Abigail Newell, PhD

Abby Newell is a Senior Director, Research at Cancer Support Community leading a collaborative team of social scientists. Ensuring all people impacted by cancer have access to quality care – including practical, social, and emotional support - is her top priority. She conducts psychosocial research projects to gather critical insights on the patient and caregiver experience to bridge the gap between clinical innovation and patients’ reality. As a sociologist, she is an expert in applying multiple theoretical frameworks and methods to uncover health disparities and highlight trends in quality of life, symptom burden and side effects, treatment decision-making, and adherence for people impacted by cancer. Her research aims to meet the needs of those impacted by cancer and break down barriers to care by informing plain language education, designing supportive programs for cancer survivors, and lending critical evidence for policy and advocacy initiatives at the state and federal levels.

Prior to joining CSC, Abby was an award-winning instructor and researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There she conducted research on reproductive politics, gender, sexuality, and race, and mentored social scientists in mixed methods research.

In her free time, Abby enjoys exploring DC with her dog, trying new restaurants, and playing the violin.