Margaret Hay Edwards Award


C. Michael Brooks, Ed. D

The American Association for Cancer Education established the Margaret Hay Edwards Award in 1986 to honor sustained outstanding contributions to cancer education. Dr. Margaret Hay Edwards, for whom the award was named, was the member of the National Cancer Institute who was instrumental in establishing peer-reviewed cancer education support mechanisms. The AACE Advisory Committee grants this award annually to individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to cancer education. This year the recipient is Dr. Michael Brooks.

Dr. Michael Brooks received his BS and MA degrees from East Tennessee State University. He subsequently received his doctoral degree in Education (Admin & Supervision) from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY. Dr. Brooks’ academic interest and scholarly contributions have been focused largely on research in medical education, disease-related educational interventions, program evaluation and cancer research training programs. His scholarly contributions and accomplishments represent collaborative work with interdisciplinary scientists and entail, multidisciplinary perspectives and approaches necessary for designing and evaluating effective educational interventions. His work represents rigorous, theory based initiatives and innovative approaches to complex biomedical and research workforce issues relevant to cancer education, disease prevention and health promotion. His faculty and academic leadership responsibilities provided a natural transition for effective collaborations with scientists in key multidisciplinary research centers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham including the NCI designed Comprehensive Cancer Center, the NIH funded Nutrition and Obesity Research Center and the UAB Lung Health Center , of which he was instrumental in the creation of these programs.

The majority of his scholarly and professional activities have been in cancer, nutrition, prevention and self-management of pulmonary diseases, and research in medical education. Dr. Books has been a consultant with most of the major cancer centers and institutions around the country as well as with American Cancer Society. Throughout his career he has been the recipient of exceptional mentorship. He was mentored by Dr. Margaret Hays Edwards and he was consequently placed on a team designed to perform a needs assessment of medical schools across the country to determine what was needed to promote cancer education and encourage people into cancer care and research. As a result of his experiences with excellent mentors, Dr. Brooks has vowed to continue this legacy of outstanding mentorship. He has been actively involved in the AACE as a member and past president and he has mentored at least 14 other past presidents of the AACE. As an Emeritus Professor in two schools (Medicine & Health Professions), he now continues to focus on professional career development and mentoring support for new/young faculty. Specifically, he is actively engaged in collaborating with cancer educators and scientists interested in developing cancer research training programs designed to attract more students into cancer research careers. His approach continues to be to help those who ask for help, those who have an interest in Cancer Education to undergird their efforts in a collegial, mutually beneficial relationship.