She is retired (as of December 31, 2018) Professor Emerita in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health[1] where she was Director of the Center for Clinical Trials and Evidence Synthesis there.
Dickersin spent two months in Dorothy and Claude A. Villee's research laboratory at Harvard University to complete a "field work term” at Bennington College.
Her new interest in science led her to leave Bennington after 2 years, and to work in Allan Tobin's lab in developmental biology at Harvard College.
Her master’s thesis was “Increased Permeability of Sea Urchin Eggs to Adenine After Fertilization, Parthenogenetic Activation, and Exposure to Ammonia”.
[8] While at Fullerton College, and through her biology students, Dickersin learned about the field of epidemiology, which she liked because it merges science with societal concerns and involves experimental research (clinical trials).
Dickersin matriculated at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1979, focusing on clinical trials, and Curtis L. Meinert became her advisor.
When she returned to Baltimore to complete her PhD, she worked on clinical trials as well as research directly linked to publication bias.
For example, she has contributed to the establishment of clinical trial registries,[14][15][16][17][18] promoting public accessibility to trial findings,[19][20] and establishment of the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993 [21][22] Over the course of her career, Dickersin served on a variety of federal advisory committees, for example, she was appointed by President Clinton to the National Cancer Advisory Board (1994-2000).
[25] Her longstanding support for consumer and patient engagement in the research process[26] is also evident from her involvement in the Department of Defense (DoD) Breast Cancer Programme.
[28] The idea behind CUE was to bring together consumer groups, who traditionally have not worked together, to form a professional organization for learning and networking.
In addition to serving these functions, CUE helps scientist groups to identify consumers for meaningful engagement in research and on advisory and guideline panels.