Key Staff

I am a stage 4b oral cancer survivor, and had bilateral cervical metastasis of the disease at the time it was discovered. After trying but successful treatments at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, I became a student of the disease. Once it became clear to me that the death rate and the high morbidity of the disease, and the treatments to control it, could be reduced through a national effort in awareness and early discovery screening programs, combined with motivating professionals to provide opportunistic exams, I chose to leave the private sector and work towards those ends. Initially that effort was as a speaker and advocate, but I rapidly realized that an entity that could bring together different components of the needed solutions, and involve more people to accomplish those goals was necessary. The result was the formation of The Oral Cancer Foundation (OCF), and IRS registered 501c3 non-profit charity. While ultimately there will be scientific solutions and treatment advances to many things, and OCF will financially contribute towards their discovery and availability, they are years away. There are tangible, palpable opportunities to reduce the death rate today while those long-term solutions are being explored and created. There is also a much-needed opportunity to help those currently fighting their own battles with this disease, supporting them with vetted, accurate, current, key information that allows them to make the best decisions possible as they travel their path to wellness. OCF started as a seed of an idea in 1999, and my wife Ingrid and I were the original founders and financially capitalized the beginnings of the foundation. Through the support of key oral cancer saveexperts drawn from treatment, education, research, government, and professional medical and dental societies, and thousands of donors and volunteers, that early idea has been nurtured and grown into a powerful national force for proactive change and improved lives.

Besides the responsibilities that you would expect of the head of an organization like ours, I am also a frequent lecturer at universities and professional medical and dental society meetings and cancer conferences. I have often been the face of the foundation and the disease on TV interviews, an advocate for the cause at various government entities such as the CDC, the NCI, and the NIDCR, and have been interviewed on the subject of oral cancer by print media such as The Wall St. Journal, The Boston Globe, USA Today, and many others. I sit on the oral cancer task forces of many other organizations such as the American Academy of Oral Medicine, The American College of Prosthodontics, The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The International Academy of Oral Oncology, and The Centers for Disease Control Oral Cancer Task Force.

I also work on two National Institutes of Health (NIH) oversight committees; one at the National Cancer Institute, which oversees clinical trials in immunotherapies in head and neck cancers, the other at the NIDCR reviewing trials looking at long-term consequences and outcomes of treatment in head and neck cancers. OCF and I have received numerous awards for our accomplishments. Our strength is developing strategic relationships with partners allied against this disease. Some of the other organizations I am part of on committees and task forces are: College of American Pathologists, HPV / H&N SCC Commission, and their HPV testing guidelines group • American Society of Clinical Oncology, Member • American Academy of Oral Medicine, Member • Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Oral Cancer Work Group • International Academy of Oral Oncology, Member • The Armstrong Foundation Grant Review Committee (past member) • American College of Prosthodontics, Oral Cancer Task Force Member • International Consortium on Head and Neck Cancer Awareness, Founding Member • International Association for Dental Research, Member • American Academy of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral Cancer Task Force Member • American Public Health Association. Member • HPV Action Group (UK), Founding Member.

Simultaneous with my responsibilities at OCF I am the administrator of OCF’s longtime partner, The Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund, overseen by Actress Blythe Danner (Paltrow) and her children Gwyneth and Jake Paltrow.

Most people that know me understand that the many hours I put into OCF are not a job to me, but rather a passion. While I am often incorrectly credited with much of the positive change that has happened, I am very cognizant that there is nothing that I have done alone, nor without standing on the shoulders of others who facilitate my, and the foundation’s success.

Since 2001 I have worked with the foundation to build the Internet site you see here today. It has grown from a simple information dissemination concept into a highly interactive outreach to the public – raising awareness and providing the world’s largest oral cancer support group – with a place to share ideas, help in emotional coping when dealing with the disease, and those newly diagnosed, navigate the path through the treatment process. If it involves anything web-based, from the OCF store to the donations platform to the events’ software, I am tasked with making those things happen efficiently and efficiently.

While I initially came to the foundation as an HTML “code warrior,” today, I am much more emotionally involved with the foundation’s mission. It is gratifying to be an integral part of changing the oral cancer issue by using technological platforms and measuring the impact of the foundation’s reach that these vehicles bring. I strive to constantly see that the mechanisms by which the foundation reaches the public, the population of patients, and the family members it serves are the most current and sophisticated.

