Postdoc Spotlight: Drs. Casanave-Phillips and Jones
During this year’s National Postdoc Appreciation Week (Sept 15-19) we’re recognizing Karly Casanave-Phillips, Ph.D., M.A., and Chloé Jones, Ph.D., M.S., postdoctoral fellows and mentees of Jessica G. LaRose, Ph.D.
Karly Casanave-Phillips, Ph.D., M.A. is a postdoctoral fellow in the Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) T32. She earned her Ph.D. in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology from West Virginia University in 2023, and previously earned a Master’s in Clinical Counseling. Her formal training and experience in community-engaged research coupled with her counseling education give her a unique approach to her work in the T32 program and the OPT for Health lab with Dr. Jessica LaRose.
Dr. Casanave-Phillips’ CPC training goals focus on examining the links between social drivers of health, quality of life, and behavior change in cancer survivorship. In the past year, she has worked primarily on the AYA WELL study, a multi-site randomized controlled trial testing an mHealth weight management intervention for adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors, co-led by MPIs Dr. Jessica LaRose and Dr. Carmina Valle of UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Casanave-Phillips has contributed to the project by adapting intervention content to address the psychosocial needs of AYA survivors and co-facilitating the Community Advisory Board with Dr. LaRose.
Dr. Casanave-Phillips is also working to develop an independent program of research in the area of AYA survivorship, exploring the potential for physical activity to serve as a non-pharmacological pain management strategy for this population. She has received IRB approval for a 12-month longitudinal study of 40 AYA survivors, monitoring the reciprocal relationship between pain, mood, and physical activity in daily life in order to inform future interventions. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Behavioral Medicine with a citation award in 2024, and she recently submitted a postdoctoral fellowship application to the American Cancer Society to continue her outstanding research!
Chloé Jones, Ph.D., M.S. is in her second year as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, working with Dr. Jessica LaRose in the OPT for Health lab. Dr. Jones earned her Ph.D. in kinesiology from Auburn University in 2023, and also holds an M.S. in exercise physiology. She earned a TL1 fellowship for her dissertation work developing a resistance exercise intervention for young Black women, and she continues to focus her research efforts on promoting cardiometabolic health in this population.
Dr. Jones’ training goals focus on gaining additional experience in mHealth and community-engaged research, as well as generating novel approaches to data dissemination. Dr. Jones has worked primarily on the WE trial during her time at VCU, but will be transitioning this year to the VA-ACCERT Center’s flagship project (MPIs Arcan, LaRose, Plent): a multilevel intervention designed to target social drivers of health to improve nutrition quality and physical activity among residents of income-based housing. Dr. Jones will contribute to the adaptation of physical activity content for the individual-level mHealth intervention in addition to collaborating with residents and other stakeholders to develop sustainable built environment installations to support physical activity at the community level.
Dr. Jones’ current independent research follows up her dissertation pilot study: she is conducting a qualitative study among young Black women with varying levels of experience with resistance exercise to identify factors that contributed to differential success with supervised v. unsupervised resistance exercise. Her goal is to use this qualitative data to design an mHealth intervention to assist participants during that transition and improve success. This March, she was awarded a Community-Engaged Data Dissemination Grant from VCU’s Division of Community Engagement to utilize non-traditional methods of data dissemination to share the outcomes of the WE trial. In addition, she recently submitted a postdoctoral fellowship application to the American Heart Association to continue her outstanding research!
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