Category Archives: Lunch & Learn

This month’s call in program will help cancer survivors and their families better understand the COVID vaccine and important need for booster shots (and influenza shots) with the holidays soon upon us. Dr. Laura Connelly-Smith of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance will share her professional expertise and answer all your relevant questions and concerns. Jan Selvar, a thriving breast cancer and AML survivor, will share her story and encouraging thoughts on the vaccine. As well, Jennifer Gillette, our licensed staff social worker will host this call. There will be plenty of time for live questions.

This month’s telephone educational and support program will highlight the story of a donor dad who stopped at nothing to save
his daughter, Kenza, diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at just nine months old. Dr. Omar Durani of Dallas, Texas will talk
about Kenza’s life-saving clinical trial five years ago, his family today, the need to spread the word to create much needed awareness
through DKMS, and his incredible haplo donor experience. Leah Szumita, MS, RN, CCRN, ACNS-BC, Director, Clinical Trials Support
Center of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society will join Dr. Durani and further emphasize the importance of clinical trials and how to better
understand and navigate them. The nbmtLINK’s licensed staff social worker, Jennifer Gillette, will facilitate the program. There will also be
plenty of time for live questions.

This month, as we recognize Pediatric Cancer and Blood Cancer Awareness Month, this call-in educational support program will focus
on updates and innovative treatments as they relate to blood cancer diagnoses in adults and children. Dr. Maria Luisa Sulis is an oncologist
specializing in lymphomas and leukemias at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who will share her expertise. As well, a parent to a
pediatric patient will share his/her experience, best tips and coping skills. The nbmtLINK’s licensed staff social worker, Jennifer Gillette
will facilitate the program. There will also be plenty of time for live questions.

This month’s telephone educational and support program will focuson survivor’s guilt, the anxiety you may feel when a peer passes
away as well as how to handle well-intended positivity if you are experiencing negative feelings and despair. Shirley Otis-Green, MSW,
MA, ACSW, LCSW, OSW-CE, FNAP, FAOSW of Collaborative Caring will break it down for us. Two time bone marrow transplant recipient and
survivor Bridget Casey will share her personal experience and some valuable lessons learned along the way. The nbmtLINK’s licensed staff
social worker, Jennifer Gillette, will facilitate the program. There will also be plenty of time for live questions.

This month’s telephone educational and support program will focus on the love/hate of steroids as they relate to chronic GVHD. Dr. Masumi Ueda Oshima, Assistant Professor and Assistant Medical Director for the Inpatient Adult BMT Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance/University of Washington will break it down for us and share her expertise. Sharde Fultz, a chronic GVHD survivor, will share her personal experience including details about how she has managed steroid use and GVHD through the years. The nbmtLINK’s licensed staff social worker, Jennifer Gillette, will facilitate the program. There will also be plenty of time for live questions.

This month’s telephone educational and support program will focus on all things CAR T-cell Therapy. Dr. Lawrence E. Morris is a board certified oncologist at both the Northside Hospital Leukemia Program and Northside Hospital Inpatient BMT Unit, and the Apheresis Collection Facility Co-Director of Atlanta Blood Services. Dr. Morris will break it down for us and share his expertise. CAR T-cell patient, Ray Gillespie, an NHL survivor, now in full remission will share his personal experience including details about his life-saving clinical trial. The nbmtLINK’s licensed staff social worker, Jennifer Gillette, will facilitate the program. There will also be plenty of time for live questions.

Jaap Jan Boelens, MD, PhD, Chief, Stem Cell Transplantation, MSKCC and Cellular Therapies and Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University will break it down for us and help transplant patients learn about factors that influence the immunological situation post-transplant that will result in the best possible outcomes. As well, a young patient’s parent/caregiver will share their personal experience and best tips. The nbmtLINK’s licensed staff social worker, Jennifer Gillette, will facilitate the program. There will also be plenty of time for live questions.

Sandeep Jain, MD, Professor of Ophthalmology, and the Director of the UIC Dry Eye & Ocular GVHD clinic at the Univ. of Chicago will share treatment options including a step-down approach sure to bring relief and improve quality of life. As well, Marilyn Wroblewski, a patient, will share her personal experience and best tips.

Featuring Sherilyn A. Tuazon, MD, MS of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance & Todd Brown, a two-time stem cell transplant recipient with multiple myeloma.

Featuring Jennifer Gillette, our licensed staff social worker, and Jim Bulger, a spouse and caregiver to his wife Nancy.

Featuring Ailey Armstrong, Oncology Social Worker, MSW, LICSW at SCCA and Tracy Jolly, BMT Survivor & AML Survivor.

Featuring Stacey Prieur RN and Jennifer Gillette

Featuring Richard Satterwhite and John Costin.

Featuring Dr. Gwen Nichols, MD; Dr. Kevin Curran, MD; and Michelle Marks, mother of a childhood cancer survivor.

Featuring Dr. Susan DeWolf and John McCaffrey

Featuring Dr. Annie Im, MD, asst. professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Meredith Cowden, a survivor/advocate/clinical counselor with chronic GVHD.

Featuring Dr. Harry P. Erba, MD, PhD of Duke University Medical Center and his patient Debbie Beavers, in remission.

Featuring Jacqueline W. Mays, DDS, MHSc, PhD, Chief, Oral Immunobiology Unit, National Institutes of Health and Cathy Spence, a patient.

Featuring Dr. Laura Connelly-Smith, Associate Professor of Medicine and the Assistant Medical Director of Apheresis and Cellular Therapy at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, who will share her expertise and wisdom. Jennifer Gillette, our LINK licensed staff social worker.

Dawn Speckhart, PhD, Clinical Health Psychologist at the Bone Marrow Transplant/Leukemia Program at Northside Hospital and Juanita McReynolds, a long-time survivor.

Featuring Christina Ferraro, MSN, APRN-CNP, BMTCN, Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Cleveland Clinic and Jennifer Gillette, our LINK licensed staff social worker.

Featuring Costa Herbert, Transplant Nurse at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Patient Barbara Ginsberg

Featuring Kristin N. Smith, Program Manager for Fertility Preservation at Northwestern Medicine

Featuring Peter Adintori, MS, RD of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and survivor Lew Christie

Featuring Christina Ferraro, MSN,CNP, BMTCN, of the Cleveland Clinic Blood & Marrow Transplant Program and survivor Spin Tucker

Featuring Genne Geraghty, PA, Ascension Providence in Michigan and survivor, Peter Thomason

Featuring: Dr. Sergio Giralt, Chief, Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and patient Jacelyn Herman

Featuring: Dr. James Connelly of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and patient Sharde Fultz