Profile
Dr. Zhao is a behavioural scientist specializing in family-wide risk communication, particularly in the context of hereditary cancers.
Her research focuses on developing and evaluating intervention strategies that promote the sharing of genetic risk information among blood relatives of high-risk families. Her work also involves expanding genetic counselling services at the population level and has explored how genetic information is disseminated within social networks among those with negative genetic test results. In addition, her methodological work includes relational theory advancement to understand relationship-motivated behavioural changes. She leverages a range of qualitative and quantitative methods to identify and test observable behavioural indicators of the underlying relational latent constructs.
Dr.Zhao joins the Centre for Cancer Screening, Prevention and Early Diagnosis as a post-doctoral research associate in January 2025. She collaborates across clinical trials including the PROTECT-C (Population based germline testing for early detection and prevention of cancer).
Dr. Zhao holds a Master of Public Health from Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD in Behavioural, Social, and Health Education Sciences from Emory University.
Research
Research Interests:
Population hereditary cancer screening
Social network influences on family genetic risk communication
Community engagement
Measurement scale development
Design of intervention trials
Publications
Guan, Y., McBride, C. M., Zhao, J., Pentz, R. D., Escoffery, C., Liu, Y., Cao, Y., An, W., Shepperd, J. A., & Ward, K. C. (2024). Testing a Population-Based Outreach Intervention for Ovarian Cancer Survivors to Encourage their Close Relatives to Consider Genetic Counseling. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention, 33(9), 1185–1193. https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-24-0147
Zhao, J., McBride, C. M., Campbell, G. P., Pentz, R. D., Escoffery, C., Konomos, M., Bellcross, C., Ward, K., Shepperd, J. R., & Guan, Y. (2023). Your Family Connects: A Theory-Based Intervention to Encourage Communication about Possible Inherited Cancer Risk among Ovarian Cancer Survivors and Close Relatives. Public health genomics, 26(1), 77–89. https://doi.org/10.1159/000531772
Zhao, J., Guan, Y., & McBride, C. M. (2022). A systematic review of theory-informed strategies used in interventions fostering family genetic risk communication. Patient education and counseling, 105(7), 1953–1962. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2022.03.009
Kaphingst, K. A., Peterson, E., Zhao, J., Gaysynsky, A., Elrick, A., Hong, S. J., Krakow, M., Pokharel, M., Ratcliff, C. L., Klein, W. M. P., Khoury, M. J., & Chou, W. S. (2019). Cancer communication research in the era of genomics and precision medicine: a scoping review. Genetics in medicine, 21(8), 1691–1698. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41436-018-0402-0