News and Announcements

The Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust has awarded a five-year, $20 million grant to Stephenson Cancer Center to fund the expansion of the Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center. Grant dollars will directly support the Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center, a program of the Stephenson Cancer Center. Tobacco use in Oklahoma continues to be our greatest preventable cause of premature death and disability, and the economic cost to our state exceeds $2 billion.

Two tobacco control researchers, Jennifer Irvin Vidrine, PhD, and Damon Vidrine, DrPH, have been recruited to key leadership positions at the Stephenson Cancer Center located at the University of Oklahoma. Jennifer Vidrine will serve in the newly established role of Deputy Director for Tobacco Research. She will also be appointed Director of the Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center and oversee the center’s tobacco research activities. Damon Vidrine will serve as co-leader for the Cancer Health Disparities Program.

Research on a broad range of tobacco prevention efforts in Oklahoma were the focus of a symposium conducted on May 12 by the Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center at the Stephenson Cancer Center. Presented during the symposium were 16 peer-reviewed research articles published in the January 2015 supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.