Centering the Patient Voice in Research

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.