Ami E. Sedani, PhD, MPH Brings Experience in Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control to CHPPR

Ami E. Sedani, PhD, MPH is one of the newest investigators at the UTHealth Houston Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research. She is a cancer epidemiologist whose research focuses on improving colorectal cancer screening and diagnostic follow-through, with a particular emphasis on early?onset CRC and newly age?eligible adults (ages 45–49). Her broader body of work spans prevention, early detection, and survivorship across multiple cancer types, unified by a focus on how social risks, contextual factors, and care delivery processes influence engagement in cancer-related care.

“Early-onset colorectal cancer is rising, and prevention requires understanding the real-world contexts in which people make screening decisions,” said Sedani. “I’m eager to collaborate with CHPPR investigators to advance this work together.”

Sedani earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Oklahoma Health Campus, where she trained in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Her work draws on descriptive and causal inference approaches, with analytic methods selected to fit the scientific question and data environment. She has applied these methods across real?world observational data sources including programmatic data, national surveys, and healthcare databases, to examine screening patterns, tobacco and cannabis use behaviors, and outcomes across the cancer continuum, including survivorship.

Her work is deeply informed by applied public health practice and experience collaborating with community and clinical partners. Her public health trajectory began as an AmeriCorps service scholar with Nebraska Extension, where she provided nutrition and physical activity education in community settings. She later worked at a local and state health department on a broad range of chronic disease prevention initiatives, including evaluations of early childhood nutrition and physical activity programs (such as Go NAPSACC), worksite wellness efforts, and diabetes prevention and self?management programming. These experiences strengthened her foundation in community engagement, program evaluation, and practice?oriented prevention work.

Building on this applied background, she has since contributed to evaluations of cancer?focused public engagement initiatives, including the multi-state #CRCandMe mass media campaign to raise awareness of early-onset CRC, and an interactive Inflatable Colon exhibit deployed at state fairs in the Midwest. In these roles, she was directly involved in recruitment, survey administration, and on?site data collection, experiences that reinforced her commitment to producing research that is both meaningful and actionable for public health settings.

Sedani is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in Dallas. She looks forward to collaborating with colleagues across CHPPR colleagues on research that connects rigorous epidemiologic methods with real-world public health and practice-oriented questions across the cancer prevention continuum.