How long have you been a member of AACE?
I have been a member of AACE for 7 months.
Describe your current interest in the field of cancer education.
I joined AACE right before presenting at the ICEC conference in September. I was connected to AACE through Dr. Amr Soliman, the head of the Cancer Epidemiology Education in Special Populations (CEESP) program. Based on the work I completed under CEESP, I think the next steps are to identify reasons why individuals in rural areas, as well as members impoverished communities and non-White individuals, are less likely to receive a breast cancer diagnosis at the localized stage. Some reasons could be due to lack of available screening services, transportation, health education/literacy, or simply prioritizing other things over getting screened for breast cancer. These reasons will also differ between people and communities.
How did your interest in the field of cancer education begin?
I have always been very passionate about writing and communication, and this has been cultivated through my fellowship at Boston University School of Public Health's Public Health Post. There, I write articles that translate recent publications for a wide audience of public health enthusiasts. I have written a few articles on cancer, from the relationship between AI and cancer education to the decline in cancer detection during the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope to continue with similar work in the future, specifically getting cancer research into the hands of people that would directly benefit from the findings.
Describe some of your research in the field of cancer education.
The project I completed for the CEESP program and presented at ICEC concerned late-stage breast cancer diagnoses in persistently poor and rural US counties, as well as counties with a large Black population. My goal with this project was to describe differences in late-stage breast cancer diagnosis among vulnerable populations. Now that I've completed this work, I am publishing my findings in the near future.
Given our interesting findings surrounding non-Hispanic Black individuals, I am working on a second manuscript that examines breast cancer diagnoses across subtypes.
What are your plans after you graduate?
I am currently on the job search and am hoping to gain more experience in the epidemiological and the biostatistical sides of cancer research. No matter what job I end up landing, I do hope to continue, in some form or another, communicating findings in cancer research and making science more accessible to a wider audience.
Do you have any advice for individuals interested in pursuing a career in cancer education?
My advice would be to build an arsenal of mentors with different sets of knowledge. My mentor base contains cancer epidemiologists, biostatisticians, program coordinators, professors, doctors, and public health writers. All of these people help to enrich my understanding of cancer research and education and all the possibilities for my role in the field.