Marlene M. von Friederichs-Fitzwater, Ph.D.

Marlene M. von Friederichs-Fitzwater received her B.S. from Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah in 1980, her M.A. from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1982, and her doctorate from University of Utah in 1987. She is currently completing a masterÕs in public health at Walden University. She accepted a tenure-track faculty position at California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State) in 1985 where she served as department chair from 1996-1999 and was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award in 2001. During that time she was also an associate clinical professor in Family and Community Medicine at the University of California Davis School of Medicine and founded a 501, c, 3 non-profit, the Health Communication Research Institute, Inc..
She is currently professor emeritus at Sacramento State. In 2003, she was appointed assistant adjunct professor in hematology/oncology in the department of Internal Medicine at UC Davis and in July 2005 she also assumed the directorship of the UC Davis Cancer CenterÕs Outreach Research and Education Program. She was instrumental in bringing Sacramento State and the UC Davis Cancer Center together in a partnership to reduce disparities in cancer prevention and control that was formalized in November 2005 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). She co-chairs the Sacramento State/UCDCC Partnership Board with David P. Earwicker, Assistant Vice President, Sponsored Research, Grant and Contract Administration, at Sacramento State. Her research is in cultural and tribal issues related to cancer and in the use of conversational agent technology in patient and provider education. She co-chairs the UC Davis American Indian Advisory Council and directs the new national American Indian/Alaska Native Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Education (AIAANCARE). She is listed in several WhoÕs Who directories including the WhoÕs Who in Medicine and Healthcare, Sixth Edition, 2006-2007.