Dr. David Abrams to Lead New Foundation Research Institute Dr. David B. Abrams has been named the Executive Director of the Steven A. Schroeder National Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at the American Legacy Foundation®. The new Schroeder Institute will be located in Washington, D.C., and collaborate with the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in its efforts to advance the science behind social marketing, smoking cessation and tobacco control policy and translate those findings into practice. Dr. Abrams is a professor and researcher who most recently served as the Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) in the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Before joining OBSSR, Dr. Abrams was Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Professor of Community Health at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island. A graduate of Rutgers University, New Jersey, Dr. Abrams joined Brown University in 1978, and he was the founding Director of the Brown Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine for 16 years. Dr. Abrams is a licensed clinical psychologist, specializing in health psychology/behavioral and preventive medicine. "I am honored to be selected to direct Legacy's new Schroeder Institute. While research on tobacco use behavior and dependence has made great strides, the landscape is always changing and there is much urgent work that needs to be done," said Abrams. "Reducing the needless suffering, disease burden and cost of this addictive behavior remains the single most important public health contribution we can make right now to improve our nation's health. There are still more than 45 million smokers in America, and - every day - more than a thousand will die prematurely while thousands more will try their first tobacco products." In addition to his professional experience, Dr. Abrams has published more than 220 scholarly articles and has been a Principal or Co-Investigator on more than 65 research grant awards from various NIH Institutes. "Throughout his career, Dr. Abrams has demonstrated a remarkable passion for behavioral medicine and expertise in tobacco use research and cancer prevention," said American Legacy Foundation President and CEO, Cheryl Healton, Dr. PH. "He will be invaluable to our mission to educate Americans about the serious toll of tobacco and tobacco-related disease in this country. Under his leadership, I am confident that the work of the Schroeder Institute will help make significant contributions to the public health field." The Institute is named in honor of Dr. Steven A. Schroeder, whose well respected commitment to tobacco control spans his career at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; his leadership as a founding board member and former chair of the American Legacy Foundation; and now as Director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Medicine. "David Abrams is one of the world's leading scholars in tobacco control. It is wonderful that he will be leading this new institute," Dr. Schroeder said.