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]

From 1982 - 1989, Cullen served as Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. With Dr. Peter Greenwald, the director of the division, he established a new scientific approach to cancer control.[3] Cullen used this model in the Smoking Tobacco and Cancer Program (STCP) he created in 1982.[4] Cullen helped secure funding for the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study for Cancer Prevention (ASSIST).[5]

During the 1980s, Cullen worked with the Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. 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."[6] In 1987, Cullen was awarded the Surgeon General's Medallion.

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 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.[7] He was survived by his wife, Katherine; a son, Neil; his daughter, Jennifer.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10] 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 [11] and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer award for life-time scientific achievements in prevention research of thoracic malignancies [12]

• 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