Primary Appointment

Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment

David W. Wetter, Ph.D. is the Cullen Trust for Health Care Chair in the Department of Health Disparities Research at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Wetter’s work is targeted at eliminating disparities in health-related behavior through translational research. Specific research foci include: theoretical models of addictive and cancer risk behaviors; the development and evaluation of theoretically-based interventions; and, translational research to implement and disseminate those interventions in real world settings. Dr. Wetter’s research spans the continuum from cells to society, and focuses on high-risk and underserved populations, with a major focus on low socioeconomic status individuals, minorities, and women.

Dr. Wetter is a passionate advocate for students and education. In the last 5 years alone, Dr. Wetter has mentored 10 postdoctoral fellows, 8 of whom are now faculty members. During that same time period, his fellows won 3 institution-wide awards and 2 divisional awards for outstanding research accomplishments, and 6 current mentees have NIH or ACS funded career development awards. Dr. Wetter was the inaugural winner of the Leading Mentor in Cancer Prevention at M.D. Anderson and winner of the Robert M. Chamberlain Outstanding Mentor Award.

Dr. Wetter has a wide variety of leadership responsibilities at M.D. Anderson including serving as Chair of the Department of Health Disparities Research, Director of the Center for Community-Engaged Translational Research, Director of the Minority and Women Clinical Trials Recruitment Program, Director of the Tobacco Disparities Training Program, Associate Director for Health Disparities Research for the Cancer Center Support Grant, and as a member of high-level committees such as the Institutional Research Executive Committee, and the Executive Committee for the Duncan Family Institute.

Dr. Wetter’s relevant professional service has included serving as chair of the Community Level Health Promotion study section at the National Institutes of Health, contributing to the 2000 Report of the Surgeon General on Reducing Tobacco Use, member of the editorial board for Health Psychology, scientific consultant for two U.S. Public Health Service tobacco treatment guidelines, program chair for two annual meetings of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, chair of the Cancer Forum of the American Public Health Association, and invited participant in numerous NIH workgroups.

Dr. Wetter has an extensive NIH-funded grant portfolio and over 130 peer-reviewed publications. His research program has received awards from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, American Society for Preventive Oncology, the Health Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and M. D. Anderson. Dr. Wetter earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a M.S. in Epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has a joint appointment in the Department of Behavioral Science at M. D. Anderson and an adjunct appointment at The University of Texas School of Public Health.

•          Theoretical models of addictive and cancer risk behaviors;

•          The epidemiology and public health impact of those behaviors; and,

•          The development, evaluation, and dissemination of theoretically-based interventions

Last updated: 5/22/2013