The HBF seized a golden opportunity to create a Public Health Research Department with the arrival of senior public health professionals at its research center and Nobel laureate Dr. Baruch Blumberg as our Distinguished Scholar. The new department will add a scholarly research dimension to our outreach efforts and focus on three priority areas:

Disease Burden: To identify the true number of Americans chronically infected with hepatitis B to ensure adequate education, funding and access to care.

Liver Cancer (HCC): To increase public awareness about the strong link between liver cancer and hepatitis B to accelerate research for effective cancer treatments.

Co-Infections: To address the emerging research and outreach needs of co-infections and co-morbidities that can complicate the natural disease progression of hepatitis B.

Alison Evans, Sc.D., HBF Director, Public Health Research
Dr. Evans is a nationally known expert in the epidemiological studies of hepatitis, liver disease and cancer. She earned her Sc.D. in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and is an assistant professor at Drexel University School of Public Health and adjunct associate member of Fox Chase Cancer Center, where she worked with Dr. Blumberg and Dr.W. Thomas London.

Gang Chen, Ph.D., HBF Public Health Scientist
Dr. Chen has worked closely with Dr. Evans as project manager of an NIH-funded international research study on hepatitis B and liver cancer in China for the past 10 year. He earned his Ph.D. in Epidemiology at Shanghai Medical University and is a research associate at Drexel University School of Public Health.

Chari Cohen, M.P.H., HBF Senior Research Analyst
Ms. Cohen was promoted to Senior Research Analyst in the new public health research department after serving as the HBF’s program coordinator for the past five years. She earned her Masters in Public Health at Temple University and was recently accepted into the Ph.D. program at Drexel University School of Public Health.