Nicole Caston, PhD, MPH

Associate Scientist I
Health Services Research
Surveillance, Prevention, & Health Services Research (SPHeRe)

Headshot of Nicole Caston, PhD, MPH, in a black blazer and a light a light blue blouse.

What Motivates Me

Many members of my family are cancer survivors, and each have had a different experience, some more negative and lasting than others. My goal as a researcher is to increase access to quality cancer care for all patients, specifically older individuals with low incomes who live in rural areas.

At ACS since 2026

Nicole E. Caston, PhD, MPH, is an associate scientist of Health Services Research in the Surveillance, Prevention, & Health Services Research (SPHeRe) department of the American Cancer Society (ACS). Her research work focuses on access to quality cancer care for vulnerable patient populations.

Research focus and accomplishments

Caston is a cancer health services researcher with training in epidemiology. Her work focuses on understanding challenges faced by patients who are receiving a cancer treatment, especially as a participant in a cancer therapeutic clinical trial. Her research interests also include patient-reported outcomes, cancer screening, and geriatric oncology. Ultimately, her goal is to understand how social characteristics, such as race, geography, education, and income, affect cancer care.

Caston uses a variety of datasets including large databases, regisry-claims data, electronic medical records, and publicly available datasets. She has experience with a wide variety of methodologies including, but not limited to, structural equation modeling, geospatial, latent class, and qualitative analyses.

Her awards and grants include competitive pre-doctoral funding and a post-doctoral fellowship. She has been invited to give talks at national meetings about her research on underrepresentation in clinical trials.

Publications

To learn more about Dr. Caston's work, see her Google Scholar page.

Contact

Work Before ACS

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center: Cancer Care Quality Training Program Postdoctoral Fellow
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology: Clinical Research Data Coordinator II 

Education

  • PhD: Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2023
  • MPH: Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2020
  • BS: Biology, Samford University, 2014

Personal Life

I live in the research triangle of North Carolina with my two standard poodles. I enjoy spending time outdoors, reading, and learning about new cultures and languages.