My background is in big pharma as a manager with giants like Astra Zeneca and smaller dental implant companies. They were pioneers in making implants the standard restorative tool they are today. My husband, OCF’s Executive Director, and I have been together for over three decades. We started medical/dental businesses from scratch, building them into national entities before selling them. Brian was the person with the vision; I was the person that kept it all financially in line and made sure that the daily nuts and bolts of operating an FDA-regulated, class three medical device company was staying in compliance. Every aspect of it, from working with customers at the many dental and medical trade shows we attended to ensuring the financial and employee components of the company were operating correctly, was my world. In all of our ventures, from implant designing and manufacturing company owners with customers around the world, to now the operations person at OCF; daily details, interfacing with vendors and CPA firms, and staying in compliance with the IRS 501c3 rules that control all US charities, fall into my realm of responsibility. As the Director of Operations, I am also tasked with seeing the nuts and bolts of running the most prominent head and neck/oral cancer national charities in the US happen smoothly. I am responsible for bridging the gap between OCF’s human side of our efforts and the real business of running a national entity. I was my husband’s caregiver during his stage 4 battle with this cancer. While not the patient, caregivers know the physical and emotional toll this disease brings on people’s lives. So my understanding of patients’ needs, empathy for their situation, and a passionate desire to see their impact on the world reduced are all intertwined in my DNA. I manage many of the internal affairs of OCF’s initiatives and programs, as well as the many vendors and relationships with allied professional and charitable organizations. In accomplishing these tasks, the foundation’s many efforts can effectively reach the ever-growing community of supporters and collaborators to promote public education related to oral cancers and their early detection, fund research collaborators at major institutions, conduct advocacy work, support patients and survivors, and raise the public funding necessary to expand the many initiatives of the foundation. One of the main and most enjoyable parts of my job is working directly with the students and other volunteers that help OCF as on-site coordinators at our many walk/run events around the country. Did I say I stay swamped?

As Director of Scientific Affairs for the Oral Cancer Foundation, my role is to help the organization develop rational positions on the issues associated with managing oral cancer and the related risk factors that are consistent with the known scientific facts. Sometimes, this will lead to the public dissemination of corresponding position papers. For example, issues such as tobacco harm reduction, the use of regular Intra and extra oral head and neck exams for oral cancer screening, and the role of adjunctive oral examination devices are all topics about which there are widely differing opinions. My job is to establish positions that facilitate the OCF’s ability to play a vital role in promoting rational discussion on these and other topics based on the existing scientific evidence. In addition, I act as a liaison between the foundation and the clinical/scientific community in the ongoing process of understanding oral cancer and translating this understanding into robust strategies that can be implemented by the dental and/or medical communities. The objective is to help reduce the incidence, morbidity, and mortality associated with this deadly disease.

I have an MSc and Ph.D. in physics and started my academic career as a research fellow at the University of Cambridge in the UK and the University of British Columbia in Canada. Although I found this experience rewarding and satisfying, my interests started to shift toward the life sciences, and I subsequently became a research associate at the BC Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver. This has led to a 12-year association with research and product development of medical devices, the majority of which has been concerned with the use of optical techniques, in particular tissue autofluorescence, as a tool to aid in the detection and management of the human disease. I was involved in product development and clinical/regulatory affairs in developing such devices and as an educator about the disease. I have come to appreciate authentically the tragic human component of the suffering associated with oral cancer and the challenges associated with effecting change in how we deal with it within our society. This has given me a passion for a more significant role as an agent for change. I feel I can leverage my experience to help the Oral Cancer Foundation continue to be a central player in the fight against oral cancer.

At OCF, my primary responsibilities are to design and implement a wide range of programs focused on developing strategic partners and volunteer leaders to join with the foundation on our oral cancer awareness-related endeavors.

As a graduate of the University of California, Irvine with a major in Public Health, I am grateful to be apart of an organization that works toward protecting the oral cancer community’s quality of life issues today and in the future. I am passionate about the foundation’s ability to problem solve and accomplish a wide range of tasks while working on a limited budget. Some of the projects I am engaged in are OCF’s tobacco cessation outreach to youth through the competitive Rodeo world, national screening initiatives with the RDH community, development of the many support materials used by the volunteers that conduct all of our national walk/run/ screening events, as well as coordinating and managing all aspects of our many trade show commitments in the dental, oncology, and nursing world.

I am in charge of seeing that those who visit the OCF web site, and who subscribe to the Oral Cancer News Feed (RSS) from OCF are getting the most up to date articles from around the world on this disease. We survey hundreds of publications each day to seek out the most current and useful information from new peer-reviewed scientific papers, to human interest stories on oral cancer for our subscribers and web visitors. These stories are vetted through OCF to ensure that they provide an accurate representation and the most current thinking on the subject, prior to going live on our news feeds.

In January 2004, I was diagnosed with an oral squamous cell carcinoma. Around this time, I discovered the Oral Cancer Foundation, joined their patient/survivor goup online, and posted my situation, asking for advice. Within hours, I was told in no uncertain terms, to get in my car, drive to a big city with a comprehensive cancer center and get a second opinion. The foundation staff wrote me and advised me to do research on occult metastasis and that, in their experience, single modality treatment was a risky choice in my situation. Both were very timely and important pieces of advice that likely saved my life.

I drove to Boston and consulted with the head of the surgical oncology unit at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. My path reports and slides were sent to the pathology department at Mass. General Hospital for a second opinion. That opinion was that my margins were not clean and that I needed more treatment. Within 5-6 weeks, I began radiation treatment at Mass General and had 33 treatments spread out over 61/2 weeks for a total of 66 grays (Gy) of radiation. That treatment ended in May 2004 and I have been cancer free since that time. I am very grateful for the high quality of advice and support I received from the folks at the foundation. I truly believe that I might not be around had I not followed it. Working in my capacity at OCF today, I now have a chance to give back and provide the same kind of timely and current, trusted information that I hope will help others.

