Dr. Alan Tan is director of the genitourinary oncology program at Rush University medical center and co-leads the precision medicine program.  He is co-chair of the Hoosier cancer research network melanoma working group.  He also serves as the genitourinary executive officer for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.  His research interests include biomarker development for melanoma and genitourinary malignancies.

Michael Postow is a medical oncologist and the Chief of the Melanoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He led the first randomized trial of combination immune checkpoint inhibition (nivolumab + ipilimumab), resulting in its FDA approval. He has also written and presented on topics related to immunotherapy outcomes and side effects and studied new ways to combine immunotherapy with local treatments (i.e. radiation).  His completed and ongoing work continue to impact cancer patients and advance immunotherapy for melanoma and other diseases. He enjoys skiing, outdoor activities, and trying to keep up with his two toddlers and triathlete wife.

Bennie Lunsford has had stage 4 cancer since 2013 and was stage 2 in 2005. He has pretty much done almost all the treatments you can think of. He has a wife, Janet, that he owes his reason for still being here. She was the one that was instrumental in finding the trial and treatments that allow him to be here today. Bennie has two children, Colby who is 13 and Emmi who is 16. He lives in Houston, Texas and is the IT Director for an engineering firm.  

Kim Watkins, our Director of Advocacy, joined the MRF in July 2022.

She oversees our federal and state legislative and regulatory policy agenda and advocacy. Prior to joining the MRF, she served as the Policy and Advocacy Manager at the American Urological Association, harnessing the power of patients and physicians advocating together on behalf of urologic conditions such as prostate, kidney, and bladder cancers. In addition, Kim has been a strong advocate for children’s health through her work with the South Carolina Immunization Coalition, the Bradshaw Institute for Community Child Health and Advocacy, and as the founder of the parent-to-parent peer-led education group South Carolina Parents for Vaccines. Kim’s innovative approach to vaccine education and policy change attracted the attention of NPR, Kaiser Health News, and the CDC. In 2019, she was awarded the Childhood Immunization Champion Award and selected as the CDC’s national award spokesperson.

Kim has been featured on BBC One, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and Kaiser Health News.

Jennifer Schultz is an educator, speaker and writer with a background in digital marketing, social media management and event planning. After receiving both her bachelor's and master's degrees from Concordia University in St. Paul, MN, she is actively involved in the community she now calls home. In addition to teaching public speaking at her alma mater, she serves on the Athletics Committee of their Alumni Advisory Council and works as an Academic Coach at Athletes Committed to Students (ACES) where she works with middle school students form underrepresented communities, using sports to engage them in Math and social-emotional learning.

As a four-time melanoma survivor, Jenn is passionate about spreading melanoma awareness and educating her community on sun safety. She is certified melanoma educator through the Melanoma Research Foundation and has built a community of other cancer survivors, thrivers and warriors through her website jennpatrice.com and her podcast Company You Keep. 

Kristin is a successful marketing professional with over 22 years of experience in search engine optimization, project management and marketing communications.  She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and a Master’s Degree in Marketing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Terrilyn is a 7^th grad educator residing in Denver Colorado. She is a stage 4 cutaneous melanoma survivor and has been 27 years NED. Terrilyn has been an advocate, volunteer, and phone buddy with the Melanoma Research Foundation since 2016. Terrilyn began using tanning beds at the age of 15 and now chooses to educate teens and young adults about the harmful effects of the sun and indoor tanning.  

Jennifer Schultz is an educator, speaker and writer with a background in digital marketing, social media management and event planning. After receiving both her bachelor's and master's degrees from Concordia University in St. Paul, MN, she is actively involved in the community she now calls home. In addition to teaching public speaking at her alma mater, she serves on the Athletics Committee of their Alumni Advisory Council and works as an Academic Coach at Athletes Committed to Students (ACES) where she works with middle school students form underrepresented communities, using sports to engage them in Math and social-emotional learning.

As a four-time melanoma survivor, Jenn is passionate about spreading melanoma awareness and educating her community on sun safety. She is certified melanoma educator through the Melanoma Research Foundation and has built a community of other cancer survivors, thrivers and warriors through her website jennpatrice.com and her podcast Company You Keep. 

Kelly has traveled the world as an actress, model, international pageant titleholder & makeup/spray tan artist. She is now dedicating herself and work to the healing of the mind and body in the modalities of life coaching, writing, teaching of goddess yoga and hosting wellness retreats. She lives in the Atlanta area with her 3 kids, Ty, Micah and Ali, and 2 dogs, Buddy and Francisico. 

