A national leader in health equity and inclusive teaching, Mitchell’s research focuses on cancer health disparities. Her work has identified racial differences in lung cancer, furthering prevention and precision medicine based on environmental, behavioral, and biological factors.

Most recently, Mitchell was an Assistant Professor of biology at Lafayette College, where she was named the Peter C.S. d’Aubermont, MD, Endowed Scholar of Health and Life Sciences and received the Faculty All Star Award. She has received numerous other honors and awards, including the NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence.

She earned her doctorate in human genetics and molecular biology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Lafayette and the National Cancer Institute.

Mitchell’s research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Communications and Nature Cancer, and she has presented her work at many conferences, including the American Association for Cancer Research.

She has been a nationally sought-after speaker on health equity, including serving as a subject matter expert on health disparities for the American Lung Association and the LUNGevity Foundation. She has also helped guide government policy, including advising the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Mitchell is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and the Pennsylvania Cancer Coalition.

My current research focuses on identifying epigenomic determinants of lung cancer health disparities for precision medicine (considering environmental, lifestyle, and biological factors) purposes. Environmental radon exposure (the second-leading cause of lung cancer) has been linked to DNA methylation changes (an epigenomic modification). Racial differences in lung cancer risk may be compounded by the environment (high radon exposure), lifestyle (menthol tobacco smoking behaviors in African-Americans), and biology (Africa-American and European-American enriched DNA methylation patterns). I aim to provide direct evidence of radon-associated DNA methylation that impacts lung cancer risk in AAs and EAs, allowing for earlier detection.