Joseph W. Cullen

Joseph Cullen grew up in the Boston, MA, area and attended the Boston Latin School. He received his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Florida State University in 1968. He served on the faculty at the University of California at Los Angeles, and also worked at the Pavlovian Research Laboratory. Throughout his life, he was an active volunteer with the American Cancer Society. He was the first Director of the Division of Cancer Control at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California at Los Angeles.[2] In this position, he became a leader nationally and internationally in focusing attention among the cancer prevention and control community on the importance of what would make the most significant differences in preventing cancer. Through his work with the International Union Against Cancer (UICC),[3] he developed a strong international network of colleagues who were confronting the tobacco problem worldwide, including Nigel Gray (Australia), head of the UICC Tobacco Program from 1974–1990,[4] and Richard Doll (UK), Richard Peto (UK), Sir John Crofton (UK), Keith Ball (UK), Takeshi Hirayama (Japan), Dimitrios Trichopoulos (Greece), Judith Mackay of the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society, Kjell Bjartveit (Norway), D. David Simpson of UK's Action on Smoking and Health, Allan C. Erickson of the American Cancer Society and Michael Pertschuk (USA).

From 1982 - 1989 Cullen served as Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. Together with Dr. Peter Greenwald, the Director for the NCI Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, he established a new scientific approach to cancer control based upon a five-phase decision-making model: (1) hypothesis development, (2) method development, (3) controlled intervention trials, (4) defined population studies, and (5) demonstration and implementation studies.[5] A major component of how this model was put into action at NCI was the new Smoking Tobacco and Cancer Program (STCP) which Cullen created in 1982. During his tenure at NCI, he was a vocal advocate for increasing program funding to develop and test intervention strategies to reduce tobacco use and then to apply the best strategies in large target populations. By 1989, the STCP included 55 smoking prevention and cessation trials, affecting 25 states and active in over 200 North American cities.[6] One of the major achievements of the STCP was the establishment of the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study for Cancer Prevention, widely known as ASSIST, which represented a major shift in federal funding for tobacco control from a primary focus on individuals to include a focus on the community and social environment.[7] Based upon the leadership of Cullen within NCI and Dr. Harmon J. Eyre, representing the American Cancer Society (ACS), and their presentations before the NCI's Board of Scientific Counselors, ASSIST was approved for funding in 1989 and launched in 1991 through a collaborative public/private partnership between NCI and the ACS. ASSIST funded 17 state health departments to conduct the first comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs on a statewide basis. This seven-year demonstration project served as a model for national tobacco control efforts and led to the current National Tobacco Control Program administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health, which continues to fund state health departments in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.[8] During the 1980s, Cullen developed a close working relationship with the Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Cullen became a key technical consultant to Dr. Koop as he developed into an international leader in tobacco control. In part from the influence of Cullen, Dr. Koop issued a challenge to Americans in 1984 to "create a smoke-free society in the United States by the year 2000." [9] In 1987, Cullen was awarded the Surgeon General's Medallion, the third highest award given by the Office of the Surgeon General for actions of exceptional achievement to the cause of public health and medicine.

In July 1989, Cullen became Director of the AMC Cancer Research Center in Denver, Colorado. He also was a Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He was working in his office at the AMC Cancer Research Center until days before he died suddenly in San Francisco on November 24, 1990 of a malignant brain tumor. The tumor was diagnosed only days before while Cullen was visiting his daughter in Berkeley, California.[10] He was survived by his wife, Katherine; a son, Neil; his daughter, Jennifer.[11]

In 1992, the American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) created the Joseph W. Cullen Memorial Award to memorialize his unparalleled contributions to national tobacco control. The award recognizes distinguished achievement in continued national tobacco control efforts through research, the development of prevention and cessation programs with wide-ranging public health impact, and public policy and advocacy initiatives. The first award was presented by ASPO in 1992 to Dr. Ellen Gritz, who was mentored by Cullen at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California at Los Angeles.[12] At the 33rd annual ASPO meeting in March 2009, the Joseph W. Cullen Award was presented posthumously to Ronald Davis, MD, Director, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Immediate Past President of the American Medical Association.[13] Other awards created to honor Joseph W. Cullen include the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors' award for Outstanding Contributions to Chronic Disease Prevention and Control [14] and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer award for life-time scientific achievements in prevention research of thoracic malignancies [15]

• New York Times Obituary
• March 1988 Portrait of Dr. Joseph W. Cullen
• First Joseph W. Cullen Memorial Award Lecture by Dr. Ellen Gritz
• About the Joseph W. Cullen Award