Sarah M Szurek

Sarah M Szurek, Ph.D.

Program Director, Community Outreach And Engagement, UF Health Cancer Center & Assistant Research Scientist

Department: MD-HOBI-GENERAL
Business Phone: (352) 627-9143
Business Email: sarah.m.szurek@ufl.edu

About Sarah M Szurek

Dr. Sarah M. Szurek is a medical anthropologist who holds a faculty position as an assistant research scientist in the College of Medicine’s Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics. She also serves as program director for the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at the UF Health Cancer Center.

Dr. Szurek’s work focuses on understanding the social and cultural factors that influence health outcomes among marginalized populations to then develop targeted, evidence-based programs to positively affect health in community settings. She has worked with Mexican immigrants in Alabama to examine how personal social networks affect diabetes risk, and with African Americans in Florida on community-based participatory research projects related to racism, cardiovascular disease, and the local food environment. Dr. Szurek previously directed the Florida Healthy Kids Program evaluation, which examined the quality of care that children receive in the state.

She currently is responsible for developing and managing community-based programs that identify cancer-relevant needs, target cancer prevention, and improve health outcomes in twenty-three counties in Florida. Dr. Szurek is a voting member of the Scientific Review and Monitoring Committee within the UF Health Cancer Center’s Clinical Research Office. She also serves on the Steering Committees for the North Central Florida Cancer Control Collaborative and the ABOUT Network – Project COGENT (Customizing Consumer GENerated Tools to Engage Researchers).

Teaching Profile

Courses Taught
2014-2015
ANT2301 Human Sexuality and Culture

Research Profile

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)

0000-0003-3686-6597

Publications

2022
Cancer disparities related to poverty and rurality for 22 top cancers in Florida.
Preventive medicine reports. 29 [DOI] 10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101922. [PMID] 35928594.
2022
Clinicians’ perceptions of barriers to cervical cancer screening for women living with behavioral health conditions: a focus group study.
BMC cancer. 22(1) [DOI] 10.1186/s12885-022-09350-5. [PMID] 35264120.
2021
Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention Preferences of Adolescents with Overweight/Obesity.
Childhood obesity (Print). 17(3):160-168 [DOI] 10.1089/chi.2020.0296. [PMID] 33646015.
2021
Do patients at high risk for Hepatitis C receive recommended testing? A retrospective cohort study of statewide Medicaid claims linked with OneFlorida clinical data.
Medicine. 100(50) [DOI] 10.1097/MD.0000000000028316. [PMID] 34918711.
2021
The role of sex and rurality in cancer fatalistic beliefs and cancer screening utilization in Florida.
Cancer medicine. 10(17):6048-6057 [DOI] 10.1002/cam4.4122. [PMID] 34254469.
2020
Perceived barriers/facilitators to a healthy lifestyle among diverse adolescents with overweight/obesity: A qualitative study.
Obesity science & practice. 6(6):638-648 [DOI] 10.1002/osp4.448. [PMID] 33354342.
2020
Promoting community health collaboration between CTSA programs and Cooperative Extension to advance rural health equity: Insights from a national Un-Meeting.
Journal of clinical and translational science. 4(5):377-383 [DOI] 10.1017/cts.2020.13. [PMID] 33244425.
2015
Association Between Culturally Relevant Measures of Stress and Telomere Length
American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 156(60, SI)
2015
Cultural Meaning, Social Structure, and the Health Effects of Systemic Racism: the Heat Heart Health Study
American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 156(60, SI)
2015
Integrating Methods Training and Community-Based Participatory Research: The NSF-Supported Ethnographic Field School in Tallahassee, Florida
Practicing Anthropology. 37(4):28-32
2015
Interdisciplinary Anthropology Approaches To Health Disparities Research: Sociocultural and Genetic Contributions To Variation in Blood Pressure Among African Americans in the Health Equity Alliance Tallahassee (Heat) Heart Health Study
American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 156(60, SI)
2015
Introduction to the Special Issue: Community Academic Partnerships and Ethnographic Field Training
Practicing Anthropology. 37(4):2-3
2006
Social Identity and Food Choice in the Southeastern United States
Nutritional Anthropology. 26-27(1-2/1-2):23-37

Contact Details

Phones:
Business:
(352) 627-9143
Emails:
Addresses:
Business Mailing:
PO Box 100177
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Business Street:
2197 MOWRY RD
GAINESVILLE FL 32611