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 Sabra Woolley served as program director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute. She was a medical anthropologist whose interests focused on the cultural component of health-seeking behaviors among diverse ethnic groups in the United States and the study of biomedical practitioners as a cultural subgroup. She managed a series of grants that included community- and clinic-based interventions for cancer prevention and control in diverse populations, health literacy, and health disparities. She guided numerous grantees in the behavioral research area at the National Cancer Institute and was active in a number of committees, primarily those which deal with health literacy and health disparities.
Sabra received her BA, MA, and PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Arizona. After teaching at the University of Hawaii for a number of years, she relocated to Washington, D.C., and began a career as a practicing anthropologist. This included a series of widely diverse jobs such as working with the Army and Navy to develop and evaluate family support programs and compile Research Road Maps for their civilian personnel, working with the National Institute of Mental Health and working with the sociobehavioral component of the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Project. As a senior researcher at the George Washington University Medical Center, she conducted a number of program evaluations, and studied the interrelationship between managed care organizations and the issues of cultural competency, their relationship with public health organizations, and the delivery of services for tuberculosis.
Sabra was a dear friend and trusted colleague. Sabra was a world traveler, a lover of cats, and an avid reader. She had a cheerful disposition and colorful spirit. She will be missed.
"Sabra’s service, expertise, and dedication, as well as her personal characteristics of optimism, enthusiasm, and warmth have made a lasting impression and created a foundation on which future researchers can continue to build."
- John Niederhuber, MD
Director, National Cancer Institute
"Sabra possessed the most colorful wardrobe of anyone I knew. She held life experiences that were rich and often exotic. Sabra possessed an inner strength that allowed her to welcome challenges and opportunities that life presented her. I’d like to think of Sabra is smiling at us and enjoying her greatest adventure of all."
- Linda Nebeling, PhD, MPH, RD
Chief, Health Promotion Research Branch
"The things I remember most about Sabra are her sparking smile, her wonderful use of color that brightened many a dull winter day, her love of lemurs and her unending unbelievable bravado in visiting earthly places most of use dare not go. I will miss our dinner chats before spending peaceful attendance at many a Strathmore presentation, and our discussions of human nature. I think of her often and I miss her."
- Connie Dresser, RDPH, LN
Program Director, Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch
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