Dr. Adrienne Viola grew up in Manalapan NJ, about 45 miles south of New York City. She studied Biochemistry at Lehigh University and then completed a Masters in Public Health (Chronic Disease Epidemiology) at Yale prior to embarking on a combined MD/PhD at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine. Her MPH research focused on psychosocial outcomes in pediatric and young adult cancer survivors, while her PhD, in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, concentrated on the feasibility and benefits of a mentoring program for adolescents with sickle cell disease who were transitioning from pediatric to adult care. Patients were matched with a medical school mentor and showed significant improvements in transition readiness, self-efficacy, medication adherence, and health literacy. In a separate project, Adrienne analyzed data from a survey of sun protection beliefs and behaviors among Hispanic outdoor day laborers and designed an online program to help those at high-risk for melanoma to conduct skin self-checks. Adrienne is a member of the International Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Guideline Harmonization Group — an evidence-based guidelines working group for the surveillance of psychosocial late effects in pediatric and young adult cancer survivors. She is also part of the prestigious Distinction in Service to the Community Program at RWJ. This is a program to mentor and recognize students who perform extraordinary service to the community. Adrienne served as Vice-President of the Student Government for two years. She was responsible for creating weekly emails detailing all events happening in the community and helped run multiple school events (white coat ceremony, parent's weekend, medical school prom, graduation, etc). She also volunteered weekly for two years with a variety of different organizations around the state of New Jersey as part of Project Sunshine. And she is one of the co-founders of a mentorship program for adolescents with HIV along with present BCRP resident Tom Kuriakose. Adrienne plans to subspecialize in hematology/oncology after residency and to conduct clinical research focused on survivorship, quality of life and doctor-patient communication. She is a top tier student who draws plaudits for her leadership, clinical prowess, maturity, positive energy, and sunny, chatty, charismatic personality. Adrienne is an outstanding runner who has run the Boston Marathon. Her best marathon time (2 hrs 47 min) far exceeds the women's qualifying time for her age group (3 hrs 30 min). Impressively, she came within 2 minutes of qualifying for the Olympic Trials in the women's marathon! She is married to Stephen Wallis, who teaches math in a private high school and coaches track and cross-country (he also likes to run). He is from the Portsmouth, NH area. They have an infant son named Caeden.