Dana Carroll steps into leadership role for Tobacco Research Programs

The Masonic Cancer Center is pleased to announce that Dana Mowls Carroll, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, has assumed leadership of the Tobacco Research Programs (TRP). She succeeds Dorothy K. Hatsukami, PhD, founding director, whose distinguished vision and scholarship have shaped the program for decades.

Carroll is an epidemiologist and certified tobacco treatment specialist whose research spans clinical trials, epidemiological studies, and community-engaged work—especially in partnership with American Indian and rural populations—to advance smoking cessation strategies. Her efforts include National Institutes of Health-funded research She has received National Institutes of Health funding for research that evaluates culturally-tailored cessation efforts for American Indian communities and approaches to overcoming barriers to cessation support in rural America. She is also conducting research that will estimate the potential state-level impacts of product standards that seek to reduce the appeal of cigarettes (e.g., prohibiting menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and a nicotine cap in cigarettes). 

Carroll’s achievements have been recognized via several awards, including receiving the National Cancer Institute’s Director Award (2024), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Early Career Investigator Award (2023) and the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) Jarvik-Russell New Investigator Award (2024). Carroll has also been named a McKnight Presidential Fellow at the University of Minnesota. 

Hatsukami, TRP founder, is recognized as a leading authority on nicotine addiction, smokeless tobacco, and tobacco regulatory science. She has pioneered methods to evaluate tobacco products, inform nicotine reduction policies, and built a transdisciplinary national research team. Her service includes leadership roles on U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committees and professional societies such as SRNT and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. She has served on numerous advisory boards and received many awards for her research.

We invite our community to join us in congratulating Carroll as she leads the Tobacco Research Programs into its next chapter, and in honoring Hatsukami’s enduring legacy of excellence.