Okamoto, Janet M. Ph.D.

Location

Scottsdale, Arizona

Contact

Okamoto.Janet@mayo.edu

Summary

Janet Okamoto, Ph.D., joined Mayo Clinic in Arizona in October 2012 and works with Scott J. Leischow, Ph.D., as a research associate focused on network analysis and health behavior and organizational influences. Prior to joining Mayo Clinic, Dr. Okamoto spent two years as a Cancer Research Training Award post-doctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the Behavioral Research Program in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. While at NCI, she used network analysis to better understand and measure how research teams work together and to explore the impact of team science. Dr. Okamoto also has extensive experience developing and tailoring prevention interventions, particularly in school settings. This includes work in China developing a large, school-based smoking prevention program and tailoring a traditional drug prevention program in California to address social network influences. Her primary research interests include the social and cultural determinants of health behaviors; principally, the use of social network methods and measures to better understand interpersonal and organizational relationships and their influence on health attitudes; norms and beliefs; decisions and behaviors. Dr. Okamoto also has an interest in understanding how to utilize network influences for use in interventions to promote health behaviors.

Key Words: network analysis; social networks; social determinants; prevention; tobacco use; substance use; intervention; systems science.