Lauren M. Hamel, Ph.D. is an assistant professor and scientific member of the Population Studies and Disparities Research Program at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Hamel is an expert in patient-physician communication, cancer treatment disparities, and in building and testing interventions to improve patient-physician communication. She was PI of two recently completed NIH-funded studies assessing nonverbal synchrony and nonverbal communication that occurs between Black patients with cancer and their oncologists during clinical interactions. She is investigating aspects of nonverbal communication as potential markers of racial attitudes (e.g., physician unconscious bias, patient suspicion of medical care) and predictors of interaction outcomes (R21MD011766; R03CA195147).