Erik Crankshaw

Erik Crankshaw is an expert in health behavior specializing in research on tobacco prevention and control. He evaluates interventions and other programs aimed at preventing smoking, especially among young people, and designs studies of tobacco use and other health behaviors. His quantitative research skills include structural equation modeling and factor analysis, latent class and latent transition analysis, and panel and longitudinal data analysis using MPlus and SPSS software. Clients include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, state and local health departments, and other public health organizations.

Currently, Dr. Crankshaw serves as project director for RESPECT, the Research and Evaluation Survey of the Public Education Campaign on Tobacco. For this project, he is evaluating This Free Life, a campaign by the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products that targets LGBT young adults. He also contributes to evaluations of statewide tobacco prevention and control programs in Utah and Florida. In the international arena, he is collaborating with researchers at Indonesia’s Gadjah Mada University to investigate the relationship between secondhand smoke and low birth weight.

Dr. Crankshaw joined RTI in 2002. Earlier in his career, he worked in community health promotion at the state and county level in Utah. At the Salt Lake City-County Health Department, he planned and coordinated health education and health promotion activities for tobacco prevention and control, and worked as a legislative advocate for tobacco control policy. He is a member of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.