Brian Rivers

Dr. Rivers is the Director of the Cancer Health Equity Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). Dr. Rivers is nationally and internationally recognized as a leader in cancer disparities research and currently serves as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NACMHD). Dr. Rivers is an active member in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) community and regularly serves on the faculty for the Scientist to Survivor program. More recently, Dr. Rivers was elected to serve as Chairperson for the Minorities in Cancer Research Council of the AACR and Conference Co-Chair for the 11th AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved. Dr. Rivers is a behavioral scientist with a broad background in implementation science and public health, with specific training and expertise in methodologies commonly used to addressing health disparities, such as the lay health model and Community-based Participatory Research framework. Dr. Rivers’ specific program of research is focused on addressing prostate cancer disparities among African Americans and exploring the role of novel communication interventions, such as mobile health technology. Dr. Rivers has worked to identify the sociocultural, behavioral, and environmental determinants of cancer health disparities and translated this information into interventions to improve cancer equity among racially diverse populations and medically underserved groups. Dr. Rivers has developed several psychoeducational interventions for digital platforms such as mobile health applications (apps), to assist with the delivery of salient and tailored cancer information to high risk groups for prostate cancer, such as African Americans. Currently, Dr. Rivers is leading several large randomized controlled trials, funded by PCORI and NIH NIMHD R01, to evaluate and characterize app u