Learn why breast cancer is more deadly for Black women and steps you can take.

Thanks to our amazing presenters, Erika Stallings & Dr. Altovise Ewing, JALBCA’s program was a spectacular success.

If you missed it, here’s the pdf presentation for download.

View the recording of the presentation below:

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES

ALTOVISE T. EWING, Ph.D., LCGC

Dr. Altovise Ewing is a clinician-scientist with 10+ years of genetic counseling and health disparities research experience. She earned a Ph.D. in Genetics and Human Genetics with a specialization in Genetic Counseling from Howard University in 2011.

During her training, she spent time at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Human Genome Research Institute and the National Cancer Institute. She completed a cancer health disparities postdoctoral research fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Altovise has dedicated her career to ensuring that emerging genetic and genomic resources, services and technologies do not further exacerbate health disparities and inequities. Her unwavering passion for health equity and inclusion has facilitated opportunities for her to engage with various audiences in the genetics and genomics industry.

She also has experience serving as a trusted and committed healthcare liaison to marginalized, medically underserved, and underrepresented communities participating in research. Her scholarship focuses on inclusion of diverse patient populations in cancer genetics research and the development of ethically sound educational strategies to better serve and address the needs of medically underserved populations.

Currently, Altovise serves as a Senior Science Lead and Strategist on the Global Health Equity and Population Science (HEPS) team at Genentech.

ERIKA STALLINGS, ESQ., BRCA awareness advocate and Assistant General Counsel, Music Product, Facebook

Erika Stallings is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where she was the recipient of a Morehead-Cain scholarship and Georgetown University Law Center. She spent six years in private practice focusing on intellectual property litigation and trademark prosecution and enforcement before moving in-house to work at Broadcast Music, Inc, the largest performance rights organization in the United States. She currently is an attorney at Facebook Music. Erika serves as the co-chair for the Associates Board for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. She has been a featured speaker at the New York State Bar Association, the National Bar Association and the MONDO Music Conference.

In 2014, Erika underwent genetic testing and learned that she had inherited a BRCA2 mutation, a hereditary cancer mutation that significantly elevates the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. She underwent a preventative mastectomy in December 2014. Her experience led her to research disparities in breast cancer outcomes between black and white women and she has become a speaker and patient advocate for increasing awareness of hereditary breast cancer among women of color.

She has spoken about her experience with BRCA at the New York Junior League, Susan G. Komen of Greater NYC, the Association of Black Women Attorneys and the Basser Center for BRCA. She also serves as the founding co-chair of the Young Leadership Council for the Basser Center for BRCA, which has raised over $75,000 to raise money to support research into cancers caused by BRCA mutations. She has written about her experience as a BRCA carrier for the New York Times, The Cut, the Huffington Post, Lifetime, HelloGiggles, and SheKnows.

Co-Sponsors

Association of Black Women Attorneys
Beatrice W. Welters Breast Health Outreach and Navigation Program
Caribbean American Lawyers Association
Haitian American Lawyers Association of New York
Judicial Friends Association, Inc.
Latino Judges Association
Macon B. Allen Black Bar Association
Metropolitan Black Bar Association
Minority Bar Association of Western New York
National Bar Association Judicial Council
Puerto Rican Bar Association, Inc.
Rochester Black Bar Association
Tribune Society, Inc.
Westchester Black Bar Association

The program is open to the public without charge.