{"id":3323,"date":"2020-06-23T10:52:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T17:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/sabrina-smiley-earns-nci-diversity-award-to-continue-research-on-tobacco-marketing\/"},"modified":"2023-11-26T08:32:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T16:32:07","slug":"sabrina-smiley-earns-nci-diversity-award-to-continue-research-on-tobacco-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/sabrina-smiley-earns-nci-diversity-award-to-continue-research-on-tobacco-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabrina Smiley earns NCI diversity award to continue research on tobacco marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n Press Release<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Sabrina Smiley earns NCI diversity award to continue research on tobacco marketing<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n \n June 23, 2020<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Sabrina Smiley<\/a> grew up in Selma, Alabama, fully aware of its importance in the civil rights struggle in this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my passion for health equity and social justice stems from me being from Selma,\u201d she said of the city where, in 1965, Black voting-rights activists led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, resulting in a brutal crackdown by white police. It came to be called \u201cBloody Sunday,\u201d and two days later Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a much larger march that helped lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelma is a key city in the history of the civil rights movement,\u201d Smiley said, adding: \u201cI love being from the South. I feel like it\u2019s given me a solid foundation to persevere in some really difficult situations. My generation looks to uphold the legacy of the civil rights movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smiley\u2019s parents were both longtime educators \u2014 her late father Howard Smiley a high school science teacher, her mother Naomi Hollis-Smiley an elementary school math teacher \u2014 and \u201ctogether they instilled in me the value of education, a strong work ethic, and a sense of community responsibility,\u201d Smiley said. But as she grew up and kept advancing in her education, being the first member of her family to earn a PhD, she realized how many built-in obstacles were in her way. \u201cEstablishing an independent research career can be intimidating,\u201d she said. \u201cHow do you develop a grant proposal? How do you develop a budget? How do you hire staff? So you need a network of support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smiley, PhD, MPH, MCHES and an assistant professor of research in the Department of Preventive Medicine and the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research<\/a> (IPR) at the Keck School, is getting that support. She earned a Diversity Supplement<\/a> grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue her research on the marketing of tobacco products.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiversity supplements are important for underrepresented early-career investigators, because they break down the institutional and economic barriers that prevent us from competing for NIH funding,\u201d Smiley said, \u201cso it\u2019s also important to have a good mentoring team and a good university to invest in you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Keck School has been that place for Smiley. At the school\u2019s Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science<\/a> (TCORS), she not only investigates neighborhood racial and ethnic disparities in tobacco marketing, she\u2019s examining the interplay between federal tobacco regulation, retailer compliance, and consumer behavior. The grant will provide Smiley research funding support to:<\/p>\n