Director's Welcome
To Pause and Reflect, to Engage and Inspire It’s time again to pause and reflect on the progress made by our funded investigators and overall within breast cancer research. “From Research to Action: Breaking New Ground” gives us the chance to see the accomplishments that people are making against breast cancer, to interact directly with each other, and to launch ourselves into the next two years with renewed vigor and enthusiasm.
Plenary sessions and workshops will discuss a broad range of the most important topics currently under investigation in breast cancer research and identify other potentially fruitful areas to explore. These discussions are designed to be friendly to a lay audience in order to increase participation in the discussions.
Be sure to browse the exhibit area, where you’ll find displays of some of the latest research results presented by our funded researchers, an art exhibition, and valuable information and resources offered by nonprofit organizations. Art and science stand side by side at our symposium, because we see how art bridges the gap between complex fact and intuitive understanding. Artists create tangible expressions of research questions; we fund the research that addresses the issues expressed in art. Art inspires science, and science inspires art.
We are making tremendous progress on our Special Research Initiatives, and symposium attendees will have the opportunity to hear from—and speak with—several of our steering committee members. Sandra Steingraber is our keynote speaker this year, and Olufunmilayo I (Funmi) Olopade and David R. Williams will be speaking in our evening plenary session, “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Breast Cancer” on Friday, September 7. Because all of our SRI steering committee members are or have been involved in the CBCRP, they understand and share our mission and our stakeholders’ vision.
Constructive input helps us remain flexible and continue as one of the top-rated breast cancer research programs. We encourage and appreciate public input and feedback about our Program at any time, but there is something truly special about the face-to-face opportunities that arise during our symposium. The immediate value of having a conversation, sharing a moment, and exchanging ideas creates new opportunities for growth and brings together our diverse attendees to share priorities, needs, and research findings.
The symposium offers a chance for all of us to pause, reflect, and see where we can make advances against breast cancer. It’s a chance to acknowledge both the progress our researchers have made and the impact that breast cancer still has on our lives. It’s a personal opportunity for me to become recharged in our mission of eradicating breast cancer. We come together with enthusiasm and intensity in order to create new hope and optimism for a future without breast cancer.
Mhel Kavanaugh-Lynch, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, California Breast Cancer Research Program
