The award recognizes outstanding faculty whose scholarship-based outreach to the state, nation and the world has demonstrated sustained excellence in the University’s outreach mission.
Cynthia Thomson, PhD, RDN, professor of health promotion sciences in the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, has received the UA Distinguished Outreach Faculty Award for 2016.
The award recognizes outstanding faculty whose scholarship-based outreach to the state, nation and the world has demonstrated sustained excellence in the University’s outreach mission.
Dr. Thomson is a doctoral trained nutrition scientist and registered dietitian who serves as director of the college’s Canyon Ranch Center for Prevention and Health Promotion, a center whose mission is to support a healthier Tucson community. The center has reached thousands of youth with health promotion messaging including outreach through the Health2BMe Summer camp for kids, the Tucson Marathon Family Fitness Festival and previously through the Healthy Children Arizona school-based education program.
She also directs the Arizona Department of Health Services-funded Arizona Smokers’ Helpline, or ASHLine, a direct service program for the public to support smoking cessation and chronic disease risk reduction.
Dr. Thomson co-leads the Cancer Prevention and Control program at the UA Cancer Center and is a member of the UA BIO5 Institute. Her research and programming efforts are designed to reduce the risk for chronic disease associated with lifestyle behavior choices. Currently, Thomson, along with other UA researchers, leads the largest national study of lifestyle behaviors ever undertaken in ovarian cancer, one of the more lethal cancers diagnosed in women. The LIVES study is designed to test the role of diet and activity in increasing survival after an ovarian cancer diagnosis.
Dr. Thomson has a passion for mentoring having trained over 60 students and young professionals to achieve their professional goals and to serve their communities.
