Professor, Social Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco and a Founding Member of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC)
For over twenty years, Dr. Yerger has dedicated her research and advocacy to framing the disproportionate burden of tobacco use among marginalized communities as a pressing social injustice. Her work has profoundly shaped public health policies aimed at effectively reaching and engaging these communities. By analyzing previously hidden tobacco industry documents, Dr. Yerger has exposed the industry's connections with African American leadership groups, the accumulation of nicotine in melanin-rich tissues, the targeted marketing of menthol cigarettes in inner-city neighborhoods, and the industry’s internal research on the use of menthol as an additive in cigarettes. Dr. Yerger has made groundbreaking contributions to understanding the factors driving tobacco use among disadvantaged populations. Her innovative approach addresses the demand side of the tobacco epidemic, highlighting how social and political determinants of health create barriers to tobacco prevention and smoking cessation. She is deeply committed to leveraging community-based research to engage advocates in the public health policy process. As a founding member of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC), she helped spearhead a national movement to remove menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products from the U.S. marketplace.
For decades, Dr. Yerger has been drawing attention to the need for culturally tailored cessation approaches, especially for Black Americans and other groups heavily impacted by menthol cigarettes and evolving policy changes. Dr. Yerger has provided expert guidance to the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, aiding in the development of targeted messages for the TIPs Campaign aimed at those who smoke menthol cigarettes. In June 2023, she was invited to the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative forum on smoking cessation. After making comments about how stress needed to be addressed as a major driver of smoking in any effort to reduce tobacco-related disparities, Dr. Yerger’s input was requested by the Initiative’s staff. Dr. Yerger formed a collaborative team with members from the AATCLC, the University of California San Francisco’s Smoking Cessation Leadership Center and Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, and other colleagues. This collaborative effort resulted in the creation of an electronic magazine to promote a free, scalable mobile app designed to provide rapid-acting stress management tools. The launch of this “e-zine” in February 2024 resulted in a remarkable 700% increase in app downloads within the first four months. Her extensive expertise in tobacco control, community engagement, policy leadership, and training has been widely recognized, as evidenced by the numerous awards she has received, including the UCSF Chancellor Award for Public Service, the State of California Tobacco Control Program’s Carol M. Russell Award for Leadership and Vision in Tobacco Control, the Public Health Law Center’s Game Changer Award, the Truth Initiative’s Sybil G. Jacobs Outstanding Use of Tobacco Industry Documents, and most recently, the UCSF Claire D. Brindis Award for Community Engagement.
