Page 27 - Demo

Christiana Care has played a leading role in projects dealing with epidemiology
and biostatistics, and in the broad area
of community engagement, where there
is a growing emphasis on identifying and correcting health disparities — a theme of this year’s conference.
One example of the campaign to reduce and correct health disparities is the research led by Jennifer Sims-Mourtada, Ph.D., senior research scientist and director of Translational Breast Cancer Research in the Helen F. Graham
Cancer Center & Research Institute. Her work focuses on the identification and treatment of triple negative breast cancer. As a conference platform presenter, Sims-Mourtada explained that triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive
Sims-Mourtada has partnered with a research advisory group made up of members of the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, the American Cancer Society, Christiana Care physicians and members of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, an African-American sorority.
The advisory group members all agreed on the need to improve outreach to African-American women and worked on
| Extraordinary People the creation of breast cancer educational
materials, which have already been presented to 70 community members by trained volunteers. The piloted materials, which were greatly improved by the research advisory group, are now being shared at more public events in hopes of increasing education about breast cancer, preventive check-ups and genetic testing and helping advance translational science bytakingpartinclinicaltrials. CONTINUED
The DE-CTR ACCEL Community Advisory Council Chair Marlene Saunders, DSW, MSW, led a community panel discussion around identifying and overcoming barriers within
disease that disproportionately affects African-American women, who are underrepresented in genetic testing and clinical trials.
In addition to working with scientists from the University of Delaware and The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia,
health disparities research and the importance of promoting community engagement within a context of health equity, genetics, and promoting well-being for all.
From left, Robert Akins, Jr., Ph.D., FAACP, DM, FAHA; Marlene Saunders, DSW, MSW; Omar Khan, M.D., MHS, FAAFP; Heather Bittner Fagan, M.D., MPH; Mia Papas, Ph.D.; Vicky Funanage, Ph.D.; Delaware Gov. John Carney; Carolyn Jenkins, DrPH, RD, APRN, FAAN; Stuart Binder-Macleod, PT, PhD, FAPTA; Claudine Jurkovitz, M.D., MPH; Marsha T. Horton, Ph.D.; Lee Pachter, D.O.; and Jennifer Passarella, MBA(c).
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