Starr is a 35-year-old stage 3B melanoma survivor. She lives in beautiful middle Tennessee about 50 miles south of Nashville. She works for a rural broadband communication provider that is working to bring high speed internet to underserved communities in Tennessee. In light of her diagnosis of melanoma in 2019, she believes it is extremely critical to inform and educate others about sun safety and early detection. 

Melanoma survivor 

Karen joined CSC in October 2019 and is the Senior Director and Patient Navigator of the Cancer Support Helpline. She has 30 years of oncology experience as a social worker and practice administrator in university health care settings as well as patient services, fundraising, and programs development in the nonprofit cancer advocacy space. At CSC Karen is a member of the Programs team and provides clinical oversight of the Cancer Support Helpline. In addition, Karen coordinates navigation services for patients and caregivers. Her special areas of interest include mental health in cancer, financial navigation, caregiver needs, addressing barriers to care, adult learning needs, and process improvement in health care. Karen is from the Philadelphia area and is married with two sons, two step-daughters, and two rescue dogs. For fun she enjoys hiking, cycling, reading, music, and spending time with family. 

Nigel Deacon is the co-founder of Ocumel Canada, an initiative of Save Your Skin Foundation in Canada. He retired from a career in public education in 2012 when he was diagnosed with metastatic ocular melanoma. He now devotes his time to improving outcomes for Canadian OM patients. Ocumel Canada was founded in January 2019 and you can find out more at ocumelcanada.ca. Nigel also is a member of the CURE OM Steering Committee.

Dr. Sara Selig is the Co-Founder and Director of the MRF’s CURE OM initiative. Sara initially became involved with the OM community when her husband, Gregg, was diagnosed with the disease in 2006, at the age of 34, when Sara was a fourth year medical student. At the time of Gregg’s diagnosis, Gregg and Sara became fierce advocates for Gregg’s care and the entire OM community as well. Sara continues to be a passionate advocate for the ocular melanoma field—working to accelerate research, promote collaboration, and support patients and caregivers through her leadership of the CURE OM initiative. She is currently Associate Physician in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Basil K. Williams Jr., MD is an ocular oncologist and vitreoretinal surgeon at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, where he completed his ophthalmology residency and vitreoretinal surgery fellowship and served as a chief resident and co-director of ocular trauma. During this time, he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society and won the Fellow of the Year Award. He completed an additional fellowship in ocular oncology at Wills Eye Hospital, where he received the William Tasman Outstanding Fellow Teaching Award. He grew up in the Bronx, NY and received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Yale University. He then attended The Chicago Medical School where he was elected to the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Prior to joining Bascom Palmer, he was the Director of Ocular Oncology at the University of Cincinnati and held the Mary Knight Asbury Endowed Chair of Ocular Oncology.  

Dr. Patel is an Associate Professor, Fellowship Program Director, and Director of the Uveal Melanoma Program in the Department of Melanoma Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.  She is also Chair of the SWOG Melanoma Committee.

In these roles, she serves as lead physician for the uveal melanoma trials at MD Anderson including numerous investigator-initiated and sponsored clinical trials as well as Project 3 Co-Leader for the Melanoma SPORE.  She is also national Study Chair of SWOG S1801 and S1404 trials, the largest melanoma trials investigating neoadjuvant and adjuvant checkpoint blockade for cutaneous melanoma.

She has authored over 88 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, more than 28 as first or senior author.  Her grant work focuses on translational research, for which she has received at least 8 independent intramural and extramural funding awards as PI from the NIH/NCI, DOD, Melanoma SPORE, and MD Anderson Institutional Research Grants and Multidisciplinary Research Program award.  The goals of Dr. Patel’s work are to translate the findings into effective monitoring and therapeutic strategies for patients with melanoma. 

Dr. Eric Wehrenberg-Klee is an interventional radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA where he is the Director of the Center for Image-Guided Cancer Therapy, as well as an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School.  He is the primary investigator on multiple investigator initiated and industry sponsored trials evaluating the role of minimally invasive interventional procedures for the treatment of cancer.  His laboratory work focus on the immune response to local tumor therapies and their synergy with checkpoint inhibition and is sponsored by grant funding from the National Cancer Institute.  

Dr. Steven Katz joined TriSalus in 2018 as Chief Medical Advisor and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Boards. In September 2020, Steven became the first Chief Medical Officer of TriSalus. Previously, as a full-time academic surgical oncologist, he developed a reputation as a leader in solid tumor immunotherapy, cellular therapeutics, cancer biology, liver immunology and execution of immunotherapy clinical trials. His laboratory has focused on studying liver immunosuppressive cells and strategies for enabling immunotherapy in liver tumors. He also currently serves as Associate Professor of Surgery at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. His clinical expertise is in surgical therapy and multi-disciplinary management of liver tumors, pancreas tumors, sarcoma and melanoma.