SARA E. GOLDEN, MPH, PHD is a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and a Core Investigator at the VA Portland Health Care System Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care. Dr. Golden trained in medical sociology and public health, and has been conducting health services research since 2012. She seeks to identify and address gaps in service that can hinder patient care, focusing on modifiable strategies to foster efficient, patient-centered care. Her primary areas of interest are patient-clinician communication, decision making, and tobacco cessation, especially among patients with and at risk of lung cancer. Dr. Golden’s other research interests center around access to care, quality of care at the end of life, and critical care service delivery improvements. Her current projects include a large national study intended to identify processes that VA can quickly implement to improve Veterans’ access and experiences of lung cancer screening care in community settings, and a randomized control trial to test the effectiveness of a decision aid among patients making lung cancer treatment-related decisions in clinical settings. Dr. Golden completed her BS in Cell and Molecular Biology at Santa Clara University, her MPH at Benedictine University, and her PhD in Sociology at Portland State University.