Helen Swede

Associate Professor, Public Health Sciences Program Director, Ph.D. in Public Health

Department of Public Health Sciences

Research Area(s) of Interest: ​

Cancer Chemoprevention and Cancer Disparities​

Dr. Swede, an Associate Professor and a molecular and classical epidemiologist with close to 25 years of research experience in leadership and collaborative roles. Dr. Swede teaches in the public health curriculum, has been a mentor to several dozen MPH students over the years, and coordinates our PhD program. In the School of Medicine, Dr. Swede serves as a Co-Director of the Capstone Projects of the Scholarship & Discovery Program overseeing long-term projects for roughly 300-400 medical students across all four years of the curriculum. Her main research focus is racial/ethnic disparities in cancer outcomes, particularly  regarding clinical and genetic factors in breast and colorectal cancers. A growing area of Dr. Swede’s research program in disparities is the role that sickle cell trait plays in the heightened occurrence of adverse events among African-American breast cancer patients. Other research interests include the surge of obesity-related metabolic risk factors for cancer and other chronic diseases among youth, and survivorship concerns for breast cancer survivors returning to work.  Dr. Swede is the recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Award (2016) from the UConn Foundation and the Joan Segal Award for Outstanding Faculty in Public Health (2014). Dr. Swede was selected by the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General to author a chapter on oral cancer for the Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health (2022) and is the Guest Editor for a special issue on cancer in the journal Nutrients. ​

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