Kymberle Sterling, DrPH, MPH, has spent her career combating the tobacco industry’s efforts to attract new smokers.

Sterling is something of an anti-marketer, looking for ways to fight tobacco’s marketing efforts to make their products attractive to teens as well as its targeted efforts to sell certain products within minority communities, including African American, Hispanic, and LGTBQ+.

She is a tenured associate professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) School of Public Health-Dallas, a public health behavioral scientist, and a tobacco-related health disparities researcher. Sterling is also the first African American woman to be awarded tenure at the school.

“我骄傲我的研究团队正在进行的工作beplay苹果手机能用吗ing,” Sterling said. “We’ve learned how the industry is promoting its products to these communities and how youth and young adults in those communities perceive these products. We use our research findings to develop communication tools to help young people resist tobacco advertising when they are exposed to it.”

Sterling said she loves research because it allows her to be both analytical and creative.

“对我来说，这是解决问题，创造力和帮助某人的能力之间的完美婚姻。斯特林说：“它探讨了我在地球上的目标 - 帮助人们。”

“应用公共卫生研究工作，以制定干预措施和计划来beplay苹果手机能用吗帮助人们。我有很多可以使用的工具，其中的创造性部分是决定哪种工具最好用来解决公共卫生问题。我的工具箱中有基于社区的参与性研究策略，以帮助我与目标人群进行合作。beplay苹果手机能用吗除了我的目标人群的意见外，我还拥有行为科学理论和框架，以帮助我更好地了解人类行为的动机。我有开发健康促进干预或计划的过程，并评估该计划的效果。对我来说，这就像一名艺术家在他们面前有油漆和画布，等待创作下一件作品。我能够使用所有这些工具来弄清楚哪种程序来最能回答我的研究问题，并且能够创建一些希望使人们受益的东西。”beplay苹果手机能用吗

斯特林说，她在新奥尔良的杜兰大学开始了自己的旅程，在那里她获得了细胞和分子生物学科学学士学位。最初，她的目标是成为一名儿科医生，但她在该机构的经历使她转向公共卫生。她的室友参加了有关公共卫生的信息会议，并兴奋地分享了这一消息。

斯特林说：“这就是我们在医疗生涯中寻找的一切。”“我在杜兰大学公共卫生和热带医学学院开始学习，我绝对喜欢它。”

While earning her Master of Public Health at Tulane, Sterling met a foundational mentor who steered her into research, Bettina M. Beech, DrPH, MPH, who had earned her doctorate at UTHealth School of Public Health.

“她是一位了不起的研究员和人。beplay苹果手机能用吗在她的课程中，我对研究错误感到沮丧。beplay苹果手机能用吗我能够意识到自己对写作，解决问题，公共卫生以及帮助人们的热爱以及他们如何相交。”斯特林说。

Beech’s mentorship also guided Sterling to the Houston campus of the School of Public Health, where she earned her DrPH in Community Health Sciences.

“Dr. Beech was the only African American instructor I had at Tulane. Seeing someone who looked like me as a professor was so inspirational. She told me about her journey as a doctoral student in Houston, and I wanted to try it out,” Sterling said.

斯特林（Sterling）通过研究项目与Alfred McAlister博士，名誉教授在公共卫生学院的研究项目中帮助战斗烟草的热情。beplay苹果手机能用吗该项目包括开发德克萨斯州烟草预防计划的部分，这是一项通过与烟草业的和解，于2000年代初在2000年代初期资助的全州倡议。它为儿童创建了预防烟草计划，包括学校课程和公共服务运动。

斯特林说：“通过该项目，我了解了烟草业的掠夺性实践以及他们招募新用户，青年和年轻人，该行业称其为'替代吸烟者'。”“该行业在针对脆弱人群的范围内有悠久的历史：青年，非洲裔美国人，西班牙裔和LGBTQ+。”

斯特林继续从事烟草研究，最终于2018年返回休斯敦，在卫生促beplay苹果手机能用吗进和行为科学系任教。她最近完成了130万美元的NIH赠款，以评估雪茄和雪茄使用的预测指标。她计划通过另一项NIH赠款在2027年继续这项工作，以评估该行业对雪茄和雪茄使用的滥用责任。

Both products are popular within the African American community.

“The industry developed specific marketing campaigns aimed at minoritized communities,” she said. “It’s interesting to study. The tobacco industry documents show how the industry would study groups of people, learn about their culture, norms, and beliefs, and systematically normalize the use of tobacco products as a part of the groups’ practices.”

Knowing that makes the work Sterling does more rewarding.

她说：“我们知道，如果在30岁时预防吸烟开始，那么我们已经阻止了大多数与烟草有关的癌症死亡。”“我们可能无法接触到所有年轻人，但是如果我们防止某些年轻人吸烟，那么我们将朝着正确的方向前进。如果我们能为当前的吸烟者提供他们开始退出过程所需的工具，那么我们正在努力避免或减少吸烟带来的许多不良健康影响。”

Sterling said she feels it’s her duty to not only practice good science, but to help train and motivate the next generation of professionals.

“I’ve been so blessed to have strong female role models in my life who have molded me,” she said. “The most meaningful experiences inside and outside of the classroom have been those where someone has taken the time to share their story with me or taken the time to give me the advice to help me better myself. Those interactions have more often than not happened with women, and more often than not, they happened with women of color. If I can pour into someone the way my role models have poured into me, then I’m moving in the right direction.”

Sterling said she is especially honored to mentor people of color working to enter public health.

她说：“作为一个公共卫生的黑人妇女，我很少有导师知道在学术领域成为黑人的感觉。”“有色女性进行公共卫生研究。beplay苹果手机能用吗回馈我所有的学生，尤其是我这样背景的学生，这是一种荣幸和荣幸。这就是指导如此重要的原因之一。”

Sterling was a part of the team from the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy (IDEA) Committee at the School of Public Health, who applied for a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to enhance diversity efforts at the school.

斯特林说，她的职业生涯一直在获得巨大的回报。

“I always wanted to work with and help young people,” she said. “Early on, I wanted to be a pediatrician, but I never imagined the impact I could make conducting public health research. I’m so proud of my team’s research and its impact on people’s lives.”