Simon Lee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Download Curriculum Vitae

Simon Craddock Lee, PhD MPH, joined the faculty in late 2008. He serves as Program Co-Leader for Population Sciences & Cancer Control research in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. 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. 

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 implementation science 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, most recently funded by 2018 competitive renewal from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Other active research disease sites include lung, colorectal, and cervical cancers through studies supported by CPRIT and NCI, notably as a Co-Investigator in the Parkland-UT Southwestern PROSPR II Centers (UM1 CA221940).

As a medical anthropologist, Dr. Lee advocates for research partnerships that foster learning health systems and other collaborations that enable science to support community priorities. He contributes to culture/behavior and research design curricula in Medical School and Graduate School programs. He has served as mentor/preceptor on seven K-series or other peer-reviewed career development awards for rising investigators, in addition to research consultation for stakeholder engagement, qualitative and mixed-method designs. An Associate Editor of Annals of Family Medicine, he serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Cancer Survivorship. Dr. Lee actively reviews for NIH study sections in implementation science and healthcare delivery research and has reviewed for NSF programs in Cultural Anthropology and in Social & Economic Sciences. 

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
• Implementation science and healthcare delivery research
• Lung, Colorectal, Cervical, Breast Cancers
• Medical anthropology
• Qualitative research methods

Featured Publications

Conceptual Model for Accrual to Cancer Clinical Trials.

Lee SJC, Murphy CC, Geiger AM, Gerber DE, Cox JV, Nair R, Skinner CS, J. Clin. Oncol. 2019 Jun JCO1900101

Care coordination for complex cancer survivors in an integrated safety-net system: a study protocol.

Lee SJC, Jetelina KK, Marks E, Shaw E, Oeffinger K, Cohen D, Santini NO, Cox JV, Balasubramanian BA BMC Cancer 2018 Dec 18 1 1204

Effects of program scale-up on time to resolution for patients with abnormal screening mammography results.

Lee SC, Higashi RT, Sanders JM, Zhu H, Inrig SJ, Mejias C, Argenbright KE, Tiro JA Cancer Causes Control 2018 Aug

Surveillance for colorectal cancer survivors in an integrated safety-net health system in the United States.

Balasubramanian BA, Jetelina KK, Bowen M, Santini NO, Lee SC Int J Care Coord 2018 Jun 21 1-2 26-35

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

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

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

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

Patient and provider perspectives on delivery of oral cancer therapies.

Murphy CC, Lee SJC, Gerber DE, Cox JV, Fullington HM, Higashi RT, Patient Educ Couns 2019 Jun

Impact of a Cancer Urgent Care Clinic on Regional Emergency Department Visits.

Hong AS, Froehlich T, Clayton Hobbs S, Lee SJC, Halm EA, J Oncol Pract 2019 Apr JOP1800743

 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. (Ed.) (2013). New Jersey, Rutgers University Press

The familiarity of coping: Kinship and social location in the safety-net experience of cancer. In Negotiating structural vulnerability in cancer control

Armin J, Burke NJ, and Eichelberger L (2019). Albuquerque, SAR Press, University of New Mexico 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

• Steering Committee, NCI Implementation Science Consortium in Cancer (ISCC)
  (2020-2021)
• 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)
• Executive Program Committee, Annual Meetings, American Anthropology Association
  (presidential appointment) (2013-2014)
• 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)

• American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
• American Society for Preventive Oncology (ASPO)
• Fellow, Society for Applied Anthropology
• North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG)
• Society for Medical Anthropology ; Society of Lesbian & Gay Anthropologists