Cancer expert to present annual Nelson lecture

BUFFALO, N.Y – Renowned cancer researcher Karen Meneses, PhD, will present the University at Buffalo School of Nursing’s Fifth Annual Margaret A. Nelson Lecture.

The lecture, “Cancer Survivorship Disparities Research: Experience with Networking, Collaboration and Mentoring,” is scheduled at 2 p.m. on April 10 in 114 Wende Hall on the South Campus.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow at 3 p.m.

“I am delighted to present this year’s Margaret A. Nelson Lecture and represent her lifelong commitment to nursing,” says Meneses, professor and associate dean for research and scholarship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

“My work in cancer reflects a change from the focus on diabetes, yet both are considered chronic illnesses that have an impact on the individual and the family.”

Meneses is an internationally recognized nurse scientist in breast cancer survivorship, however, her early ambitions were in a different field.

After college, Meneses set out to become a labor and delivery nurse, but the only position she found was on a gynecologic oncology unit where most of the patients had breast or reproductive system cancers.  Touched by her patients, a more than 30-year career in education and cancer survivor research was born.

Her randomized clinical trial of patient-directed, nurse-led quality-of-life interventions, known as the Breast Cancer Education Intervention, is recognized as a national model of cancer survivorship education and was adopted by the National Cancer Institute.

In addition to publishing more than 100 journal articles and editing two oncology textbooks, Meneses leads the Young Breast Cancer Survivorship Network, a UAB initiative that improves the quality of life for survivors through education and personal support.

She was appointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee on breast cancer in young women in 2013. In addition, Meneses was appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board by former President George W. Bush in 2006.

Meneses earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Georgetown University and her master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing from Boston College.

“Dr. Meneses is such an accomplished researcher, with significant expertise in quality of life and other cancer survivorship issues – extremely important topics in health care today,” says Marsha Lewis, PhD, professor and dean of the School of Nursing.

“We are fortunate that Margaret Nelson’s endowment has provided for an annual lecture that has not only enabled the School of Nursing to attract high caliber speakers to UB, but also to open this forum to the public and share this opportunity with our Western New York community."

Margaret A. Nelson, a UB School of Nursing alumna, created the endowed fund to honor her late children, Linda Nelson Buettner and Bruce Nelson, who died of complications related to diabetes.

The endowment fund was established to invite a visiting scholar to the UB School of Nursing to commemorate her lifelong commitment to the nursing field and educate faculty, students, staff and the community about prevention, early detection and management of diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

To register, contact Donna Tyrpak at 716-829-3448.