Rate My Professor Rebecca Kehm

Rebecca Kehm, PhD, serves as Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She earned a BA from Boston University in 2009, followed by an MPH in 2013 and a PhD in Epidemiology in 2017 from the University of Minnesota. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University. Dr. Kehm is a cancer and social epidemiologist whose research identifies modifiable early-life factors associated with cancer risk, with particular emphasis on early onset breast cancer. Her work examines social stressors, physical activity, and air pollution, utilizing family-based cohorts to investigate interactions with genetic susceptibility and biomarkers in breast tissue and blood to assess risk across the life course. She also applies time series analyses to study cancer trends in large-scale databases and translates epidemiological findings into interventions for communities disproportionately affected by cancer.

Her academic appointments include her current role as Assistant Professor of Epidemiology. Selected publications include “Childhood physical activity and pubertal timing: findings from the LEGACY girls study” in the International Journal of Epidemiology (2024); “Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons during pregnancy and breast tissue composition in adolescent daughters and their mothers: a prospective cohort study” in Breast Cancer Research (2022); “Evidence-based interventions for reducing breast cancer disparities: what works and where the gaps are?” in Cancers (2022); “Recreational physical activity and outcomes after breast cancer in women at high familial risk” in JNCI Cancer Spectrum (2021); “40 years of change in age- and stage-specific cancer incidence rates in US women and men” in JNCI Cancer Spectrum (2019); “Recreational physical activity is associated with reduced breast cancer risk in adult women at high risk of breast cancer: a cohort study of women selected for familial and genetic risk” in Cancer Research (2019); and “Does socioeconomic status account for racial and ethnic disparities in childhood cancer survival?” in Cancer (2017). Research interests encompass biostatistical methods, cancer, chronic disease, community health, environmental health, health equity and disparities, and physical activity.

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