VCU news

By VCU News staff

Mignonne C. Guy, Ph.D., an associate professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies in the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Humanities and Sciences, has been appointed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, which reviews and evaluates safety, dependence and health issues relating to tobacco products and provides appropriate advice, information and recommendations to the commissioner of food and drugs.

Guy’s research centers on social, behavioral, biological and environmental determinants that contribute to health inequities among minority populations and other marginalized groups. Her research also includes examining the ways in which structural racism is reproduced in academia and, in particular, in biomedical and health inequities research.

She has published over 40 manuscripts in tobacco prevention and control research and tobacco regulatory sciences. She is a co-investigator and site lead investigator on the VCU Center for the Study of Tobacco Products, where she develops innovative methods to monitor emerging tobacco products on the market and use the data to inform tobacco regulation. As director of social justice in research in the Center for Research, Health and Social Justice, Guy leads the development and training of scientists and community members in anti-racist methods to conduct cancer prevention research in Black communities. She also is a member of the Massey Cancer Center Cancer Prevention and Control Group at VCU.

Guy holds several national advisory positions including as co-chair for the Racial and Equity Task Force in the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, a Mid-Atlantic Regional Lead for the Intercultural Cancer Council and an advisory board member for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative, Building Capacity to Reduce Tobacco Inequities in the South and Midwest.

As director of social justice in research in the Center for Research, Health and Social Justice, which is funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Guy leads the development and training of scientists and community members in anti-racist methods to conduct cancer prevention research in Black communities.

The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee prepares reports and recommendations on topics such as:

• The impact of menthol in cigarettes on public health, including such use among children, African Americans, Hispanics and other racial and ethnic minorities.
• The nature and impact of the use of dissolvable tobacco products on the public health, including on children.
• The effects of the alteration of nicotine yields from tobacco products and whether there is a threshold level below which nicotine yields do not produce dependence on the tobacco product involved.
• Any application submitted by a manufacturer for a modified risk tobacco product.

The committee’s 12 members and chair are selected by the FDA commissioner or designee and are individuals knowledgeable in the fields of medicine, medical ethics, science or technology involving the manufacture, evaluation or use of tobacco products.