Tag Archives: Disparities in Health Care

Behind the Mask: Public Health Innovator Dr. Stephaun E. Wallace

by Shann Thomas


Dr. Stephaun E. Wallace already had a lengthy list of job titles: the director of external relations for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s (Fred Hutch) HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), faculty appointments at Fred Hutch and the University of Washington (UW), as a staff scientist and clinical assistant professor respectively, in addition to launching the inaugural Office of Community Engagement for the UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research.

After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, however, Wallace expanded his current job as director of external relations for HVTN to include the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), which coordinated all major COVID-19 vaccine efficacy trials except Pfizer-BioNTech’s. 

Wallace smiles, and says, “My mother and my team accuse me of … being a triplet; because they’re like ‘We don’t understand how one person can do all that you do and still … absorb as much information’ as I do, and have the mastery of having to categorize it and spit it back out without much concern or draw there.”

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Cierra Sisters Host Annual World Cancer Day Event Dedicated to Embracing Knowledge

by Chamidae Ford


Bridgette Hempstead, the founder of Cierra Sisters, received her breast cancer diagnosis on her 35th birthday. A diagnosis she had to fight tooth and nail to get. 

When Hempstead went to the doctor intending to get a mammogram, her doctor urged her not to — not just because she was young, but because she was Black.

Continue reading Cierra Sisters Host Annual World Cancer Day Event Dedicated to Embracing Knowledge