Marleah Dean Kruzel PhD

Marleah Dean Kruzel (PhD, Texas A&M University) is an Associate Professor at the University of South Florida, a Collaborator Member in the Health Outcomes & Behavior Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center, and a member of the Tampa General Cancer Institute.

Dr. Dean Kruzel’s research interests are cancer communication and the communication of genetic risk information. Most of her projects investigate how patients, families, and clinicians exchange information, manage uncertainty, and make decisions about hereditary cancer to develop communication tools that improve health outcomes and experiences. She is an expert on the health experiences and decisions of previvors—individuals with inherited gene mutations who have not been diagnosed with cancer. Her work has been published in journals such as Genetics in Medicine, Academic Medicine, Social Science & Medicine, Supportive Care in Cancer, Patient Education & Counseling, Qualitative Health Research, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, and Journal of Genetic Counseling. She also co-edited the Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication.

Dr. Dean Kruzel’s research is and has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. A BRCA2-positive previvor herself, she is committed to patient engagement and science communication.