Faculty Profile: Charnita M. Zeigler-Johnson, PhD, focuses on the molecular epidemiology of prostate cancer, particularly among African American men
SEPTEMBER 21, 2006
Charnita M. Zeigler-Johnson, PhD, a new Research Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the CCEB, has been at Penn since 1999 focusing on molecular epidemiology. Seven years earlier, she earned a BS in psychobiology at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. She had begun her undergraduate career with the intention of following a pre-med track, but halfway through college decided on research, particularly in neuroscience. Under Dr. Judy Cameron at the University of Pittsburgh, Charnita studied the GnRH response to short-term fasting in rhesus monkeys.
Having decided to pursue a research career pertaining to human beings and enthusiastic about a multidisciplinary approach to furthering her education, Charnita enrolled at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, where she received an MPH in 1997. She was awarded Best Master's Thesis of the Year from the Omicron Chapter of the Delta Omega National Honor Society. In 1998, she received a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focused on the association between hysterectomy status and cardiovascular disease in African American women.
Dr. Zeigler-Johnson arrived at the CCEB in 1999 to pursue molecular epidemiology research as a post-doctoral fellow. As part of her fellowship, she worked as project manager for Dr. Timothy Rebbeck's "Molecular Epidemiology of Prostate Cancer Study." She was involved in the recruitment, data collection, data entry, data analysis, and training of employees for this study. Her interest in health disparities prompted her to ensure that more African Americans were recruited for the study. Dr. Zeigler-Johnson became an Instructor of Epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in 2005 and was named a Research Assistant Professor of Epidemiology earlier this year. Her primary research focus remains the molecular epidemiology of prostate cancer, with a focus on why African American men are at greater risk for disease as well as poor disease outcomes. Dr. Zeigler-Johnson strives toward a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to understanding prostate health, incorporating characteristics such as the neighborhood environment, nutrition, and body mass index. She currently has an NCI Career Development Award for a project entitled "Prostate Cancer and Genes of the One-Carbon Cycle."
Some of her research has included consideration of the clinical characteristics of prostate cancer in American men, black and white, and in men from Senegal. In fact, Dr. Zeigler-Johnson and several Penn colleagues are collaborating with Senegalese urologists and researchers in order to understand prostate cancer occurrence and progression in West Africa, with the hope that this work will also enhance understanding of risk factors in African American men. Contacts have also been made in Ghana, and it is hoped that the study will expand to Cameroon as well as Kenya in the near future. In 2004, Dr. Zeigler-Johnson was invited to lecture at Hospital General de Grand Yoff in Dakar, Senegal, where her lecture was titled, "Testosterone Metabolizing Genes and Prostate Cancer."
Dr. Zeigler-Johnson's work has earned her the NCI CURE Minority Supplement Award, University of Pennsylvania, from 2001-2004 and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities Scholar award, 2003-2006. Dr. Zeigler-Johnson has been the principal author of peer-reviewed articles published in Cancer Research, the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, Human Heredity, Pigment Cell Research, and Stroke. She has also contributed to articles published in journals such as the American Journal of Human Genetics, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Circulation, CVD Prevention, the International Journal of Cancer, and Urology.
Dr. Zeigler-Johnson is also active in the African American community, specifically working on projects that provide health education. She was on the planning committee for the American Heart Association for African American women in Pittsburgh in 1997. She was a coordinator and presenter for the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women in Philadelphia Prostate Cancer Workshop in 2000. In addition, from 2001 to 2003, Dr. Zeigler-Johnson helped plan a local event with 50 Hoops, a national organization that promotes awareness about prostate cancer in the African American community. In 2004, she was on the Community Advisory Participatory Panel affiliated with the Center for Population Health and Health Disparities.
At Simpson-Fletcher United Methodist Church, where her husband, Rev. Robert L. Johnson, is pastor, Dr. Zeigler-Johnson reaches out to the West Philadelphia community in various ways. She leads several organizations serving children and teens and recently developed a self-empowerment workshop series for 13- to 18-year-old African American girls. This fall's workshop involves the girls in discussions and activities related to improving self-esteem. Next year's workshop for young women will focus on nutrition and exercise, featuring guest lecturers and cooking demonstrations. This workshop will be co-sponsored by the American Cancer Society.
In addition to staying busy in the community, Dr. Zeigler-Johnson is the mother of two children, ages 4 and 5.