Rebecca Palpant Shimkets is a public health consultant with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors and the Colorectal Cancer Screening Engagement and Peer-to-Peer Learning projects. She has 20 years of experience in national and global program development, project management, strategic planning, and training, primarily in the behavioral health field. Prior to becoming a consultant, she provided leadership for 15 years for former U.S. first lady Rosalynn Carter’s primary anti-stigma initiative The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. Her public health work has included overseeing a special theme issue of the American Journal of Public Health on stigma reduction initiatives and appointments to two National Academy of Sciences committees focused on changing public perceptions of behavioral health.

Palpant Shimkets has served on numerous advisory boards and committees. Her experience includes engaging across cultures and traveling extensively throughout the world speaking, building partnerships for program development, and creating program models for and overseeing active programming. Under her leadership at The Carter Center, she initiated and completed program development in South Africa, Romania, Colombia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates.

Today, Palpant Shimkets is an independent consultant focusing on oncology research, education, and advocacy specializing in providing strategic and project planning, research and report writing, and technical advice on public health campaigns.

Rebecca lives in North Georgia with her husband and two stepsons.