Larry Kessler, Sc.D

Dr. Larry Kessler serves as a Professor in the Department of Health Services, School of Public Health, University of Washington. He has over 40 years of experience in health services research. He came to the University of Washington from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where he served as the director of the Office of Surveillance and Biometrics (1995 – 2001) and later the Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories (2002 – 2009) at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. His work in cancer surveillance leading the Applied Research Branch (ARB) at NCI from 1984 -1995 substantially changed the way our nation performs cancer surveillance, with the addition of the Cancer supplements to the National Health Interview Survey, the SEER-Medicare data system, the Breast Cancer Screening Consortium, and the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium.

He has an extensive research record in applied health services research, including over 160 peer reviewed publications. He has mentored a half-dozen junior faculty through becoming Associate and Full Professors at UW. As chair of the Department of Health Services (UW SPH) from 2009-2015, he directed the teaching program of a department that included eight separate teaching programs at the master’s and doctoral level. His recent work has concentrated on comparative effectiveness studies, developing solutions to improve the quality of life of patients with end stage kidney disease, and studies on the validity and reliability of cancer screening questionnaires, and on cost and cost-effectiveness of treatments for cystic fibrosis.