Sarah M Szurek, Ph.D.

Dr. Sarah M. Szurek is a medical anthropologist who holds a faculty position as an assistant research scientist in the College of Medicine’s Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics. She also serves as program director for the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at the UF Health Cancer Center.

Dr. Szurek’s work focuses on understanding the social and cultural factors that influence health outcomes among marginalized populations to then develop targeted, evidence-based programs to positively affect health in community settings. She has worked with Mexican immigrants in Alabama to examine how personal social networks affect diabetes risk, and with African Americans in Florida on community-based participatory research projects related to racism, cardiovascular disease, and the local food environment. Dr. Szurek previously directed the Florida Healthy Kids Program evaluation, which examined the quality of care that children receive in the state.

She currently is responsible for developing and managing community-based programs that identify cancer-relevant needs, target cancer prevention, and improve health outcomes in twenty-three counties in Florida. Dr. Szurek is a voting member of the Scientific Review and Monitoring Committee within the UF Health Cancer Center’s Clinical Research Office. She also serves on the Steering Committees for the North Central Florida Cancer Control Collaborative and the ABOUT Network – Project COGENT (Customizing Consumer GENerated Tools to Engage Researchers).

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