She received her B.A. in rhetoric/communications and Afro-American studies from the University of Virginia, her M.P.H. in health education/communications from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and her doctorate in health education at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Fagan's postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health and Dana Farber Cancer Institute focused on smoking cessation among adolescents, pregnant women, service and blue-collar workers. She helped organize community-based efforts to reduce cancer-related disparities and served as vice president for the Greater Boston chapter of the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer.

Her current research and publications focus on youth smoking cessation, young adult tobacco use and health disparities. Dr. Fagan facilitated efforts to publish NCI reports, including Eliminating Tobacco-Related Health Disparities Summary Report (2005) and Bibliography of Tobacco-Related Literature on Hispanics, 1990-2001; and journal publications, Tobacco and Health Disparities, (American Journal of Public Health - 2004); Advances and Challenges in Youth Tobacco Research, (Tobacco Control - 2003).

Dr. Fagan led efforts to organize the National Conference on Tobacco and Health Disparities in 2002, and worked with other NCI colleagues to organize the Minority Investigator Career Development Program Planning Meeting and Workshop in 2003 and 2004. She is collaborating with partners within NCI, the American Legacy Foundation, the University of Kentucky and extramural researchers to support the activities of the Tobacco Research Network on Disparities. Through this transdisciplinary network, she is helping to stimulate novel research that advances our understanding of tobacco health disparities science, to translate that science into practice and to inform public policies.