Dr. Melissa Little is a TYDE faculty affiliate and serves on the TYDE External Funding & Partnerships Committee.
Dr. Little is an Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia and a member of the UVA Cancer Center where she directs a Center for Nicotine and Tobacco Research. Her research focuses on developing, evaluating, and translating evidence-based cancer prevention and control interventions into community-based settings, such as schools, pharmacies, federally qualified health centers, and military systems. She has spent her career developing her skills as a community-engaged researcher and leader, focused on reducing cancer health disparities.
She has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health as a co-investigator since 2014 and as a principal investigator since 2016. She has received funding as both a co-investigator and principal investigator from the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs and the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY).
Her current research focuses on reducing cancer health disparities among rural, low income, minority and military communities through interventions to reduce modifiable health risk behaviors, namely through research on tobacco prevention (R01DA043468, PI Little), tobacco cessation (R01CA267963, PI Little), and promoting vaccines and cancer screenings (P01CA229143, MPI Paskett/Anderson/Dignan/Kennedy). Her research employs mixed methods within a dissemination and implementation science lens. This approach allows her to gain a deeper understanding of the unique needs and perspectives of her community partners to effectively reduce cancer and other health-related disparities.