CISN Consultants

She is an early adopter of social media in the cancer research and clinical arena and is an inaugural member of the SWOG Digital Engagement Committee. She uses twitter to help serve as a bridge between the patient community and the medical and research communities. Named as one of HIT Consultants 15 Influential ePatients and Patient Advocates, her blog has been named a Top Breast Cancer Blog by Healthline for six consecutive years.

As the new Program Director at CISN, AnneMarie is eager to develop and implement strategies to leverage the power of social media to reach a wide and diverse audience. She hopes this will introduce the site and its stellar, always evolving content to a new and growing group of patients, researchers, and clinical teams.

		Follow her on twitter @chemobrainfog Look for her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/annemarie.ciccarella

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		Nora E. Carbine

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		Diana T. Chingos

Sandra Finestone has an accounting practice with her husband in Orange County California, and is Executive Director of Hope Wellness Center. She has a Masters in English and American History and a doctorate in Psychology. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is a 30 year breast cancer survivor.

Sandra helped start the Orange County Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the cure and has been president three times as well as the race chair. She is currently the treasurer and past president of the Inland Empire Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Sandra has received many honors including the Komen National Volunteer of the year as well as the Orange County Volunteer of the year. She has served as vice chair of grants at the national level, and is currently serving on the Advocates in Science steering committee and is a Komen Scholar.

She is a Project Lead graduate and has attended many scientific meetings including AACR, San Antonio Breast Symposium, ASCO, ASCO Breast, CBCRP and Era of Hope.

She has reviewed grants for the CDMRP, Avon, NIH, AACR, and State of New York and was an observer for the State of California’s Breast Cancer Research Program. She has served as a mentor for both the DCMRP and Komen. She has served on the steering committee for the American Psychosocial Oncology Society and has presented at their symposium.

She was privileged to represent Komen internationally at trainings in Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt.

As Executive Director of Hope Wellness Center she facilitates support groups, meets individually with patients and their families and has created a peer support system where breast cancer mentors help newly diagnosed women with their breast cancer journey.

Sandra is passionate about educating patients about their disease. She believes the more they know, the less they fear. She has facilitated conferences and webinars. She has written many published articles, she has coauthored a book on Intimacy and Sexuality after a breast cancer diagnosis, a subject she believes does not get enough attention. She has spoken to audiences of 2000 and to audiences of 2 and thinks both are important. She also believes that research is vital in this battle but so is compassion and caring.

I was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985 at the age of 36 and with no family history. Three years later, breast cancer was diagnosed in my other breast. Since these experiences, I have been involved in a number of organizations committed to educating the public about breast cancer, supporting people affected by it and eradicating the disease.

As a volunteer, I have run breast health awareness workshops for adults and teens and provided peer counseling to women diagnosed with breast cancer. Currently I am on the Board of the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, am an active volunteer in a number of National Breast Cancer Coalition’s (NBCC) initiatives and am on one of the working groups associated with the Clinical Trials Summit. I have been an invited speaker on cancer advocacy at a variety of forums and have contributed to several websites and reviewed several books targeted at people affected by cancer.

I have a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and Masters Degrees in Educational Psychology, Computer and Information Science as well as an MBA. I started my career as an experimental cognitive psychologist at the University of Texas in Austin, spent most of my career at Bell Labs and currently run my own consulting company— Gemini Group. My consulting focuses on process improvement and accreditation, primarily for academic institutions. I have been an examiner for the Baldrige and Lincoln quality award programs. I also serve as a scientific review administrator for peer review panels for the Departments of Education and Defense external research programs.

Given my scientific training, albeit not related to cancer, I am especially interested in research advocacy. I have been a stakeholder reviewer for the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) and the US Department of Defense’s external research program, and am currently a member of the ACS’s External Research Council. I am also an advocate consultant on a number of academic cancer research projects. I have been a Survivor-Advocate representative at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), The American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Meetings, and other scientific meetings.

I am committed to increasing my effectiveness as an advocate and stay current with the scientific progress. In addition to attending scientific meeting, I am a graduate of the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s Project LEAD training programs in basic science, clinical trials, and quality care. I have also participated in the Rocky Mountain Evidence-Based Health Care Workshop.

 

Patty Spears, B.S., In 1999 Patty was diagnosed at the age of 40 with locally advanced breast cancer. Following treatment, she began volunteering with the Komen North Carolina Triangle to the Coast Affiliate as Chair of the Education Committee and joined the Board of Directors in December 2001. Representing Susan G. Komen in the community and on the NC Advisory Committee for Cancer Coordination and Control led to other opportunities for cancer advocacy. Currently Patty serves as an advocate reviewer for the Susan G. Komen Research, Evaluation and Scientific Program, the Duke Cancer Institute, Cancer Protocol Committee.

She has previously been an advocate for the Duke University Breast Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE), the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG™) program, the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC) and the Breast Cancer Steering Committee (BCSC). She is currently an advocate and Co-vice Chair of the Patient Advocate Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology (formerly CALGB/NCCTG/ACOSOG). She also serves as community member of the Community Advisory Board of the Office of Health Equity and Disparities at Duke Cancer Institute (DCI).

Patty is the recipient of the 2002 Susan G. Komen New Volunteer of the Year Award, the 2003 Maureen Jordan-Thomas Spirit of Survivorship Award, the 2007 caBIG™ Patient Advocate Award, and is a June 2003 Project LEAD Graduate. She serves on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Advocates in Science Steering Committee and is a Komen Scholar. Patty is employed full time as a research specialist at North Carolina State University studying molecular pathogenesis of Listeria monocytogenes.

Jeannine Walston has extensive experience in cancer education and advocacy, health care policy, and both conventional and integrative cancer care. Her career includes work in the U.S. Congress, government agencies, cancer non-profit organizations, health care practices, and other health care businesses.

After a few years in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Legislative Aide, she was a policy advocate and lobbyist at the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and assisted the President at the Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy. Jeannine was chosen as the first person to serve in the Food and Drug Administration’s Patient Consultant Program as an advocate in the cancer drug development process, and also selected as a consumer representative in a National Cancer Institute Cooperative Group where she offered the patient’s perspective about clinical trials design. Jeannine reached a point where her work needed to include more than the cancer diagnosis and instead the whole person.

As a writer, trainer, and spokesperson, Jeannine then educated the public about some aspects of complementary health care through the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Clearinghouse. In 2004, Jeannine began her business Healing Focus providing writing, marketing, coaching, and other consulting services to clients such as the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, EmergingMed, Cancer Information and Support Network, site specific cancer non-profits, and health care practices. She went through CancerGuides® of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine by James G. Gordon, MD.

For several years she co-founded a non-profit called EmbodiWorks about integrative cancer care. Jeannine’s work evolved to her own business with services as a Cancer Coach, Writer, Consultant, and Speaker while sharing information and inspiration to support optimal health and healing with or without cancer. Along with various roles of volunteer work, Jeannine serves as an Advisory Board to the Simonton Cancer Center. She has been published in magazines, other media, and spoken before many groups. All of our parts exist in relation to the whole. Jeannine’s personal health care experiences, especially her journey with a brain tumor since March 1998, deeply inform her work and enrich her perspectives.

Jeannine's Website: http://jeanninewalston.com/

Jeannine's Blog: http://jeanninewalston.com/category/blog/

Connect with Jeannine on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/JeannineWalstonHealing