Celette Sugg Skinner

Celette Sugg Skinner, PhD, is a Professor and Interim Dean of the Peter O'Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW). She also holds an Adjunct Professor role at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her leadership roles include serving as the founding Associate Director for Population Science and Cancer Control at the C. Harold Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and former Chair of UTSW’s Department of Population & Data Sciences. Skinner is a nationally recognized expert in computer-tailored health interventions, focusing on underserved populations and multi-level interventions in healthcare systems.

Education:

• PhD in Health Behavior, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1991
• MA in Communications, Wheaton Graduate School, 1982

Research Interests: Skinner’s work emphasizes leveraging electronic health records to design algorithm-driven interventions for cancer prevention, health behavior change, and vaccination. Her projects address disparities in cervical/colorectal cancer screening and rural health access. She leads an NCI-funded study analyzing cancer screening processes in 186,000 primary care patients.

Leadership & Recognition:

• 2022 President of the Population Health Leaders in Academic Medicine
• Member of the National Cancer Institute’s first Working Group on Computerized Tailored Interventions (1994)
• Participant in the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel (2016)

Teaching & Service: Teaches courses on grant writing, community-based research, and academic leadership at UTSW. Active in national initiatives to advance population health and reduce cancer disparities.