AANCART New and Early Stage Investigators (NESIs) Elisa Tong and Michael Ong have both been promoted to Associate Professor at their respective institutions of University of California, Davis and University of California, Los Angeles. 

Dr. Tong joined the UC Davis faculty in 2006 as a General Internist. Since then, she has continued to conduct research in the field of tobacco control, prevention, and intervention. Her work has resulted in several competitive research grants, such as, and publications. Dr. Tong is Research Director of AANCART Sacramento and pilot study leader for the biospecimen collection project among Chinese Americans. 

Dr. Ong joined the UCLA faculty in 2005 as a General Internist and as a researcher in the field of Healthcare Services. He has produced several in-language health educational DVDs including "10 Steps to Better Healthcare: A guide for Chinese-American Seniors." In Sept. 2011, he achieved an R01 research grant from the National Institute of Health for his project "Variations in Care: Comparing Heart Failure Care Transition Intervention Effects," a sign of his continue advancement as a researcher.

"On behalf of all of our AANCART colleagues, I wish to congratulate Elisa Tong, MD, MA of UC Davis and her brother, Michael Ong, MD, PhD of UCLA on their promotion to Associate Professor at their respective institutions effective July 1, 2012.  Their respective promotions are extremely well-deserved and testify to the high quality of their multiple accomplishments in research, teaching, and service.  We are proud to have them as part of the AANCART family!" 

-Moon S. Chen, Jr., Ph.D., M.P.H., AANCART Principal Investigator

As AANCART NESIs, both Dr. Tong and Dr. Ong receive on-going mentoring from AANCART senior members to establish their skills as a researcher in the field of Asian American cancer health disparities.