Lorenzo Smith Provides Insight into Cancer Research for the American Cancer Society

When I started my PhD in Oncological Sciences, I had an optimistic assumption that my graduate work would quickly materialize into something that could impact the health and wellbeing of patients. However, humbled by the slow progress of research, I quickly realized that a research discovery amounting to a significant societal impact can require a marathon of meticulous work in a scientist’s lifetime. While I appreciate this work is important for providing a better long-term future for all, I have become eager in helping my community and society not only in the future, but in the current day as well.

But how can a scientist lead work that has an immediate and direct impact on their community? Becoming lost in the rigorous day-to-day cycle of experiments and classes of my PhD training, this is something I deeply questioned with myself over the past year. I came to realize that to have an impact in their community, a scientist must first understand how to connect and engage with the public. Coincidentally, the STEMAP program appeared in my life at the perfect time as an opportunity to learn these important skills. Through the STEMAP program, I gave myself the opportunity to explore how a scientists can engage with community groups to achieve mutual missions and goals in society. This led me down a path of attending an event put on by American Cancer Society’s advocacy group, ACS-CAN, during this past legislative session. It was here that I learned about local insurance policy issues that make it extremely difficult for patients, notably cancer patients, to afford prescription medications. If we as scientists are working so tediously to develop new treatment strategies, then what is the point if many patients cannot financially access these medications? Inspired by the event, I immediately knew I wanted to work with the American Cancer Society (ACS) to support their missions of patient support, advocacy, and accelerating research discoveries. I quickly connected with the Utah chapter of the ACS, specifically their Young Professional Board, for my STEMAP engagement activity.

My partnership with the ACS Young Professional Board turned out to be perfect match. While I was hoping to progress my skills in public communication and engagement, the board was seeking someone to provide them with a lens into cancer research. The board includes volunteering individuals from various local sectors such as tech, banking, and nursing, who have the ultimate goal of organizing a large fundraising event in May 2025. The goal of my engagement activity was to provide board members with perspectives in cancer research and research funding so that they could eventually construct effective fundraising pitches for cancer research. To do so, I worked with ACS leadership to establish a presentation that spanned from talking about my cancer research, to the composition of academic labs, and the issues academic labs face with current low federal pay lines. After a few weeks of optimizing my slides and presentation, my engagement activity took place at ACS’s local Hope Lodge during one of the ACS Young Professional Board’s monthly meetings.

Reflecting on my engagement activity, I believe it was a great success overall. ACS leadership was delighted with the presentation and several board members thanked me for an informative presentation afterwards. However, since my presentation was incorporated into the monthly board meeting, there were still agenda items for the board to discuss after my presentation. In turn, this prevented an opportunity to supplement my presentation with any further engagement activities, such as practicing fundraising pitches that incorporated topics in my presentation. Instead, to help board members retain information for fundraising pitches, I created an informative fact sheet for members to utilize. Further, since the large ACS Young Professional Board fundraising event will not take place until May 2025, there is time to re-engage with the team to give them more insight into cancer research and funding for future fundraising pitches.

Overall, the STEMAP program has provided me with the inspiration, education, and opportunity to properly engage with my community. I would like to thank Andrew George and Corinne Ryan from STEMAP leadership for their guidance and support with this project. Furthermore, I would like to thank the American Cancer Society for providing me an opportunity to engage with their young professional board. Specifically, this opportunity would not have materialized without the help of Averiel Bailey, a senior development manager with ACS, who connected me with the Utah ACS chapter and set me up with an opportunity to lead my engagement activity.

Following the STEMAP program, I plan on continuing engagement work with ACS and my community. Importantly, I now feel inspired that a scientist can indeed have immediate and direct impacts on their community beyond the cerebral conclusions of their research. With this experience and my new connections, I have developed a resounding appetite to consider science policy and non-profit work as future career opportunities.

 

Links:

https://www.fightcancer.org/about 

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2024/2/14/24070856/high-medication-costs-cancer-utah-legislature/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=dn-social&utm_campaign=twitter&utm_content=deseretnews