Elizabeth Fontham is the Founding Dean and Professor of Epidemiology Emeritus at Louisiana State University (LSUHSC) School of Public Health and Professor of Pathology in the LSU School of Medicine having joined the faculty of LSUHSC in 1980. Dr. Fontham’s major area of research is cancer epidemiology, with a particular interest in tobacco and nutrition-related cancers and gastric carcinogenesis. She has conducted studies of lung cancer and environmental tobacco smoke, including the largest early study of lung cancer in nonsmoking women that provided some of the critical information leading to the classification of secondhand smoke as a human carcinogen. Dr. Fontham has published extensively on stomach cancer and its risk factors, with studies of the high risk populations in the Andes Mountains of Colombia. Current studies include innovative approaches to cervical cancer screening in hard to reach women; long-term human health effects of exposures related to Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill; and racial disparities disparities in prostate cancer morbidity and mortality. She serves as a member of the NCI Board of Scientific Counselors. She was Treasurer and on the Board of Directors of the American College of Epidemiology. She is past national President of the American Cancer Society and a long-time member of its Board of Directors. She was a member of the inaugural Editorial Board of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention as Assistant Editor; Chairman of the Scientific Editorial Board of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries; and a contributing author for both the Surgeon General’s Report and International Agency for Cancer Research Carcinogenesis Monograph series. She is recipient of the Alton Ochsner Award Relating Tobacco and Health, the C.L. Brown Award for Leadership Excellence in Tobacco Prevention; the Leadership and Distinguished Service Award of the American College of Epidemiology; and the Pfizer Award for Excellence in Research, Education and Patient Care.