CEPEG prides itself on helping communities understand their health issues and improve policy and program solutions. We share our multi-disciplinary expertise and commitment to scientific rigor and cultural humility.
Dr. Levinson is a professor of community and behavioral health and a member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, with more than 25 years of experience in public health practice and research. His interests include identifying, understanding, and reducing disparities in tobacco-related risks and behaviors among cultural minorities and people with lower socioeconomic status (SES). He also studies methods for detecting violation rates in retail tobacco sales to underage customers. His research has shown that three-fourths of current U.S. smokers have low-SES; Colorado adults with disabilities have severely elevated smoking prevalence; college students who smoke are likely to deny being smokers; that Colorado Latinx adults have higher smoking prevalence than non-Hispanic white adults, a U.S. anomaly; and federal protocols for monitoring underage tobacco sales grossly underestimate violation rates while effective protocols are feasible and practical. His findings led Colorado to prioritize tobacco programming to reach Latinx, disabled, and low-SES smokers, and were used in designing Colorado’s tobacco sales-license law enacted in 2020. Dr. Levinson has represented the University of Colorado Cancer Center on the Guidelines Panel for Smoking Cessation of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and served six years as chair/vice chair of the Colorado Tobacco Grants Review Committee.