Dr. Rebecca Jones: Sharing Community Engagement Strategies for Cancer Control

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Dr. Rebecca Jones, assistant director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, shared important community engagement strategies at the 2026 AACI Catchment Area Data Excellence (CADEx) Conference on March 9, 2026, in Atlanta.

The event brought together National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center data experts, geospatial statisticians, and representatives from government and industry to address emerging topics in cancer prevention and control analytics.

Jones was part of a panel that explored how to use catchment-area data to improve access and outcomes.

“Panelists discussed how data inform their choices, focusing on the importance of community engagement for understanding where barriers exist and how access can be improved. Listening sessions were one strategy they cited as an effective way to learn directly from community partners,” according to AACI.

Dr. Rebecca Jones and Presentation at AACI CADEx Conference

At the CADEx conference, Jones shared that “listening sessions” are an effective strategy for discovering community perceptions and needs.

The Mays Cancer Center’s Cancer Outreach and Engagement team conducts listening sessions as guided conversations with community members to learn about how people perceive the local cancer burden, the best methods for sharing information about cancer, and patients’ cancer care experiences.

“For example, Dr. Jones and her colleagues learned that residents who live in urban areas and further inland from the U.S.-Mexico border have different cancer-related access needs,” according to AACI. “Individuals who live in urban areas further away from the border perceive access as the ability to get a timely appointment and clinic operating hours, while individuals who live in rural areas along the border view barriers to access from a perspective that incorporates distance, costs, and immigration status. In some instances, this perspective has influenced individuals who choose to receive cancer-related care in Mexico.”

“Though individual cancer centers have little to no control over issues of financial toxicity, cancer centers have an important role to play in advocating for local, state, and federal policies that make cancer screening and treatment more affordable. This is especially important for accruing patients to clinical trials. For instance, clinical trial participants may receive access to treatments that are not covered by health insurance, and costs associated with travel and missed work are key considerations for many patients.”

Read the full commentary (PDF).

Dr. Rebecca Jones and Her Cancer Research

Jones has over 10 years of experience in program evaluation, research design, and statistical analyses. Her areas of focus include health systems research and non-medical drivers of health.

At the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, she helps with these projects:

• Leading the Creando Conexiones project to develop a research agenda that outlines patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (PC-CER) priorities.
• Co-leading a research scholar project on improving colorectal cancer screening adherence as part of the ACS Avanzando Center, which aims to address non-medical drivers of health and improve cancer care across the cancer care continuum for South Texans and beyond.
• Helping with the San Antonio Firefighters Cancer Prevention Program, a collaboration of the San Antonio Fire Department, UT Health San Antonio, and Sylvester’s Firefighter Cancer Initiative at the University of Miami to better understand and reduce the burden of cancer among local first responders.
• Coordinating the Community Outreach and Engagement team at the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio, an NCI-designated Cancer Center.
• Hosting the Salud America! Salud Talks podcast episode on colon cancer and participating in our webinar on community cancer needs.

Dr. Rebecca Jones and Her Background in Public Health

Jones has a doctorate in Applied Demography from the School of Public Policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

She also holds a MS in Health and Kinesiology with an emphasis in community health and biostatistics from UTSA. She also has a BS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in physiology from UTSA.

Jones grew up in South Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley.