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Our Mission & Vision
Our Mission: To ensure full access to timely, appropriate cancer care for low-income, medically, and socially underserved women with cancer.
Our Vision: To protect and sustain high quality, comprehensive cancer care for all women receiving treatment and services within the safety net at (Zuckerberg SFGH, other hospitals and clinics, and community-based organizations). This vision can only be accomplished when all treatment and services are delivered with compassion as well as with linguistic and cultural sensitivity.
Our Story
The San Francisco Women’s Cancer Network (SFWCN) was founded in 1987. SFWCN is a coalition of health care professionals, consumer health advocates, and community members dedicated to improving the health status and cancer awareness among low income, uninsured/underinsured, and minority women in San Francisco. Members came together to raise money for low-cost mammograms, for uninsured/underinsured women in San Francisco.
SFWCN facilitates close collaboration between health care providers/case managers in the San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco General Hospital and community-based organizations assisting women in accessing practical support services.
Currently, SFWCN is also serving in an advisory capacity as the Cancer Advisory Committee to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, regarding crucial safety-net services.
Spotlight
Former Board President, Judith Luce, MD is a founding member of the San Francisco Women’s Cancer Network. She shares her views on why the Network was founded and why it is still relevant today.
Watch Video
Our Network Members
Bay Area Cancer Connections
Bay Area Cancer Connections supports anyone affected by breast or ovarian cancer with personalized services that inform and empower. Their community network is backed by some of the most prestigious and trusted medical organizations in the Bay Area who assist in serving those most in need of services.
Breastoration Ink
Breastoration Ink is a non-profit with a passion for helping humans feel whole again through expert 3D-nipple tattoo artistry after breast cancer reconstruction surgery. The benefits of 3D nipple tattooing (also known as nipple /areola re-pigmentation) include restoration of a natural looking breast and the possible avoidance of additional surgeries, as well as emotional healing.
Sunflower Women Support Group, Self-Help for the Elderly
A free support group for Chinese cancer survivors. Sunflower Women Support Group offers in-person gatherings, tai chi, online educational sessions, and quarterly outings. The group aims to create safe and welcoming spaces where members can share, heal, and connect.
Circulo de Vida
In the field of cancer, many of the inroads to increasing language-specific psychosocial support in the SF Bay Area is directly attributed to Círculo de Vida Cancer Support and Resource Center. Founded in 1992, we are the first successful Spanish-language support group program in the greater Bay Area.
Pilipino Senior Resource Center
The Center provides support groups for seniors, and breast cancer survivors. Services also include case management, referrals for housing and medical care, and they offer translation services that range from explaining forms written in English to interpreting during doctors’ visits.
Rafiki Coalition
The Rafiki Coalition provides support groups for seniors, and breast cancer survivors and an array of other services ranging from explaining forms written in English to interpreting during doctors’ visits to improve people’s lives by reducing health inequities that impact the Black/African American community and other under-served groups in San Francisco.
Shanti
Shanti’s Margot Murphy Women’s Cancer Program offers services to mitigate the barriers women face after a cancer diagnosis through practical assistance and emotional support augmenting hospital-based care and reducing the social, economic, linguistic, and cultural barriers.
thesecondopinion
Theseondopinion provides free multidisciplinary, comprehensive second opinions to adults in California diagnosed with new or recurrent cancers. Their goal is to ensure that every cancer patient has access to a second opinion and is empowered to make informed medical decisions. Since 1969, the organization has served more than 10,000 patients throughout California.
Leadership
We are a community-centered organization, located in San Francisco. Our goal and mission are to connect women to high quality, compassionate, linguistically and culturally appropriate cancer care and services.
Capacity Building to Network Organizations
We help to strengthen organizations to better connect women to comprehensive cancer services. We provide resources, training, and technical assistance to our Network member organizations to best meet the needs of women with cancer.
Partnerships
As a network, we connect and partner with community cancer support groups, healthcare clinics, hospitals, community based organizations, public health departments, academic and research institutions.
