NCI Director’s Consumer Liaison Group Is Named

BETHESDA, Md—Fifteen consumer advocates will form the first Director’s Consumer Liaison Group (DCLG) at the National Cancer Institute. Panel members, most of them cancer survivors, were selected from a pool of 136 candidates. They will serve 3-year terms on the new advisory board, which will hold its first meeting in December.

The NCI said that the group will:

• Serve as a primary forum for discussing issues and concerns and exchanging viewpoints that are important to the broad development of NCI program and research priorities.
• Help develop and establish processes, mechanisms, and criteria for identifying appropriate consumer advocates to serve on a variety of NCI program and policy committees.
• Establish and maintain strong collaboration between NCI and the cancer advocacy community.

DCLG will make its recommendations directly to the Advisory Committee to the Director, chaired by NCI director Richard Klausner, MD. “I expect that the DCLG will not only be a channel for consumers to voice their opinions and concerns, but also a mechanism by which the NCI can obtain advice and feedback from the consumer community on a broad range of issues,” he said.

Named to the panel were Paula E. Bowen, Brooklyn, NY; Susan Lowell Butler, Alexandria, Va; Manuel H. Castillo, Dayton, Ohio; Kerry J. Dewey, Missoula, Mont; M. Venus Gines, Lithonia, Ga; Felicia Schanche Hodge, Berkeley, Calif; Michael Katz, New York, NY; Susan A. Leigh, Tucson, Ariz; Ruth Chiang Lin, Short Hills, NJ; Gena H. Love, Albuquerque, NM; Susan McCarthy, Vancouver, Wash; Daniel M. Moore, Jr., Decatur, Ill; Lillouise Rogers, Chicago; Susan K. Stewart, Highland Park, Ill; and Brad Zebrack, Ann Arbor, Mich.