Becky Hodge, MSPH
Senior Associate Scientist, Study Management
Population Science
I've Always Known What I Wanted To Be
Ever since middle school I knew I wanted to work in public health. I’ve always wanted to help save people—not after they get a disease, but by making sure they never do. I love working at the American Cancer Society in the Population Science department because of our focus on cancer prevention and the enormous and impressive cohorts we have (Cancer Prevention Studies II and 3). Data from these volunteer participants enable research that helps the world better understand the causes of cancer and the many ways we can help prevent it and save lives.”
At ACS since 2017
Becky Hodge, MSPH, started at the American Cancer Society (ACS) as a data analyst and is now a member of the Study Management team in Population Science. She helps manage the Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3) participant portal. On this new, online platform, participants can complete surveys, learn more about ongoing research within CPS-3, and directly contact members of the CPS-3 research team.
Specifically, she helps manage and run the Gut Microbiome Sub-study within the CPS-3 portal. This study will collect over 10,000 stool samples from CPS-3 participants by the end of 2022 and aims to understand how the gut microbiome impacts an individual’s health and risk for developing cancer and other diseases.
Research focus and accomplishments
My research interests are in the complex and intricate interactions between diet, the built environment, and the gut microbiome and metabolome. I'm especially interested in how these elements work together to affect body weight and other risk factors for developing cancer.
I like researching these topics, or helping others conduct research on these topics, because of their complexity—not every diet works for everyone, and not everyone responds to their environment the same way.
Plus, everyone also has a unique community of microbiomes in their gut, shaped by their diet and environment. In turn, that microbiome affects how diet and environment impact each person’s individual risk for developing cancer.
In addition to running the portal aspects of the Gut Microbiome Sub-study, my other research focus is on how a person’s weight is affected by eating fast food and at full-service restaurants, taking into consideration how often they eat it, how much they eat, and the proximity of restaurants to their home and work.
Publications
For a full list of publications, see Becky Hodge-Google Scholar.
Contact
Education
- MSPH: Environmental Health and Epidemiology, Emory University, 2017
- BA: Biological Sciences, University of Delaware, 2015
Personal life
I live in Atlanta, GA, and enjoy hiking, creative writing, painting, photography, and soap-making.
Help us end cancer as we know it, for everyone.
