Lisa Carter-Bawa, PhD, MPH, APRN, ANP-C, FAAN, FSBM is a behavioral scientist and national leader in cancer prevention, early detection, and stigma-informed health communication. She serves as the founding Director of the Cancer Prevention Precision Control Institute at the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery & Innovation, where she leads a multidisciplinary program focused on translating data-driven discovery into equitable, community-anchored cancer prevention. She also leads the Community Engagement Program and is the Deputy Associate Director for Community Outreach & Engagement for the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University. Her academic appointments include Professor of Medical Sciences at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and Professor of Oncology at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. 

Dr. Carter-Bawa’s research portfolio centers on lung cancer screening, digital health communication, and stigma reduction across the cancer continuum. She is Principal Investigator of multiple NIH, industry, and foundation-funded studies, including the INSPIRE Lung Study, which leverages social media to reach lung screening–eligible individuals upstream, prior to their engagement with the health system. She has developed tailored digital tools to support lung screening decisions as well as AI-enabled strategies to detect and mitigate stigmatizing language in clinical and public communications. 

A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and an Associate Editor at Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Dr. Carter-Bawa has authored influential scholarship on stigma, inequities in lung cancer screening, and patient-centered implementation strategies. Across her work, she aims to advance a national shift toward compassion-centered cancer care and to close persistent gaps in who benefits from evidence-based prevention and early detection.