The International Cancer Expert Corps establishes the Ellen Lewis Stovall Early Career Leaders Working Group Fund
Ellen Lewis Stovall Early Career Leaders Working Group Fund
Ellen Stovall, a founding member of the International Cancer Expert Corps, had great vision and an unsurpassed understanding of the needs of people with cancer and their families, friends and colleagues. She was a decisive leader in the cancer survivorship community and for nearly two decades served as President and CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.
Recognizing the enormous gap in cancer care for the underserved worldwide in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries and also among the indigenous and geographically isolated peoples in the United States and other resource-rich countries, Ellen joined the ICEC Board of Directors to help develop the unique ICEC approach to global mentorship and to help bring altruistic human service careers to the fore in cancer care.
This challenge provides an enormous opportunity for creativity, investigation, service and determination to reduce the burden of cancer on millions of people. To be successful and to reach the scale of action necessary, there is a need for a career-long effort that requires sustainability and continuity so that person-to-person partnerships can be established and maintained. Ellen astutely recognized the importance of mentorship and support from leadership for those individuals who displayed a genuine interest in this area of pioneering global health work.
In honor of Ellen’s transformational role in cancer survivorship, the ICEC has established the Ellen Stovall Early Career Leaders Working Group Fund. These leaders are trainees and early career academic faculty and private practitioners with demonstrated global health interests who have joined ICEC. These leaders will dedicate their efforts to 1) implementing ICEC’s unique mentorship model to develop sustainable cancer care in underserved communities worldwide and 2) establishing person-to-person relationships with people on the ground. Working with and supporting these leaders of the next generation, ICEC will help sustain careers in global health and service to the underserved in general, which is somewhat challenging in the current healthcare environment.
Contributions to this fund to honor Ellen’s efforts may be made online to the Ellen Stovall Early Career Leaders Working Group Fund or by completing and mailing in a downloadable donation form. Persons, practices or academic centers who have an interest in applying for support, or to become an ICEC Hub, Expert, Center or Associate should complete an ICEC application found on the ICEC website at iceccancer.org/apply/.
Further information on the ICEC model is on the ICEC website and in Science Translational Medicine.
Photo Credits
Ellen Stovall – Connie Rieder
