My husband, Liem Le-Lau, and I moved from California to Florida in late 2015 when I launched my first cancer research lab at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. While I led a team studying how L-fucose, a seaweed-derived sugar, can enhance treatments for melanoma, breast, and other cancers, Liem established his Integrative Medicine practice serving hundreds of cancer patients. Although we built strong roots and community there, Florida’s increasingly discriminatory sociopolitical climate made it unsustainable. In March, we relocated our home, lab, and 3 current PhD students to OHSU Knight to continue our mission against cancer.
In Florida, Liem and I were deeply involved in advocacy and community support for underrepresented and minority groups—efforts fueled by our own experiences of discrimination and hardship growing up gay and Asian in America. We’ve always felt a responsibility to pay it forward and fight for equity and inclusion. Earlier this year, I was recruited to the Knight Cancer Institute as an Associate Professor and Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB)—an opportunity to help build out community support in a bigger way than I had ever been able to. Unfortunately, due to shifting sociopolitical circumstances, the DEIB role was eliminated shortly after our arrival. Still, as newcomers to Portland, we remain ever committed to engaging with like-minded community partners to bring people together, build awareness and support, and to help buffer and mitigate against threats to our communities.
Although we’re coming from the academic biomedical/healthcare sector, we have experience in working with civil rights advocacy groups and political leaders and helping them engage with the larger local community. Thus, we are looking for similar partnerships where we can lend our experience and connections within biomedical and healthcare arenas to help build broader community support, opportunities, and equity.
