At the age of 38, Desirée A. H. Walker was diagnosed with breast cancer, which recurred at age 47. For many who have had to fight breast cancer, Desirée serves as an advocate for patients by openly speaking about her diagnoses to audiences nationally and internationally. The core of her message is to encourage patients to truly know their body and feel empowered to steward self, mind, body and soul.
Extremely active in the cancer community, Desirée, through SHARE’s Side by Side Program, trains medical students and doctors on how to deliver disappointing news and passionately supports the importance of patient-doctor communication. She volunteers with the Young Survival Coalition as President, Board of Directors. She is a member of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship’s Cancer Policy Advocacy Team inaugural Steering Committee, the NCI’s Cancer Prevention and Control Central Institutional Review Board; the NCI SWOG Recruitment and Retention and Patient Advocate Committees in addition to Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging Strategic Work Group. Desirée is also a member of the Society for Integrative Oncology Patient Advocate and Research Committees in addition to the Health Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Task Force. Desirée is a former member of the CDC’s Advisory Council on Breast Cancer in Young Women.
Desirée has given countless talks, including “Spirituality and Cancer” at CancerCare’s Living with Cancer conference and the Canadian Association for Psychosocial Oncology annual conference. She has served as a panelist and has provided a patient advocate perspective at AACR’s Addressing Advocacy at the Bench: COVID-19 Vaccines: Patient Advocates as Trusted Sources of Information, NCCS’ annual CPAT, SXSW’s International Women’s Day event, the FDA/OCE Educational Series – Conversations in Cancer, MSK’s National Minority Cancer Awareness events, AAADV Annual Meeting, The Cornell Center for Health Equity’s Tri-Institutional Symposium on Health Equity, the 12th and 13th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities and the FDA’s session “Building and Inclusive Cancer Community” at AACR Annual Meeting. Desirée has been a guest blogger for WebMD, ASCO’s Cancer.Net and the Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program.
Desirée has appeared in the media on numerous occasions including “The Breakfast Club” with DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne Tha God. She is featured in Conquer Cancer Foundation’s Your Stories mini-podcast, Susan G. Komen’s “Know Your Girls” campaign, the Ralph Lauren 20th and 21st Anniversary Pink Pony campaign and The Conduit’s podcast: “Don’t Forget About Love”. Desirée facilitates support groups for women of African descent who were diagnosed with either breast or ovarian cancer.
She is a graduate of the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s Project LEAD® and AACR S-SP program. As a patient advocate, she’s attended the AACR Annual Mtg. and the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved conferences and numerous other national and international conferences. Desirée has been a reviewer for the DoD’s CDMRP, PCORI, Cornell Center for Health Equity and the Conquer Cancer Foundation. As a patient advocate, she brings her experience to a team of cancer researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Desirée’s diagnoses motivated her to become a patient advocate to share her talents and aid diverse communities. She uses her platform to be a voice for the voiceless and pay forward by educating and empowering people around the world.
