Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion

Research at CHERP focuses on vulnerable Veteran populations, investigating issues including Informed Decision Making for Veterans Considering Lung Cancer Screening, led by Marilyn Schapira, MD, MPH, and Intimate Partner Violence and Health Care Among Female Veterans, led by Melissa Dichter, MSW, PhD.

The Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP), a VA HSR&D Center of Innovation, announces the addition of biostatistician Scarlett Bellamy, ScD to the organization. A graduate of Hampton and Harvard Universities, Dr. Bellamy is currently Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, and has studied and published major academic research for over 15 years. Starting Sept 1, 2016, she will transition from Penn to Drexel University, where, in addition to her appointment as Professor of Biostatistics, she will assume the role of Director of Graduate Studies in Biostatistics at the Dornsife School of Public Health. At CHERP, Dr. Bellamy will join current statisician Elina Medvedeva and data specialist Brent Roberts, allowing for greater analysis on the center’s health equity studies.

“Although I have collaborated with many CHERP investigators in the past informally through our individual connections and research interests”, said Dr. Bellamy, “I am looking forward to a formal relationship that will make cultivating future collaborations much easier.”

Her initial study work at CHERP will be on an HSR&D Merit Review project, Informed Decision Making for Veterans Considering Lung Cancer Screening, led by Principal Investigator Marilyn Schapira, MD, MPH. Dr. Bellamy will also continue her collaboration with PI Melissa Dichter, MSW, PhD, on her Merit Review study, Intimate Partner Violence and Health Care Among Female Veterans.

Dr. Bellamy has a distinguished career, and her interests fit naturally with CHERP’s goal of furthering health equity. Her most recent projects include studies of women's reproductive health, HIV behavioral and clinical studies, and risk reduction interventions for high risk populations.

Dr. Bellamy has been a reviewer for the National Cancer Institiute, and is currently on the Data Safety and Monitoring Committee for Luis Montaner, DVM, DPhil, and CHERP Investigator Judith Long, MD in their respective studies. Within the past year, she has published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, American Journal of Transplantation, and International Press’s Statistics and Its Interface. In addition to this, she is a newly elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and is the current President-Elect of the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometrics Society.