Elizabeth A. Rohan, PhD, MSW

Dr. Elizabeth Rohan graduated summa cum laude from Boston College in 1989 with a degree of sociology and earned her master of social work in Boston College’s accelerated program a year later. She then began a career in clinical oncology social work, counseling cancer patients and their families, first at the Massachusetts General Hospital (1990–1995) and later (1995–2002) at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both designated Centers for Excellence in Oncology by the National Cancer Institute. She found her work with cancer patients extraordinarily rewarding and developed a research interest in the multidisciplinary oncology health care team.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Rohan has experience teaching social work courses at Boston University and sociology courses at Boston College (1999–2002) and was ranked third among Boston College faculty by online student evaluations one semester. Dr. Rohan moved to the Atlanta area in 2003 and completed a joint doctorate of sociology and social work from Boston University in 2005. Soon thereafter, she worked at a small private practice in Atlanta, providing supervision for master’s level social workers seeking licensure. In 2009, Dr. Rohan published a book, Laboring at the Edge: Effects of Repeated Exposure to Death and Dying on Oncology Doctors, Nurses, and Social Workers, a result of her dissertation work on the multidisciplinary oncology health care team. Also in 2009, Dr. Rohan was featured in The Weekly Qualitative Report for her article, “Climbing Everest Oncology Work as an Expedition in Caring,” which was published in the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology.

Since August 2009, Dr. Rohan has been translating her clinical knowledge into public health practice at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Rohan is a health scientist in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control in the Comprehensive Cancer Control Branch. She is leading CDC’s efforts to publish a supplement about CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Screening Demonstration Program, and is involved in many cancer-related health services research and evaluation projects, including a study of the efficacy of patient navigation in colorectal cancer screening.