Valerie Yerger, ND

Dr. Yerger's research focuses on the tobacco industry’s targeting of African American communities, the use of menthol in tobacco products, smoke-free policies in multi-unit housing. Dr. Valerie Yerger is a licensed naturopathic doctor and assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She received her doctorate in naturopathic medicine from Bastyr University, who honored her as one of its Distinguished Alumni when the award was first presented in 2004. Since 2003, the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health has recognized Dr. Yerger as one of its health disparities scholars. Dr. Yerger’s research focuses on the tobacco industry’s targeting of African American community. She has incorporated tobacco industry documents into community-based participatory research projects on tobacco cessation and initiated the investigation of melanin’s potential role in nicotine exposure, nicotine addiction, and smoking behavior. Currently, Dr. Yerger is investigating ways African Americans may increase their ability to quit smoking and remain tobacco-free by reframing tobacco as a social justice issue that affects the entire community. She has years of experience researching and analyzing tobacco documents, examining specifically the tobacco industry’s relationships with African American leadership groups and the tobacco companies’ predatory marketing of menthol cigarettes in inner-city communities. Her work has been featured in a number of peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Nicotine and Tobacco Research; American Journal of Public Health; Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior; Journal of the National Medical Association; Tobacco Control; and Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. In 2009 Dr. Yerger was appointed by California Speaker of Assembly Karen Bass to serve on the California Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee (TEROC); and in 2010 was invited to serve in the Circle of Elders of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network. She is also a founding member of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council of California. In 2010 Dr. Yerger was invited by the Food and Drug Administration to search the Legacy tobacco documents archives for tobacco industry research on menthol cigarettes and present findings in white paper for members of the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. The TPSA will be instrumental in determining the fate of menthol use in cigarettes.