Corinne Leach, PhD, MPH, MS

Corinne Leach, PhD, MPH, MS conducts original behavioral research in the area of cancer survivorship, aging, and chronic disease self-management. She has a passion for understanding the factors that contribute to healthy aging and learning ways to help people live healthier lives, including after a cancer diagnosis. Her research aims to understand factors that contribute to healthy aging, the experience of older cancer survivors (ie, physical late effects, psychosocial issues, health behaviors), the role of multiple chronic conditions in survivorship, and the evaluation of health/health behavior interventions including chronic disease self-management.

Dr. Leach currently serves as the ACS-lead of the ACS-NCI online self-management platform, Springboard Beyond Cancer, for cancer survivors. This eHealth tool empowers cancer survivors to better manage their symptoms (both in treatment and post-treatment), live healthier after cancer, improve their communication skills about their cancer/other conditions with their healthcare professionals, family and friends, and leverages the Cancer Survivors' Network to provide peer-to-peer support. She also led the user testing and qualitative evaluation in 2016 and will lead the randomized evaluation trials of the online platform in 2017. Dr. Leach also serves as the PI of the ACS Cancer Survivor Transition Study, a longitudinal, mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) national project to identify and prioritize gaps in information and resources for cancer survivors as they transition from active treatment back to the community care setting. 

Dr. Leach received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Franklin & Marshall College, a Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology from Villanova University followed by a Doctoral degree in Gerontology from the University of Kentucky. She was a Cancer Prevention Fellow from 2008 to 2011 at the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD), working in the Office of Cancer Survivorship. During the first year of her postdoctoral training she completed a Master of Public Health in Quantitative Methods from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Leach is an active member of the Gerontological Society of America (co-convener of the Cancer and Aging Interest Group), the Cancer and Aging Research Group (CARG), and the Society of Behavioral Medicine (Cancer Interest group).