Mariana C. Stern, PhD

Mariana C. Stern, PhD

Associate Director, Population Sciences
USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Urology
Ira Goodman Chair in Cancer Research
Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

Dr. Mariana Stern is a cancer epidemiologist, an international expert in cancer risk prevention, and national expert in cancer health disparities. Her research interests cut across the role of lifestyle risk factors and clinical epidemiology of prostate and colorectal cancer, and cancer health disparities in underrepresented minority populations. She is a co-director of the Florida-California Cancer Research Education and Engagement (CaRE2) Health Equity Center, an NCI-funded center focused on the training of underrepresented minorities from undergraduates to early career scientists, in partnership with the University of Florida and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. She is also co-leading colorectal cancer patient engagement efforts as part of the Cancer Moonshot NCI-funded Center for Optimization of Patient Engagement in Cancer Characterization Studies (COPECC) at USC. Dr. Stern is a Latina scientist, from Argentina, and is passionate about mentoring the next generation of underrepresented minority scientists in the US, and leading and fostering research in cancer health disparities among Hispanic/Latinx populations. She served from 2018-2021 as a member of the Minorities in Cancer Research Council and was a member of the steering committee for the inaugural AACR Cancer Disparities Progress Report in 2020 and a co-chair of the 2022 report. As a member of the WICR Dr. Stern looks forward to partnering with her colleagues in advancing the career of women cancer scientists, and fostering opportunities for synergy between the WICR and MICR councils.