Jennifer Cantrell

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Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Jennifer Cantrell, DrPH, MPA, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the NYU School of Global Public Health. Her research investigates emerging trends in tobacco and nicotine use and industry marketing, and explores clinical, countermarketing and policy interventions to diminish tobacco's appeal and promote health equity.

Dr. Cantrell currently leads a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded grant (R01CA268932) that uses Multiphase Optimization STrategy (MOST) to optimize cessation treatment for smokers living with HIV in clinical care. This study uses MOST, implementation science and decision analysis to test four interventions targeting multilevel barriers to quitting for people living with HIV, with the aim of developing a cost-effective, scalable and sustainable treatment package delivered in HIV clinical care. In other funded research, Dr. Cantrell uses diverse data sources and methods to explore evolving tobacco and nicotine use patterns and the commercial determinants that drive use. Her research also examines innovative digital counter-marketing strategies with a focus on achieving optimal exposure levels and effective counter-messaging.

Dr. Cantrell is a Co-Investigator with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded R25 training grant on Optimization of Behavioral and Biobehavioral Interventions (PI: Linda Collins). She is Chair of Early Career Faculty Outreach for the NYU Center for the Advancement and Dissemination of Intervention Optimization (CADIO), which trains investigators in intervention optimization methodologies worldwide. She has also served on the Advisory Committees for the Treatment Network and the Health Equity Network for the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. Dr. Cantrell has published over 70 scientific articles and co-authored a chapter on “Communication, Marketing and Tobacco-related Disparities” in the NCI Monograph 22: A Socioecological Approach to Tobacco-related Disparities. Her research has been published in the American Journal of Public Health, Addiction, Nicotine & Tobacco Research and other leading journals, and featured in media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and The Boston Globe. She also received the highly competitive National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program award from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities for her work on tobacco disparities and health equity.

Prior to joining NYU GPH, Dr. Cantrell was a Managing Director and Scientist at Truth Initiative, a national non-profit research and education organization focused on tobacco use prevention and cessation, where she evaluated and conducted research on national anti-smoking mass media efforts, including the award-winning truth® campaign and the Centers for Disease Control’s Tips for Former Smokers campaign. As part of this work, she led the development of the winning proposal for the 2017 Berreth Award for Excellence in Public Health Communication. She earned her DrPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and her MPA from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. She completed postdoctoral training in the NIDA program for Behavioral Science Training in Drug Abuse Research at National Development Research Institutes in New York, NY.

Areas of research and study

Alcohol, Tobacco and Driving Policies

Behavioral Science

Health Disparities

Population Health

Public Health Policy

Social Behaviors

Social epidemiology

Publications

Electronic cigarette advertising at the point-of-sale: A gap in tobacco control research

Exploring smoking cessation attitudes, beliefs, and practices in occupational health nursing

Implementation of a multimodal mobile system for point-of-sale surveillance: Lessons learned from case studies in washington, dc, and new york city

National enforcement of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act at point-of-sale

Patterns of combustible tobacco use in U.S. young adults and potential response to graphic cigarette health warning labels

The impact of the tobacco retail outlet environment on adult cessation and differences by neighborhood poverty

Tobacco retail outlet advertising practices and proximity to schools, parks and public housing affect Synar underage sales violations in Washington, DC

A Multilevel Analysis of Gender, Latino Immigrant Enclaves, and Tobacco Use Behavior

Cameras for public health surveillance: A methods protocol for crowdsourced annotation of point-of-sale photographs

Cantrell et al. Respond

Perceptions and perceived impact of graphic cigarette health warning labels on smoking behavior among U.S. young adults

Geospatial exposure to point-of-sale tobacco: Real-time craving and smoking-cessation outcomes

Impact of Tobacco-Related Health Warning Labels across Socioeconomic, Race and Ethnic Groups: Results from a Randomized Web-Based Experiment

Marketing little cigars and cigarillos: Advertising, price, and associations with neighborhood demographics

Metropolitan Social Environments and Pre-HAART/HAART Era Changes in Mortality Rates (per 10,000 Adult Residents) among Injection Drug Users Living with AIDS