NCID-1959
Nynikka Palmer
Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Education/Degree:
1 Public Health (University of Texas)
About
Dr. Palmer graduated from Morgan State University with a bachelor?s degree in community health education. She earned a master's in public health from Emory University and worked for the American Cancer Society, collaborating with community organizations on cancer education and early detection in minority communities. Dr. Palmer earned a doctorate in public health, from the University of Texas (UT), where she was a pre-doctoral fellow on two National Cancer Institute (NCI) sponsored training programs at UT and MD Anderson Cancer Center. She extended her training focused on cancer survivorship and disparities as a postdoctoral fellow on an NCI-sponsored training award at Wake Forest School of Medicine.Dr. Palmer joined the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2013 as an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Urology and Radiation Oncology. She is an associate member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate faculty in the Center for Vulnerable Populations. In 2016, Dr. Palmer was awarded the Helen Diller Family Chair in Community Education and Outreach for Urologic Cancer (an endowed chair), and received a National Cancer Institute K01 career development award in 2017. She is also a Putnam Scholar in the Academy of Community in Healthcare.
Current Work
Dr. Palmer’s work focuses on ensuring high-quality prostate cancer care is provided to African American men in order to save lives and improve quality of life. In one of her projects, she observes African American men’s prostate cancer experience from diagnosis through treatment decision to examine patient-provider communication and treatment decision-making. She plans to develop a peer navigation program, where African American prostate cancer survivors help newly diagnosed African American men through their experience to foster trust and empowerment, and improve patient-provider communication and quality of care. She was recently accepted to the Relationship-Centered Communication Facilitators Program through the Academy of Communication in Healthcare, where she will use skills to train others in communicating with patients.Dr. Palmer helped develop and oversees a support group for African American men facing prostate cancer, which provides a safe and supportive place where men can come together for dialogue and education. She co-leads the Prostate Cancer Task Force of the San Francisco Cancer Initiative – a citywide initiative to combat prostate cancer disparities in African American men through community and institutional partnerships to provide education, early detection, high-quality follow-up care, navigation and support services, to ensure all men receive appropriate care.As she is committed to diversity training, Dr. Palmer mentors masters-level students and health professionals interested in a career in cancer disparities research, who are recipients of the Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research summer internship.
Research Area Keyword(s)
Cancer disparities, heath services, patient-provider communication, prostate cancer, quality of care