Project Investigator Biography

David W. Wetter, Ph.D. Cullen Trust for Health Care Chair UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Dept. of Health Disparities Research - Unit 1440 PO Box 301402 Houston, TX 77230-1402 phone: (713) 745-2682 fax: (713) 792-7196 email: dwetter@mdanderson.org

David W. Wetter, Ph.D., joined M. D. Anderson in 1995 and was appointed as the first Cullen Trust for Health Care Chair in the Department of Health Disparities Research in 2005. His research is targeted at eliminating disparities in health-related behavior through T2 and T3 translational research. Specific research interests include: theoretical models of cancer and health risk behavior; the epidemiology and public health impact of those behaviors; and the development, evaluation, and dissemination of theoretically-based interventions.

Dr. Wetter's theoretical work includes the development and evaluation of a sociocultural and biobehavioral model of health risk behavior investigating neighborhood- and individual-level social context, affective vulnerability, associations encoded in memory, and acute determinants of behavior using implicit and explicit measurements derived from cognitive psychology, as well as ecological momentary assessments. His intervention work focuses on high-risk and underserved populations, including the development and evaluation of palmtop computer-delivered treatments, telephone-based counseling, motivational approaches, and mindfulness-based treatments. Dr. Wetter has been conducting research on tobacco and tobacco-related disparities for almost 20 years and has an extensive NIH-funded grant portfolio and more than 100 publications. His research program has received awards from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the Health Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and M. D. Anderson.

Dr. Wetter's has served as chair of the Community Level Health Promotion study section at NIH, contributed to the 2000 Report of the Surgeon General on Reducing Tobacco Use, chaired the Cancer Forum of the American Public Health Association, been a member of the editorial board for Health Psychology, served as scientific consultant for the Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence Clinical Practice Guideline and the Smoking Cessation Clinical Practice Guideline; and was program chair for two annual meetings of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. He has been an invited participant in numerous NIH workgroups and committees. A passionate advocate for students and education, Dr. Wetter has trained 17 postdoctoral fellows since 1995 and was the inaugural winner of the Leading Mentor in Cancer Prevention award and winner of the Robert M. Chamberlain Distinguished Mentor Award at M. D. Anderson.

Dr. Wetter earned his doctorate in clinical psychology and a master'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.