Dr. Pollak is a social psychologist and Professor in Population Health Sciences. She also is the Associate Director of Population Sciences in the Duke Cancer Institute. She co-leads the Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group. She has been developing behavioral interventions for 20 years, mostly to promote smoking cessation, predominantly among pregnant women. She has studied clinician-patient communication for the almost 20 years in oncologists, palliative care, and primary care. She also has served as a Communication Coach for the past 7 years. She has directly coached over 100 clinicians and currently is training three communication coaches.