Dr. Rini is a Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences. She is also Program Leader of Cancer Control and Survivorship and Director of the Cancer Survivorship Institute at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. Dr. Rini is social/health psychologist conducting research on factors influencing patients’ behavioral and psychosocial responses to health-related challenges. In her research, she is particularly interested in investigating interpersonal processes that reveal the various ways that partners, family members, and peers can influence patients’ health decisions, behaviors, and outcomes. She believes that it is critical to study effects of these interpersonal factors in conjunction with patients’ medical status, dispositional factors, and the broader social context (e.g., socioeconomic status and cultural factors). Her work has addressed challenges related to pregnancy, chronic pain (e.g., in osteoarthritis and cancer populations), clinical and public health applications of genomic sequencing and genetic testing, and cancer control and survivorship. She is also committed to translating research findings into behavioral and psychosocial interventions, including those that are delivered using technology (e.g., “mHealth” interventions) to optimize their cost-effectiveness, scalability, and accessibility. For example, as PI of a NIAMS R01, she led development of a program to deliver pain coping skills training as an automated, web-based intervention and evaluated its efficacy in a randomized controlled trials. She is now extending that work to address pain in people with cancer. She is current PI of an NCI R01 evaluating a behavioral intervention for cancer patients undergoing bone marrow/stem cell transplant and co-PI of a NHGRI study investigating use of genomic (exome) sequencing for diagnosis in a diverse population of children with suspected genetic conditions. Her work in the genomics field focuses on investigating patient understanding of and responses to public health and clinical genomic sequencing, as well as development of measurement approaches to advance research in that field. Her research is enriched by specific training in research methods and theories, measurement and psychometrics, statistical techniques, and the conduct of randomized controlled trials. Dr. Rini has been a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Clinical Trials Grant Review Committee (AMSC) and the American Cancer Society Peer Review Committee for Cancer Control and Prevention: Psychosocial and Behavioral Aspects of Cancer Research (CPPB). She is currently a member of the NIH Behavioral Medicine, Interventions and Outcomes (BMIO) Grant Review Committee and also serves on the NIH/NCI R21 Cancer Special Emphasis Panel (PAR-18-018: Stimulating Innovations in Intervention Research for Cancer Prevention and Control; ZRG1 RPHB-E (55)). Dr. Rini is a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. She is a member of the Editorial Board for the Annals of Behavioral Medicine and an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.