Dr. Bassford has been active in the area of cancer prevention and women's health. She was Principal Investigator for the Arizona site of the Women's Health Initiative, a randomized clinical trial of three preventive interventions in postmenopausal women, a grant awarded by the National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute NHLBI) Dr. Bassford developed the Mensajeras de Salud Project, a lay health education project directed at breast and cervical cancer in Hispanic women, which operated for ten years in Tucson. She has served on the Mammography Advisory Panel of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the FDA Mammography Advisory Committee, and the National Institute of Health NIH) Consensus Panel on Osteoporosis. Dr. Bassford also has extensive experience in the health care needs of adults with developmental disabilities. Beginning in the 1980s, Dr. Bassford worked with community agencies to successfully transition developmentally disabled adults from an institutional setting to community living. Since 2006, she has been the principal investigator for the Sonoran University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities in DFCM, where she continues to lead efforts to provide comprehensive, competent and compassionate health care services to people with developmental disabilities.