Our ongoing and regular communications with Network members, allow us to work together to reduce inequities in cancer services, facilitate appropriate cancer care, provide connections to behavioral health services, and cancer support resources to women in San Francisco. We look forward to collaborating on programmatic issues, research, and advocacy with our SFWCN members.
SFWCN Board of Directors
Robin Lee
President of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Women’s Cancer Network
Robin Lee is a Genetic Counselor, certified through the American Board of Genetic Counseling. At the University of California, San Francisco, she works with individuals and families who may be at an increased risk for certain cancers based on heredity, providing counseling and testing. Her scientific contributions include research articles focusing on her work with underserved women who have a high risk of hereditary cancers, shining a light on effective strategies to extend the reach of genetic counseling to the safety net. She is a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors and American Society of Human Genetics.
Roxanna Bautista
Roxanna Bautista, MPH is the founder and lead of Rise Up Solutions, a consultant group dedicated to supporting and lifting up leaders and organizations to transform themselves and their communities. She has over 25 years working with diverse communities to achieve improved health outcomes through forming networks, strengthening programs, and developing individual and organizational leadership. She is the SFWCN Fund Development Committee Chair. Roxanna is a Community Advisory Board (CAB) Co-Chair for the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and is on the Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Region Asian American & Pacific Islander Patient Advisory Council. Roxanna previously served as the Senior Director of Engagement Strategies at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum.
Sheila Brar
Sheila Brar is the Director of Wellness for the San Carlos School District, where she is responsible for promoting and enhancing student and staff well-being and belonging.
She brings a wealth of public health expertise through her experience in youth health, immunization tracking and compliance, interventions and policies to reduce the burden of childhood asthma, and tobacco cessation research and education.
Sheila was also a member of the San Mateo County Behavioral Health Commission, where she provided oversight for the expansion of mental health programs and policies for youth.
Donna Lau
Donna Lau is a native San Franciscan, and a second-generation Chinese American. After an extensive business career in Customer Care, Donna retired and has primarily spent her time volunteering in organizations such as the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Wildflowers Institute, Self Help for the Elderly, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the San Francisco Chinese Women’s Cancer Support Group. As a cancer survivor, Donna believes in paying it forward to help others thrive. She partnered with UCSF Art for Recovery to integrate a Chinese bilingual art workshop into their program curriculum.
A self-taught artist, Donna’s mixed media artworks focus on hope, love, and gratitude and have been recognized in a diversity of public forums.
Cecilia A. Thomas
Cecilia A. Thomas has served on the Board of the San Francisco Women’s Cancer Network, since 2018, continuing her commitment to health education and support for those diagnosed with cancer. Cecilia was the former Program Coordinator for the Women’s Health Program, where she increased accessibility to information that helped women make informed decisions about their health. Cecilia, who is the recipient of numerous awards and commendations, has used her expertise and experience to increase access to breast cancer services and programs for underserved populations. Through professional and volunteer positions at CPMC, she supported Sutter Health sponsored community health programs including the African American and Sister to Sister Breast Health Program, which provided free mammogram services to uninsured and undocumented women.
Judith Luce, MD
Founder Emeritus
She retired as the Director of Oncology Services at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). She also served as the Principal Investigator for SFGH’s membership in the Clinical Trials Support Unit of the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Luce has long held an interest in cancer control issues for underserved women and has worked as medical director with the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. She’s been every active with groups like the American Cancer Society, and other nonprofits in the San Francisco working toward the shared goal of the Women’s Cancer Network.
Leadership Staff
Olivia Fe
Executive Director, Olivia Fè possesses a proven track record as an effective leader with highly developed skills in advocacy and civic engagement. Other areas of expertise are in creating effective strategies to reach out to target populations and working with clients from diverse cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Prior to her current role, Ms. Fè founded and was executive director of the Latina Breast Cancer Agency (LBCA). She formed LBCA in 2002 in response to the growing need for breast cancer awareness programs for underserved Latinas living in the San Francisco Bay Area. During this time, she developed a successful patient-centered navigator program that works within the healthcare setting. The program was designed to improve access to the full continuum of high-quality breast cancer care for low-income, uninsured women, including immigrant, elderly and undocumented women. Olivia Fè is also a 20-year breast cancer survivor.
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