“Perhaps one of the most impactful collaborations in Dr. Brereton’s extraordinary career remains his early work and long friendship with Ellen Stovall. Through him, and in turn through the thousands of lives he has touched, Ellen’s work continues, and her mission lives on.”

—Karen M. Saunders
President, Northeast Regional Cancer Institute

Dr. Brereton is a graduate of Yale University and earned a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Subsequent training in Internal Medicine took him to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Brereton spent the next six years at the National Cancer Institute doing clinical and basic research and obtained certification in both Medical Oncology and Hematology. He completed additional training at Johns Hopkins for Radiation Oncology and was board certified.

Dr. Brereton served on the staff at Georgetown University for two years and then entered private practice where he spent thirty-three years developing cancer services by founding the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute in his community of Scranton, Pennsylvania. At the end of his private practice career, he was involved in the development of a new school, The Commonwealth Medical College, now the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, where he continues to serve on the faculty as a Clinical Professor of Medicine. In addition to also teaching at the Weill Cornell School of Medicine, he is also a leadership team member of the International Cancer Expert Corps.

“Patient reimbursements and engagement are key, and Ms. Dornsife had the vision to understand that and the leadership to make it happen. Lazarex provides a key to hope…a key to life. I cherish every moment with my grandkids and my daughters, and I get that opportunity because of Dana Dornsife.”

—Jackie Hinckley, Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer Patient

Dana Dornsife is Chair of the Board and Founder of Lazarex Cancer Foundation, a nationwide public non-profit organization she began in 2006. The unique mission of Lazarex is to improve the outcome of cancer care—giving hope, dignity and life to advanced stage cancer patients and the medically underserved by providing assistance with costs for FDA clinical trial participation, identification of clinical trial options, community outreach and engagement.

Dana has recently expanded the mission at Lazarex to bring transformational change to the bench to bedside process of clinical trial enrollment, retention, minority participation and equitable access with IMPACT (IMproving Patient Access to Cancer Clinical Trials). She is a graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia and serves as a board member of the USC Brain and Creativity Institute at University of Southern California, the UCSF Cancer Leadership Council, and the MGH Presidents Council.

“Ms. Stovall had a clear and beautiful concept of what needed to be done to improve the quality of cancer care. Much like when Ms. Stovall recognized a problem in need of remedy, Dr. Coleman is a shining example that Ellen’s passion for this goal lives on.”

—Larry Roth
President, International Cancer Expert Corps

Dr. Coleman, a radiation oncologist, is a leading provider advocate for patient-centeredness; emphasizing access to care, respect for patient preferences, and coordination and integration of care.

For more than 45 years, he has provided cancer care and conducted research, including roles as a tenured faculty member in medical and radiation oncology at Stanford, Professor and Chair of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, and currently Senior Investigator and Associate Director of the Radiation Research Program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In recent years, he helped to establish the International Cancer Expert Corps (ICEC), which aims to increase capacity in developing countries to provide high-quality cancer care.

Dr. Coleman graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.A. summa cum laude in mathematics, and from Yale University School of Medicine in 1970. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and radiation oncology at Stanford. He served in the US Public Health Service (O-4, ret).

Board certified in these three specialties, Dr. Coleman was a tenured faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine before joining Harvard Medical School in 1985 as Fuller-American Cancer Society Professor and Chairman, Joint Center for Radiation Therapy.

In 1999, Dr. Coleman returned to the NCI as director of the new Radiation Oncology Sciences Program that he created to coordinate all radiation oncology and related science activities. He served as chief of the Radiation Oncology Branch from 1999–2004 and is now an adjunct member of ROB in the Center for Cancer Research where he has his laboratory currently focusing on radiation-induced molecular- and immunotherapy targets. He serves the NCI as associate director of the Radiation Research Program in the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis.

Since 2004 Dr. Coleman has also been Senior Medical Advisor in the Office of Emergency Management, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Department of Health and Human Services. He has written extensively in the fields of radiation modifiers, molecular radiation oncology and, more recently, on health and medical preparedness and planning for radiological or nuclear emergencies, and global health.

Dr. Coleman has been affiliated with NCCS since working with Ellen Stovall on the NCAB/Senate Subcommittee to Evaluate the National Cancer Program in 1993. He helped form the New England Coalition for Cancer Survivorship while at Harvard. He is Senior Scientific Advisor to the International Cancer Expert Corps (ICEC), a non-government organization focusing on global disparities in cancer care.

Dr. Coleman is a Fellow of the American Society of Radiation Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American College of Radiology and American College of Physicians. Among his awards are the Gold Medal from ASTRO in 2006, the Partnership for Public Service, Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Homeland Security Medal in 2011, the Failla Medal from the Radiation Research Society in 2016 and Doctor of Science (h.c.) from the University of Vermont in 2015.

“As founder of Cancer CAREpoint, Gay conducted a community needs assessment over two years where she facilitated focus groups with over 200 community members to develop programs that would serve as the foundation of Cancer CAREpoint.”

—Rob Tufel, MSW, MPH, Executive Director Cancer CAREpoint

For the past 44 years, Gay Crawford has actively counseled thousands of patients and families and played a major leadership role in working toward better and more complete patient-focused cancer care.

