Simon Lee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Download Curriculum Vitae

Simon Craddock Lee, PhD MPH, joined the faculty in late 2008. Prior to being recruited to Dallas, Dr. Lee was a Cancer Prevention Fellow in the ethics of prevention and public health at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he also served as Co-Chair of the Culture & Qualitative Research Interest Group, a scientific intramural association of the NIH. At UT Southwestern, he is a core member of the Population Sciences & Cancer Control program in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Lee's science emphasizes mixed-methods approaches to healthcare delivery research, focusing on the culture and organization of cancer screening and cancer survivorship in urban and rural safety-net settings. He is MPI on an NCI award (R01 CA203856) to improve care coordination for patients with multiple chronic conditions also diagnosed with cancer, aka complex cancer survivors. The study uses mixed-methods to systematically evaluate how local context influences evidence-based intervention effects at the system, clinic, provider and patient levels. Dr. Lee is principal investigator of a mixed-methods implementation study expanding rural breast cancer screening and patient navigation in 35 underserved counties in North Texas that received a 2015 competitive renewal from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Active disease sites include lung, colorectal, and cervical cancers through research support from the NCI, notably as a Co-Investigator in the Parkland-UT Southwestern PROSPR Center (U54 CA163308).

As a medical anthropologist, Dr. Lee contributes to culture/behavior and ethics curricula in the Medical School, in addition to formal consultation on stakeholder engagement, research design and qualitative methods through UTSW's Center for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research and the Center for Translational Medicine.

Dr. Lee reviews for NSF programs in Cultural Anthropology and in Social & Economic Sciences, and serves on multiple NIH Special Emphasis panels. In 2016, he was appointed to the NCI's Central IRB Cancer Prevention & Control Committee. Dr. Lee has held various leadership positions in the American Anthropological Association since 2009 and is an elected Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Undergraduate

Yale University (1994)

Graduate School

Univ of California-Berkeley (1998)

Graduate School

University of California-San F (2003)

• Complex patients, multiple chronic conditions
• Health disparities
• Healthcare delivery research
• Lung, Colorectal, Breast Cancers
• Medical anthropology
• Qualitative research methods

Featured Publications

Identifying quality improvement targets to facilitate colorectal cancer screening completion.

Lee SJC, Inrig SJ, Balasubramanian BA, Skinner CS, Higashi RT, McCallister K, Bishop WP, Santini NO, Tiro JA Prev Med Rep 2018 Mar 9 138-143

Characteristics of Patients Using Patient Portals in Oncology.

Pho K, Lu R, Gates S, Xie Y, Lee SJC, Gerber DE JAMA Oncol 2018 Jan

Assessing local capacity to expand rural breast cancer screening and patient navigation: An iterative mixed-method tool.

Inrig SJ, Higashi RT, Tiro JA, Argenbright KE, Lee SJ Eval Program Plann 2016 Nov 61 113-124

Achieving Coordinated Care for Patients With Complex Cases of Cancer: A Multiteam System Approach.

Lee SJ, Clark MA, Cox JV, Needles BM, Seigel C, Balasubramanian BA J Oncol Pract 2016 Aug

County-level outcomes of a rural breast cancer screening outreach strategy: a decentralized hub-and-spoke model (BSPAN2).

Lee SJ, Higashi RT, Inrig SJ, Sanders JM, Zhu H, Argenbright KE, Tiro JA Transl Behav Med 2016 Jul

Elucidating patient-perceived role in "decision-making" among African Americans receiving lung cancer care through a county safety-net system.

Lee SC, Marks EG, Sanders JM, Wiebe DJ J Cancer Surviv 2015 Jun

Residential racial segregation and mortality among black, white, and Hispanic urban breast cancer patients in Texas, 1995 to 2009.

Pruitt SL, Lee SJ, Tiro JA, Xuan L, Ruiz JM, Inrig S Cancer 2015 Feb

Stigma among patients with lung cancer: a patient-reported measurement model.

Hamann HA, Ostroff JS, Marks EG, Gerber DE, Schiller JH, Lee SJ Psychooncology 2014 Jan 23 1 81-92

Measuring the Cost and Effect of Current Community Consultation and Public Disclosure Techniques in Emergency Care Research.

Matchett G, Ryan TJ, Sunna MC, Lee SC, Pepe PE Resuscitation 2018 Apr

The Influence of Financial Strain on Health Decision-Making.

Nguyen OK, Higashi RT, Makam AN, Mijares JC, Lee SC J Gen Intern Med 2018 Jan

 Featured Books

A View from White Flint: Ambiguity, Identity and Disparities in Cancer. In Confronting Cancer: Metaphors, Advocacy, and Anthropology

McMullin, J and Weiner, D. (2009). Santa Fe, NM, School for Advanced Research SAR Press

Organizational Practice & Social Constraints: Problems of Identity Data in Cancer Care and Research. In Mapping "Race": Critical Approaches to Health Disparities Research

Gomez, L and Lopez, N. (2013). New Jersey, Rutgers University Press

Ethics of Articulation: Constiuting identity in a Catholic hospital system. In Listening to the Whispers: Re-thinking Ethics in Healthcare

Sorrell Dinkins, C and Sorrell, J. (2006). Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press

• Community-based research pilot award, Program for the development and evaluation of model community health initiatives in Dallas, UTSW Office of the President
  "Do Hispanics have a recovery advantage in Dallas? Racial and ethnic variation in longitudinal hospitalization patters in the Parkland safety-net system (2014-2016)
• School for Advanced Research, Applied anthropology seminar: Negotiating structural vulnerability in cancer control: Contemporary challenges for applied anthropology
  Multi-day advanced seminar in Santa Fe; SfAA plenary session; leading to edited volume 2015. (2014-2015)
• Leadership Emerging in Academic Departments (LEAD), UT Southwestern
  Inaugural cohort of faculty leadership training program (2013-2013)
• NIH Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (TIDIRH)
  Inaugural cohort of national postdoctoral training institute (2012-2012)
• American Cancer Society-IRG
  Special Interest Award for Cancer Disparities Research (2011-2012)
• NIH Health Disparities LRP Award
  Peer-reviewed loan repayment award recognizing research in cancer disparities (2009-2011)
• Distinguished Dissertation, Graduate Division, UCSF
  Nomination to Council of Graduate Schools Distinguished Dissertation in the Social Sciences (2003)

• Executive Program Committee, American Anthropology Association (presidential appointment) (2014-2014)
• American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
• Fellow, Society for Applied Anthropology
• North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG)
• Society for Medical Anthropology ; Society of Lesbian & Gay Anthropologists