I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 49. This experience changed my life in many ways. I left a career that I loved, retrained myself about cancer and advocacy and then formed a nonprofit focused on helping other cancer patients understand the importance of research principals.
I have a B.S. in chemistry and biological science. I also completed a one-year training in clinical laboratory science and hold Federal and State licenses in that field. I have had over 25 years of clinical and research lab experience and would probably still be working in a lab somewhere if not for my cancer diagnosis. After treatment I quit my job and took a part time job as the Assistant Administrative for the UCSF Breast Oncology Program where I spent 5 years learning the various aspects of both the research and clinical end of the breast oncology field.
I volunteered for many different committees while at UCSF: the first advocate to sit on their pre-protocol review committee (7 years), the tissue use committee (2 years), the breast SPORE (9 years) and the special populations committee (2 years). Other volunteer efforts include: CARRA advocate for the NCI, member of both ACOSOG and ACRIN (vice-chair) cooperative groups, co-chair of a work group for the Summit Series on Clinical Trials and a NBCC public policy team leader. I have reviewed grants for DoD, NCI, AVON, Komen and CA Breast Cancer Research Program.
