Cancer Nation to Recognize Erin Cummings and Bradley J. Zebrack with 2026 Ellen L. Stovall Award

Cancer Nation is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 Ellen L. Stovall Award for Innovation in Patient-Centered Cancer Care:

• • Erin Geddis Cummings, MSW, LCSW — Patient Advocate Award, awarded posthumously
  • Bradley J. Zebrack, PhD, MSW, MPH — Health Care Professional Award

The Stovall Award carries forward the legacy of former CEO Ellen L. Stovall, a three-time survivor and visionary leader who believed that lived experience belongs at the center of care and policy. It is the only national award that recognizes people who have made a lasting mark on how patient-centered cancer care is delivered. Each year, Cancer Nation presents the award to one health care professional and one patient advocate who exemplify Ellen’s vision. The health care professional award is co-presented by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Awardees are selected by a committee of health care professionals, survivors and caregivers from a highly competitive pool of nominees.

“Erin Cummings and Bradley Zebrack represent the very best of patient-centered cancer care and advocacy. Bradley has devoted his career to understanding and improving the experience of people living with and beyond cancer, while Erin turned her own decades-long experience as a survivor into a powerful commitment to helping others. Both have helped ensure that the voices and needs of survivors remain at the center of cancer care, and we are proud to honor them with the Ellen L. Stovall Award.”

— Shelley Fuld Nasso, CEO, Cancer Nation

We will celebrate Erin and Bradley at Cancer Nation’s 40th Anniversary Gala on November 13, 2026, in Washington, D.C., alongside Michael Milken, recipient of our inaugural March Forward Award.

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Meet the Awardees

Erin Geddis Cummings, MSW, LCSW

Patient Advocate Award

“Few individuals have transformed a field as profoundly as Erin Geddis Cummings transformed Hodgkin lymphoma survivorship.”

— Sophia K. Smith, PhD, MSW, FAOSW, Chair, Hodgkin’s International, and
Kevin C. Oeffinger, MD, FASCO, Duke Cancer Institute

Erin Geddis Cummings, MSW, LCSW, will be honored posthumously with the 2026 Ellen L. Stovall Patient Advocate Award. Erin lived more than 50 years with and beyond Hodgkin lymphoma and built that lived experience into a life’s work supporting long-term survivors around the world.

In 2016, Erin co-founded Hodgkin’s International, a licensed clinical social worker’s answer to a gap she saw clearly: survivors who had been cured of Hodgkin lymphoma decades earlier were often left without guidance on the late effects of the treatments that saved their lives. Under her leadership, Hodgkin’s International grew into a global network of more than 800 survivors, delivering monthly newsletters, webinars, and evidence-based resources on late effects, screening, and long-term risk. In 2024, she brought that vision to life in person, organizing the first Hodgkin’s International Conference in Boston, where more than 100 survivors, clinicians, and researchers gathered to share best practices and elevate survivor and caregiver voices.

Erin’s collaborations reached across Europe, North America, and Australia, connecting oncologists, survivorship researchers, and advocacy organizations including Blood Cancer United, the Lymphoma Research Foundation, the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, and Duke Cancer Center for Onco-Primary Care. She was also a longtime partner of Cancer Nation’s Cancer Policy and Advocacy Training (CPAT) program, where her work helped bring the specialized needs of long-term survivors into policy and research conversations at the national level.

Erin died on February 24, 2026, from stomach cancer complicated by the long-term effects of the treatment she received as a child. She was 68. The community she built at Hodgkin’s International continues to carry her vision forward, connecting survivors and caregivers to the information, research, and quality care she spent her life fighting to make available to every long-term survivor. Read our memorial for Erin here.

Bradley J. Zebrack, PhD, MSW, MPH

Health Care Professional Award (Co-Presented by ASCO)

“Brad’s pioneering contributions to the field of AYA oncology and the psychosocial needs of this patient group represent a major innovation in the delivery of patient-centered care.”

— Patricia A. Ganz, MD, and Barbara Hoffman, JD,
Co-Founders, National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship

Bradley J. Zebrack, PhD, MSW, MPH, is a nationally recognized researcher, educator, and oncology social worker who has spent more than 25 years advancing the field of cancer survivorship. His research has shaped how the field understands quality of life, health disparities, supportive care, and the distinct needs of adolescents and young adults with cancer. He is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and one of the founding figures of adolescent and young adult (AYA) psychosocial oncology as a field of research.

Brad’s connection to Cancer Nation runs deep. Diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 1985 at age 25, he turned to the newly-founded NCCS (now Cancer Nation) for support and gave back almost immediately. In 1988, he and his then-fiancée Joanne Kelleher rode bicycles 11,000 miles around the perimeter of the United States over the course of a year, meeting with survivors, oncologists, nurses, social workers, and hospital administrators to advocate for medical and psychosocial support for people during and after cancer treatment, a novel concept at the time.

The campaign raised more than $10,000 for NCCS and carried its message to communities across the country in the pre-internet era. Brad went on to serve on the NCCS Board of Directors from 1993 to 1998 and consulted on NCCS’s 1996 report, Imperatives for Quality Cancer Care: Access, Advocacy, Action and Accountability.

Brad earned his PhD in social work from the University of Michigan in 1999. During a postdoctoral fellowship with Patricia Ganz at UCLA, he developed quality-of-life questionnaires designed specifically for long-term cancer survivors and, later, for young adult survivors, tools now used widely across the field.

He has authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications and 31 book chapters, mentored roughly 50 trainees, and holds fellowships with the American Psychosocial Oncology Society, the Society for Social Work and Research, and the Association of Oncology Social Work. His recent honors include the Rogel Scholar in Cancer Health Impact award from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center (2025 to 2028), the Ruth McCorkle Excellence in Research Mentorship Award (2022), and the Archie Bleyer AYA Trailblazer Award (2025).

Learn more about the Ellen L. Stovall Award »