Speaker Series
When Does Breast Cancer Risk Begin?
Date+Time
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The MƒA Thursday Think Speaker Series brings accomplished speakers who dive into cutting-edge topics in STEM education to MƒA. These talks, held once a month throughout the school year, invite MƒA teachers and the general public to learn and engage with these thought leaders and professionals in mathematics, science, and education.
Breast cancer in women under the age of 55 is increasing with an even higher incidence and more aggressive tumors in racial and ethnic minorities. However, breast cancer risk begins far earlier than in adulthood. In this Thursday Think talk, Dr. Jasmine McDonald discusses breast cancer and lifecourse epidemiology, or how socially patterned exposures during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, influence adult disease risk. Dr. McDonald highlights her research on exogenous environmental exposures (e.g., infection, endocrine disruptor chemicals) during windows of cancer susceptibility (e.g., in utero, puberty, pregnancy, postpartum) and increased breast cancer risk, as well as the associated health inequities. Teachers will gain new and alternative perspectives on when breast cancer risk begins and learn more about the current behavioral interventions related to equitable risk reduction.
Dr. Jasmine McDonald is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She received her Doctorate from the Biological Sciences in Public Health Program at Harvard University with a concentration in Immunology and Infectious Disease. She has postdoctoral training in breast cancer epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. Her research integrates individual level health behaviors and the macroenvironment (e.g. physical, social, microbial environment) with biological factors (e.g. endocrine disruption, epigenetic modification, tumor microenvironment) to inform how these multiple levels of etiology impact breast cancer risk across the lifecourse. Much of her research focuses on populations who have a higher burden of cancer including those with a genetic predisposition, racial and ethnic minorities, and young women.
An avid teacher and mentor, Dr. McDonald was awarded the 2021 Columbia University Teaching Award for her dedication and excellence in teaching, mentoring, and community engagement. She teaches cancer epidemiology within the Mailman School, is the Assistant Director of the Cancer Research, Training, and Education Center at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC,) and is the Co-Director of the CURE Program at the HICCC, which seeks to bring high school and undergraduate students from traditionally overlooked and underserved communities to cancer-related research fields. Dr. McDonald also actively engages with the community from a research and educational perspective on the harmful role of endocrine disruptors in personal care products.