Anna V. Wilkinson, PhD

Please welcome Dr. Anna Wilkinson to the UTSPH Austin Regional Campus. She received her PhD degree from The University of Texas at Austin in community psychology. Most recently she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at MD Anderson Cancer Center where she worked under a talented UTSPH alum, Dr. Margaret Spitz.

Dr. Wilkinson’s research focuses on psychosocial and contextual factors that impact health-related behaviors among adolescents. She recently obtained an NCI-funded career award to study the interactions between, and relative influence of, non-genetic and genetic determinants of smoking initiation and physical activity. As part of this project, she is currently completing data collection among Mexican origin adolescents of varying levels of acculturation to understand how sensation seeking tendencies, and their genetic underpinnings, influence experimentation with cigarettes and being physically active.