She helped found many cancer programs, including: Hospice of the Valley, the second non-profit hospice in California; Courageous Kids, an American Cancer Society program for children with cancer; the California Cancer Registry; the Colon Cancer Free Zone, advocating for colon cancer screening; and was successful in lobbying the insurance industry to get them to pay for breast reconstructions for patients. In 2011 she was invited to serve as the first chair of Stanford’s new South Bay Cancer Center Patient and Family Advisory Council, helping to develop the program and keep the focus on “patient-focused care.”

Gay’s life’s work culminated in 2013 when she founded a Silicon Valley based non-profit organization called Cancer CAREpoint. Cancer CAREpoint has served over four thousand patients and families with a wide-range of free support services. Cancer CAREpoint is the only community-based organization in Silicon Valley providing direct services to anyone impacted by cancer no matter what type of cancer a patient has, where the patient is treated, or ability to pay. Gay succeeded in getting public recognition from all the major medical centers in Silicon Valley about the need for non-medical support for cancer patients and their families.

Gay, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 30 and then with lymphoma at age 60, says “I have been able to live long enough to learn how to be of service, to advocate for those who are not able to do so for themselves, to see gaps in health care and to make a difference in bringing programs to those who need them. I am buoyed and blessed by a network of people who have believed that change is possible and have enabled me to make a difference.”

“Pat has been instrumental in advancing concurrent palliative care alongside usual cancer care, especially in the inpatient setting, and in advancing palliative care worldwide. Pat is a nurse first and foremost and has assumed national and international leadership in nursing and in health care in general.”
– Thomas J. Smith, MD
Director of Palliative Care
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Patrick Coyne, an advanced practice nurse, has devoted his career to the advancement of the field of palliative care. Mr. Coyne is the Director of the Palliative Care Program at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He is one of the founders of ELNEC (End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium), which has educated more than 21,000 nurses in over 90 countries, and he has published over 100 papers on a variety of symptom management and policy issues.

“She is an individual who, drawing upon a personal commitment to championing the individual rights of those diagnosed and treated for life-threatening illness, and those of their family members, created an innovative resource that is transforming cancer care daily for scores of patients and families.”
– Julia Rowland, PhD
Former Director,
Office of Cancer Survivorship
National Cancer Institute

Meg Gaines is a lawyer by training, a cancer survivor, and one of the founders of the Center for Patient Partnerships at the University of Wisconsin. The Center trains students in the fields of law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work to provide advocacy to cancer patients. Interdisciplinary teams help cancer patients understand their diagnoses, get the information necessary to make critical treatment decisions, and support patients’ efforts to get the treatment they need.

Douglas W. Blayney, MD, who worked closely with Ellen Stovall, was chosen in 2016 as the inaugural recipient of the Stovall Award. Since 2017, Dr. Blayney has served as the co-chair of the Stovall Award Selection Committee. Read more about Dr. Blayney and the 2016 award below.

NCCS CEO Shelley Fuld Nasso thanked the attendees to the NCCS 30th anniversary reception, many of them current and former NCCS staff and colleagues of Ms. Stovall, for their contributions to the field of cancer survivorship. “Everyone in this room today has helped in some way have an impact on our work over the past 30 years and on the lives of people with cancer,” Ms. Fuld Nasso said.

She continued, “As we commemorate this milestone in our history, we also, of course, have to recognize the devastating loss that we at NCCS felt, and all of us in the cancer community, when Ellen Stovall passed away earlier this year–our former CEO, dear friend, and mentor… Ellen left an indelible mark on all of us… She’s really our guiding light at NCCS and I often find myself thinking, ‘What would Ellen do?’” After a short video tribute to Ellen’s life and advocacy, Shelley invited Ellen Stovall’s son, Jonathan Stovall, on stage to present the award named in his mother’s honor.

Dr. Blayney Accepts the Ellen Stovall Award

In her introduction, Shelley Fuld Nasso highlighted the collaborative efforts of Dr. Blayney and Ms. Stovall. “Dr. Blayney did not shy away from Ellen’s demands that much more needed to be done to ensure access to patient-centered care, or her insistence that patient satisfaction with their cancer care really did matter. Instead, he was a dedicated partner in these efforts.” She continued, “When Ellen and Doug were working shoulder to shoulder on a wide range of cancer quality improvement efforts, they were pioneers. Not all their peers supported, or even saw the point of all their dogged efforts to improve quality.”

Dr. Blayney accepted the inaugural award and honored Ms. Stovall’s work and advocacy for cancer survivors in his remarks. “Ellen was a living reminder of cancer survivorship,” said Dr. Blayney. “She lived her life with purpose and never-failing grace. She articulated for so many audiences, the purpose of our work, and reminded us that it was always about the patient. I am honored with the Stovall award.”

Douglas W. Blayney, MD, FACP is a professor of medicine at the Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center. His clinical interest is breast cancer, and his operational interests and research focuses on quality improvement in cancer care systems, improvement of the patient experience, and the optimum use of information technology to enhance these missions. He is past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and was the founding editor-in-chief of ASCO’s Journal of Oncology Practice.

The Ellen Stovall Award: 2017 and Beyond

At the reception, NCCS announced that beginning in 2017, the Ellen Stovall Award will be an annual, nationwide competition. It will be the first call to action that specifically urges cancer survivors and caregivers to nominate providers who are making dramatic improvements in how they care for cancer patients and their families. With recent changes in care towards value-based reimbursements and the Oncology Care Model, NCCS seeks to highlight providers who are proactively and successfully embracing patient-focused care that is recognized by the very patients they are serving. Dr. Blayney will serve as co-chair of an advisory committee to establish the award’s criteria and evaluate nominations.