Speakers’ Biosketches
Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH
Director, National Association of Social Workers
Elizabeth Clark is the Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).
Representing nearly 150,000 social workers, the mission of NASW is to promote the quality of
social work practice and advocate for the improvement of social conditions. Dr. Clark’s clinical
specialty area is oncology social work and loss and grief. She is an editor of the book Social
Work and Oncology: Supporting Survivors, Families, and Caregivers, published by the
American Cancer Society and is the author and project director for the Cancer Survival
Toolbox®, a self-advocacy training program for persons with cancer.
She is a past president of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, a past board member
and current advisory board member of the Intercultural Cancer Council as well as a member of
the Board of Directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and a member
of C-Change. She received the Leadership in Oncology Social Work Award from the Association
of Oncology Social Work in 1998. Dr. Clark is also the recipient of a Ray of Hope award from the
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship in 2006 for her work on the Cancer Survival
Toolbox®. Dr. Clark holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work and a master’s of
public health from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a master’s degree and doctorate in
medical sociology from the University of North Carolina. She recently received an Honorary
Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Wartburg College in Iowa.
Robert T. Croyle, PhD
Director, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
Robert Croyle, PhD, was appointed director of DCCPS in July 2003. In this role, he is
responsible for overseeing a research portfolio and operating budget of nearly a half billion
dollars and serves on NCI’s Executive Committee. As a division, DCCPS covers a wide range of
scientific domains and disciplines, including epidemiology, behavioral science, surveillance,
cancer survivorship, and health services research. He previously served as the division’s
associate director for the Behavioral Research Program, leading its development and
expansion. Before coming to NCI in 1998, he was professor of psychology and a member of the
Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Prior to that, he was a
visiting investigator at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, visiting assistant
professor of psychology at the University of Washington, and assistant professor of psychology
at Williams College in Massachusetts.
Dr. Croyle received his PhD in social psychology from Princeton University in 1985, and
graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in psychology from the University of Washington in 1978.
His research has examined how individuals process, evaluate, and respond to cancer risk
information, including tests for inherited mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2. His research has been
published widely in professional journals in behavioral science, public health, and cancer, and
he has edited two volumes: Mental Representation in Health and Illness (1991) and Psychosocial
Effects of Screening for Disease Prevention and Detection (1995). He is co-editor of the
Handbook of Behavioral Science and Cancer (in press) and coauthor of Making Data Talk (in
press).
Dr. Croyle is a member of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, a Fellow of the
Society of Behavioral Medicine, and a recipient of several awards for his research and
professional service. His efforts on journal editorial boards include being associate editor for
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, and consulting editor for Health Psychology
and the British Journal of Health Psychology. Dr. Croyle received the NIH Merit Award in 1999
and 2002, and the NIH Director’s Award in 2000.
Jessie Gruman, PhD
Founder and President, Center for the Advancement of Health
Jessie Gruman is the founder and president of the Center for the Advancement of Health, an
independent, nonpartisan Washington-based policy institute funded by the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation and others, including the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation and the Atlantic Philanthropies.
Since it was established in 1992 the Center has worked in collaboration with employers,
government, health insurers, clinicians and the scientific community to ensure that every
person is a prepared patient. That is, that people are able to meet the demands placed on
them by health information that is increasingly complex, health professionals who are
increasingly specialized and pressed for time and health care that is increasingly brilliant but
chaotic.
Dr. Gruman has worked on this same set of concerns in the private sector (AT&T), the public
sector (National Institutes of Health) and the voluntary health sector (American Cancer
Society). She is a Professorial Lecturer in the School of Public Health at The George
Washington University and serves on the boards of trustees of the Advisory Panel on Medicare
Education of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Institute,
the Sallan Foundation and others.
Dr. Gruman was honored by Research!America for her leadership in advocacy for health
research. She is the recipient of honorary doctorates in public policy from Carnegie Mellon
University and public service from Northeastern University and the Presidential Medal of The
George Washington University. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the
Association for Psychological Science and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Gruman is the author of AfterShock: What to do When the Doctor Gives You – or Someone
You Love – a Devastating Diagnosis (Walker Publishing, 2007) a book about how people use
scientific information to make decisions about their healthcare, and Behavior Matters: 15 Years
of Health Behavior Advocacy, as well as scientific papers and opinion essays and articles
published in the national media.
Dr. Gruman writes and speaks about health care from the patient’s / consumer’s perspective
based on surveys, the research literature, focus groups, hundreds of interviews and her own
experience. She is committed to increasing the responsiveness of the health care industry to
the reality today’s patients by describing how patients think and behave about when deciding
to seek professional care, choosing a physician, using scientific evidence and making use of
new medical technologies.
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For further biographical information, see Who's Who in America (60 Edition).