Erin Elizabeth Kent BA, PhD, MS

Erin Kent, Ph.D., M.S. is a Scientific Advisor for the Outcomes Research Branch. For five years prior to this new role, she served as an Epidemiologist and Program Director in ORB. Previously, Dr. Kent was a Cancer Prevention Fellow (CPF) in the Office of Cancer Survivorship. In addition to expertise in epidemiology and health services, Dr. Kent has a background in mixed methods research and community-based participatory research. Dr. Kent has led a program of research in informal cancer caregiving, including the establishment of funding opportunities to develop interventions for cancer caregivers (PAR-16-317, PAR-16-318), a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) concept to develop digital platforms to connect cancer caregivers to care delivery teams, and efforts to expand observational research efforts to further characterize caregiver burden.

Dr. Kent’s other main research interests are in patient-reported outcome and patient experience measurement and surveillance. Dr. Kent serves as scientific lead for the SEER-Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (SEER-MHOS) linked database on patient-reported outcomes and as senior advisor for the SEER-Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (SEER-CAHPS) survey- and claims-linked database on patient experiences with care. Dr. Kent received her Ph.D. in Environmental Health Science and Policy with a concentration in Epidemiology and Public Health from the School of Social Ecology, University of California-Irvine. Dr. Kent's dissertation focused on socioeconomic disparities in cancer outcomes of adolescents and young adults. She received a M.S. in Animal Behavior from San Diego State University, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California-Berkeley.