Christine Brader is a single mother whose life was going great until 2007, when she was first diagnosed with oral cancer. She had a great job, a beautiful house, and a happy family life raising her children. All that changed when she became a cancer patient. Alone, she faced a long, hard, never-ending battle.

She was diagnosed three times with oral cancer in 3 consecutive years. The third time she was diagnosed with oral cancer was in 2009; she was Stage IV and needed complicated surgery to remove her jaw. After several complications to that procedure, she became disfigured. The recovery took her over a year. Her life after oral cancer is much different. One thing that has not changed is Christine’s compassion for others, upbeat attitude, and perseverance. Even if the world sees Christine as handicapped, she never lets that get her down. She has turned a potentially harmful life-altering experience into a positive one, full of time and effort spent helping others. She realizes how genuinely fortunate she is to be still alive, so she makes the most of every day. She came to OCF as a patient many years ago and developed a close bond with Brian Hill, the founder. She is one of Brian’s most trusted advisors and personal friends in patient-related affairs. She is known to thousands of newly diagnosed individuals she has worked with in the OCF patient support group.

Today, Christine works on The Oral Cancer Foundation’s public support group forum. She is a Senior Patient Advocate and a board administrator. She welcomes new members, makes them feel at ease, and helps them navigate their battles against oral cancer, always with unparalleled compassion and empathy. She works to help others avoid the pitfalls she went through while battling oral cancer, her personal experiences giving her insight and a manner that endear her to those she assists. Among her other duties with OCF, she is a speaker for some of the awareness events and represents the foundation at professional dental and medical trade shows and seminars. At these events, she meets with other oral cancer patients and dental professionals and provides up-to-date info about oral cancer. Christine tries to spread oral cancer awareness in her community by speaking with local dental professionals about the importance of early detection and oral cancer screenings.

Christine has worked with TRUTH.com and the CDC on nationwide anti-smoking campaigns. You have likely seen her on TV in anti-tobacco public service announcements. She also has been a volunteer driver with the American Cancer Society driving cancer patients to their appointments.

My job is to support and encourage OCF event coordinators on their journey when committing to, or organizing their events. As an event coordinator myself in Oregon, I have intimate knowledge of what it takes to put on a successful event, from obtaining partnerships and sponsors, to the nuts and bolts of running the event itself before and on the day of the event. One of my goals is to create awareness of the importance of finding community event partners, from professional dental societies to treatment centers and dental and hygiene schools. These are the relationships who will share the walk event information, and encourage their members and/or students to register and besides attending, to personally fundraise to help OCF’s research and patient programs. I also work with coordinators in brainstorming the many possibilities for obtaining sponsors, walkers, and volunteers, and how to reach out to them in the most productive way. I talk with new coordinators on the phone, and I am part of the OCF Slack communication conversations, to help create the most successful events.

In 2023 I will become the voice of many of the foundation’s podcasts. This is particularly exciting as I will get to have real time discussions to explore a variety of topics with interesting and knowledgable guests for the followers and listeners of OCF’s Oral Cancer Answers podcast. This position was historically handled by Brian Hill, but he recently lost his speaking voice to long-term neurological complications from his original radiation treatment that saved his life.

As a 40-year dental hygienist in various settings including a focus on public health, I have experience and a passion for helping the foundation to bring more awareness of the importance of oral cancer screenings for every patient in the dental office environment to prevent late-stage oral cancer diagnosis. Part of this includes educating the public through speaking, writing, and walks, so that they too request that their local dental provider screens regularly for oral cancer. We must change the current issue of chronic late discovery of this cancer to a dental environment where early discovery and diagnosis is the norm.

Many other “key” individuals make OCF an influential, award-winning organization. Volunteers, too numerous to mention individually, help OCF spread the vital message of awareness and early detection, help raise money to fund the foundation’s operations and initiatives through their direct donations, and make our many annual walk/run events around the country possible. Survivor volunteers man the foundation’s patient support forums and offer experienced-based insights or emotional support to those just beginning their battle. Through their dedication and desire to live part of their lives in service to others, all volunteers are the heart and soul of OCF. When partnered with our Science Advisory Board which ensures the foundation’s direction is based on well-thought-through ideas, the advisory council is composed of leaders of other much larger nonprofit organizations and celebrities who have had this disease touch their lives. The many individuals that contribute to the foundation’s fulfillment of its missions from the worlds of research, education, government, education, and treatment, these “many” make the OCF successes possible. We are successful because our mission and the ideas that move it forward are founded on a broad base of individuals from many disciplines and avenues of thought. We are not some giant entity caught up in spending our money on perpetuating the mass of our organization. We are a composite of many caring people who have become a large community, mostly uncompensated, drawn together to fight a common enemy with a genuine desire to better the world.