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  5. Rachel Hirschey

Rachel Hirschey, PhD, RN, FAAN

Associate Professor

415.254.5162
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Nursing

Dr. Rachel Hirschey is an oncology nurse scientist whose work focuses on designing, implementing, and scaling behavioral interventions to advance cancer prevention and survivorship. Her research sits at the intersection of behavioral science, community partnership, and implementation science, with a strong emphasis on translating evidence into real-world cancer control practice.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Behavioral science and health behavior change
  • Intervention design and adaptation
  • Community-based and participatory research
  • Mixed methods research
  • Implementation science
  • Cancer prevention and survivorship

Dr. Hirschey leads a robust, federally funded research portfolio supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To date, she has secured more than $13 million in research funding as a Principal Investigator or Multiple Principal Investigator. She currently serves as an MPI on several national initiatives that shape how evidence-based cancer prevention and control strategies are implemented across the United States.

She is a national leader as Multiple Principal Investigator of:

  • Scaling What Works (SWW-IMPACTS) — a CDC-funded initiative that builds implementation capacity across the National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (NCCCP) to accelerate adoption and sustainment of evidence-based interventions.
  • Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) — a CDC-funded network advancing implementation science to improve the reach and impact of cancer prevention and control strategies nationwide.
  • Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science (CCIS) — an NCI-funded initiative that supports national action groups and disseminates implementation science tools and resources for researchers and practitioners.

Across these roles, Dr. Hirschey’s work focuses not only on what interventions work, but how they can be implemented, adapted, and sustained in community and public health settings.

A defining feature of Dr. Hirschey’s work is long-term partnership with communities. She founded the SHARE (Striving to Hold Accountability in Research Equity) Community Advisory Board, which embeds cancer survivors as co-designers and decision-makers across her research portfolio. Through SHARE, she has led multiple community-engaged interventions, including:

  • PACE (Physical Activity Centers Empowerment) — a NIH-funded community-participatory physical activity intervention for Black colorectal cancer survivors.
  • GRACCE (Getting Real About Colorectal Cancer Education) — a Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-Funded, community-led program to increase colorectal cancer awareness and early detection among young adults.

Dr. Hirschey mentors doctoral, master’s, postdoctoral, and undergraduate trainees interested in behavioral science, implementation research, and community-engaged methods. She regularly collaborates with interdisciplinary investigators, public health practitioners, clinicians, and community organizations at local and national levels.

She welcomes collaboration with individuals and teams seeking to: develop or adapt behavioral interventions, integrate community partnership into research design, or strengthen implementation and dissemination of evidence-based cancer prevention and survivorship programs.

Current Research

Community Engagement

Scaling What Works – Improving and Accelerating Cancer Prevention, Treatment, and Survivorship

Rachel Hirschey, PhD, RN, FAAN
Illustration of human figures connected by dotted lines in a network, with one figure highlighted at the center, representing teamwork or networking. A bright light shines from the upper left corner.
Community Engagement

Comprehensive Cancer Control Collaborative of North Carolina (4CNC)

Rachel Hirschey, PhD, RN, FAAN
Community Engagement

Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science

Rachel Hirschey, PhD, RN, FAAN