Helping teams connect healthcare information with patients’ everyday lives
I’m a patient advocate, patient advisor and certified health & life coach with an MBA in Marketing and a background in healthcare consulting, market research and healthcare software.
I bring experience from both sides of healthcare: working with healthcare organizations and navigating multifocal invasive lobular carcinoma as a mother of three.
My focus is a gap I’ve experienced personally and encountered through survivor coaching:
Patients receive information—but are often left asking, “Now what?”
I help teams identify missing questions, confusing choices and practical barriers so information, resources and tools reflect what patients need to understand, decide and manage.
Who I can Support
- Cancer nonprofits and patient communities developing education, resources and survivorship support.
- Academic and research teams seeking patient input on priorities, materials and participant experience.
- Healthcare, life-sciences, health-tech and medtech organizations developing patient-facing information, programs and tools.
How I help
- Patient advisory input: Bring lived patient experience together with my marketing and healthcare background to help teams understand patient priorities, question assumptions and identify gaps in programs, services and resources.
- Patient education and communication: Review whether information answers patients’ actual questions, explains choices clearly and helps them understand what comes next—especially when they are overwhelmed or facing difficult decisions.
- Co-creation and patient feedback: Contribute structured feedback on early concepts, websites and patient-facing tools, drawing on both patient experience and my previous work with healthcare customers and solution adoption.
- Survivorship and quality of life: Bring attention to what recommendations require in everyday life: managing side effects, limited energy, parenting, work and financial pressures. My lived experience and survivor coaching inform this perspective.
- Research advocacy and patient priorities: Available to contribute patient questions, perspectives on meaningful outcomes and practical participation burdens to research discussions, supported by Project LEAD® training.
- Workshops, facilitation and speaking: Translate survivorship experiences and coaching concepts into clear, practical education that helps people explore priorities and realistic next steps.
Selected Roles & Contributions
- Patient Expert Advisor — University of Michigan Medical School: Contribute patient feedback to the development of a website about contraceptive care after breast cancer for younger survivors, reviewing content for clarity, relevance and real-life usefulness.
- Young Advocate & Contributor — Living Beyond Breast Cancer: Completed advocacy training and contributed patient education on reconstruction, survivorship, and sexual health (Read my reconstruction article)
- Survivorship Coach & Workshop Facilitator: Provide 1:1 coaching and created a practical workshop addressing recurring challenges such as information overload, decision fatigue, limited capacity, and turning recommendations into sustainable action.
Survivorship Workshop
Lots of Recommendations: Now What?
This workshop was developed from recurring needs I identified through one-to-one coaching with cancer survivors.
Participants work on:
- Identifying what is keeping them overwhelmed or stuck
- Separating meaningful priorities from competing “shoulds”
- Deciding what matters most now Creating realistic next steps
- Building routines that fit their energy, responsibilities and lives
The workshop combines lived experience with health and life coaching and behavior-change tools. It can be adapted for cancer nonprofits, patient communities, survivorship programs, and healthcare organizations.
Selected Media & Advocacy
My patient and survivor perspective has been featured by:
- Cover Story — Health Monitor Living: Breast Cancer
Cover story on treatment decisions, survivorship, and practical strategies for making life more manageable. Read the feature - KQED Perspectives — “What I Wish I Knew”
Commentary on breast density, mammography limitations, and informed screening conversations. Listen - Living Beyond Breast Cancer — Published Article & Patient Contribution
Wrote about reconstruction choices, self-advocacy and planning recovery as a mother of three; contributed survivor perspective on treatment-related menopause and sexual health.
Read my reconstruction article · Read the sexual-health feature - Vallejo Times-Herald
Profile on breast cancer advocacy, survivorship education, and patient empowerment. Read the profile - Center for Restorative Breast Surgery
Patient perspective on reconstruction, recovery, and self-advocacy. Read my story - ARTIDIS Patient Perspective
Shared brief patient perspective on emerging cancer technology, what it could mean for patients, and the hope that it may help answer questions about why some cancers recur and others do not.
Watch the video - Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance
Personal perspective on multifocal ILC, detection challenges, and patient education. Read my story
Patient Guide
Breast Reconstruction: What’s the Deal?
A visual, real-life guide to navigating breast reconstruction after breast cancer.
Created to help women:
- Understand their reconstruction options
- Formulate more informed questions
- Prepare for conversations with their healthcare teams
- Approach decisions with greater clarity and confidence
Understand your options. Ask better questions. Feel more prepared.
Interested in Collaborating?
Looking for patient input on a resource, program or tool—or practical survivorship education for your community? Let’s discuss how I could contribute.