Community voices drive UVA study on cancer risk

May 1, 2026
Group of family medicine and public health researcher posing in group, outside.

Family medicine and public health researchers at UVA are collaborating with a regional task force to integrate community voices into healthcare. (Contributed photo)

A University of Virginia-based study is amplifying community voices to better understand why certain communities face higher cancer rates. 

For more than a year, researchers working in the lab of UVA Department of Family Medicine Chair Dr. Li Li have been running a study based in Danville alongside the Health Collaborative, a group of residents working to advance health equity in Caswell County, North Carolina, and Virginia’s Pittsylvania County and city of Danville.

Anasia Harrell sitting at table on their computer.

Anasia Harrell recruits volunteers weekly for the study in Danville and Martinsville. (Contributed photo)

Hania Taha, a postdoctoral research associate at UVA, is the lead coordinator of the community-based study investigating how lifestyle, and environmental and genetic factors can contribute to cancer risk in rural southern Virginia. She stressed the effort has been a collaboration from the beginning, with members of the UVA team and the task force meeting monthly with community members from the Danville and Martinsville areas to develop the study. 

“This is an important model for community-informed cancer prevention research,” she said. “We got feedback on all study aspects, including recruitment material, instructions for sample collection and where to set up clinics and recruitment.”

The group collects information about lifestyle factors and collects samples of blood, hair, stool, and other biospecimens to build a database to understand cancer development in the area. 

The study builds on ongoing work led by Li, who also directs 鶹ƽ population health program and co-directs of the Cancer Prevention and Population Health program. This study is an extension of Li's work building a biobank with samples from UVA Health patients to study different aspects of colon cancer. 

“We are collecting surveys about medical history, environmental samples of water and soil, and information about lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking, physical activity, alcohol, drinking and so on,” Taha said. “The idea is to understand how the interplay between all these factors drives cancer risk.”

Celebrating Our Shared History - VA250
Celebrating Our Shared History - VA250

Jolandria Graves leads the Health Collaborative’s chapter in Pittsylvania County. Along with Kitteria Mayo in Danville and Kyle Warren Love in Caswell County, they represent the community voices of the Dan River region. 

“We’re focused on improving the overall health and well-being of the Dan River region and connecting resources to help address this illness,” Graves said. “We’re doing that by showing up as community partners, adding valuable community input that supports the impact of this initiative.”

As a former nutrition teacher and culinary instructor, Graves is passionate about increasing access to “nutritious and affordable” food. 

“The biggest benefit has been sharing ideas with like-minded individuals with different areas of expertise,” she said. “We’re all working toward the same goal, together.”

The UVA team, which involves members of Li’s lab and UVA public health professors Wendy Cohn and Kara Wiseman, continues to travel monthly to meet with members of the Community Cohort Study Advisory Team in Danville. In December, the team celebrated the collaboration’s one-year anniversary. 

Media Contacts

Eric Swensen

UVA Health System

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