions of their customers, products and services: A content analysis Tob Prev Cessat. 2016; 2(Suppl). . View in PubMed
• Employee and customer handling of nicotine-containing e-liquids in vape shops Tob Prev Cessat. 2016; 2(Suppl). . View in PubMed
• Tob Induc Dis. 2016; 14:18. . View in PubMed
• A pilot test of the acceptability and efficacy of narrative and non-narrative health education materials in a low health literacy population J Commun Healthc. 2016; 9(1):40-48. . View in PubMed
• Tobacco Attitudes and Behaviors of Vape Shop Retailers in Los Angeles Am J Health Behav. 2015 Nov; 39(6):794-8. . View in PubMed
• Comparing the Relative Efficacy of Narrative vs Nonnarrative Health Messages in Reducing Health Disparities Using a Randomized Trial Am J Public Health. 2015 Oct; 105(10):2117-23. . View in PubMed
• Telling stories, saving lives: creating narrative health messages Health Commun. 2015; 30(2):154-63. . View in PubMed
• Consumers’ perceptions of vape shops in Southern California: an analysis of online Yelp reviews Tob Induc Dis. 2014; 12(1):22. . View in PubMed
• The Ability of Narrative Communication to Address Health-related Social Norms Int Rev Soc Res. 2013 Feb; 3(2):131-149. . View in PubMed
• Narrative versus Non-narrative: The Role of Identification, Transportation and Emotion in Reducing Health Disparities J Commun. 2013 Feb; 63(1). . View in PubMed
• Marijuana use among Latino adolescents: gender differences in protective familial factors Subst Use Misuse. 2011; 46(5):644-55. . View in PubMed
• Associations between family structure, family functioning, and substance use among Hispanic/Latino adolescents Psychol Addict Behav. 2010 Mar; 24(1):98-108. . View in PubMed
• A longitudinal analysis of stressful life events, smoking behaviors, and gender differences in a multicultural sample of adolescents Subst Use Misuse. 2008; 43(11):1521-43. . View in PubMed
• The influence of acculturation on drug and alcohol use in a sample of adolescents Addict Behav. 2007 Dec; 32(12):2990-3004. . View in PubMed
• Internet accessibility and usage among urban adolescents in Southern California: implications for web-based health research Cyberpsychol Behav. 2005 Oct; 8(5):441-53. . View in PubMed
• The influence of depressive symptoms on experimental smoking and intention to smoke in a diverse youth sample Nicotine Tob Res. 2005 Apr; 7(2):243-8. . View in PubMed
• Characteristics of adolescents who provide neither parental consent nor refusal for participation in school-based survey research Eval Rev. 2004 Feb; 28(1):52-63. . View in PubMed
• A cultural psychology approach to “drug abuse” prevention Subst Use Misuse. 2004; 39(10-12):1779-820. . View in PubMed
• Exploring the cultural context of tobacco use: a transdisciplinary framework Nicotine Tob Res. 2003 Dec; 5 Suppl 1:S101-17. . View in PubMed
• Evaluating transdisciplinary science Nicotine Tob Res. 2003 Dec; 5 Suppl 1:S21-39. . View in PubMed
• Cigarette smokers do more than just smoke cigarettes Health Psychol. 1989; 8(1):107-29. . View in PubMed

• Unger, Jennifer
• Leventhal, Adam
• Sussman, Steven
• Barrington-Trimis, Jessica
• Jang, Yuri
• Allem, Jon
• Pentz, Maryann
• Pedersen, Eric
• Valente, Thomas
• Goran, Michael
• McConnell, Rob
• Dunton, Genevieve
• Soto, Daniel
• Oh, Hans
• Lerman, Caryn
• Klausner, Jeffrey
• Matsuo, Koji
• Harlow, Alyssa
• Kirkpatrick, Matthew