Dr. Jay Mendoza on reaching out to under-represented groups in cancer research.
Jay Mendoza is Director of the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at Fred Hutchinson Cancer research Center
Dave Underhill: When I think of the progress that we've made in fighting cancer, I usually focus on the science: research labs; clinical trials; and breakthrough treatments. For Dr. Jay Mendoza, there's another question we need to ask as we measure success. How well are we working with minority and underserved populations to make sure that they're seeing the benefits of the research that's being done.
Jay is the Director of the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. I worked with Jay as he was preparing a critical presentation to the National Cancer Institute. I was impressed by his passion, and by his commitment to serving communities in need. Jay, great seeing you again.
Jay Mendoza: Great to be here, Dave. Thanks for having me.
DU: Tell us about the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement and its mission.
JM: So the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement is one of the Fred Hutch’s external facing offices. And so we're very much about community. We're very much about making sure that the advances that the Fred Hutch discovers, that the research that the Fred Hutch does, extends to everybody in our region, and especially those that are underrepresented or underserved in our area.
DU: Great, when we met in 2018, OCOE was just getting started. And you were new to your role. Tell us about those early days. What did you do to engage people around your vision?
JM: I look back with a lot of fondness on those days. Those were very heady days. So we were very much like a startup that was a part of this big, big organization. And we had to basically not just establish ourselves, but also to really integrate ourselves in what was already a massive, well-oiled machine. And while we were doing that we also had to justify her ourselves, make sense in how we were expanding and why we were expanding.
At the beginning, there were just three of us working on things. And what we had to do was meet this expansive mission of the Fred Hutch. So as you know, the mission of the Fred Hutch and the UW Cancer Consortium is to eradicate cancer as the cause of suffering and death. That alone is like, of course, pretty monumental. And so where we come in, is to make sure that that mission is carried through for all people, especially in our catchment area. And for those that are sometimes left out of discoveries -left out of research and cancer care.
DU: Great, thanks. That's great. When we spoke in March, you were really excited about progress across a variety of different programs. Give us a couple of examples of things that you are really proud of.
JM: One of the things that we're very proud of is that we went from a three person office to having 15 to 20 people as part of the main building blocks of our office, and that we span more than just the Fred Hutch. We have faculty at the University of Washington, at Seattle Children's at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and at the Fred Hutch. And I should say faculty and staff, not just faculty. We're able to work across these institutions, which have their own culture, which have their own standards and ways of doing things. We're able to bridge those, and to really work on initiatives that are for the betterment of the institutions, and also our shared catchment area, the populations that we all strive to serve.
Another area is the tremendous amounts of community support, engagement, and involvement with our office. So as you know we had a five year strategic planning initiative for the office. And instead of just being very insular and involving just us, the majority of people attended this strategic planning sessions were our community partners. And so they had a huge influence on our direction, on who were invited to the table and how we implemented the long range and short range vision for the office.
And then finally, probably as another show of community support, we're very proud that we were able to get external funding to support our office, above and beyond our existing and NCI funding. And so we were able to secure a multi-year gift from the Vadon Foundation. You know, of course, with the help of our philanthropy colleagues at the Fred Hutch. This was just a phenomenal process. And we are working to make that gift into a concrete show of our engagement with the community. So having the OCOE van, a mobile van, to bring our staff, to bring our materials, to bring studies to communities who otherwise may have a difficult time and engaging with the Fred Hutch/UW Cancer Consortium.
DU: That's great progress in really just a little more than three years.
JM: Right, exactly, we're absolutely thrilled. And each of these just helps us grow and grow and expand what we're doing.
DU: Great. So as you think about it, how has your communication as a leader evolved, as all this growth has occurred?
JM: We really had to set up a more structured, systematic way of doing things. But we also wanted to keep it less formal. We wanted to do away with formalities, because those can be barriers to the work that we do, especially when working with underserved communities. And so, we heavily leaned on the talents of our, our staff leaders, who are very well versed in making sure that our communications are both are systematic, but yet approachable, and very, very personable. Especially with our external partners. And so we have done our best to make sure that we still have opportunities for one-on-one meetings. But yet have scheduled group and interest group meetings for our burgeoning office, to make sure that we stay focused on our mission, and that each part of our office is able to ensure that they are focused on both their long-term and short-term goals as well.
DU: So there's lots of progress. You're building momentum. Let's talk about the future. What's next for OCOE?
JM: One of the biggest projects that we're working on is to consider expanding our catchment area. So right now, as you know, the Cancer Consortium catchment area is just Western Washington, 13 counties in Western Washington. And you know, it covers the majority of people in Washington State, about 5 million of the 7 million people who live in our great state. However, we had many others in the cancer consortium already do research and already take care of patients who are outside of the catchment area. I think this would go a long way in making sure that everybody in Washington State feels like the Fred Hutch, the UW Cancer Consortium, this is their place to go. Like this is our home Cancer Center.
DU: Yeah, that's great. You know, it seems like it's continuing to put the vision into reality. Very inspirational. So as you think about moving forward with the vision and as a leader, based on what you’ve learned so far, and what you see coming in the future, what advice would you have for other leaders who face the challenge of engaging diverse stakeholder groups around their vision?
JM: It's a great question. I think a lot of healthcare and research institutions are trying to figure that out. And one thing that I will say is that nurturing relationships with under underserved communities must happen. And it can't happen in an emergency basis. It can't happen because we're in the middle of a pandemic. It needs to happen now, so that we can be ready for a future pandemic or epidemic. And so I think leaders should prioritize that. And not necessarily expect its efforts to be needed or to pay off right away. I think there can be a short-term outlook like, well, nothing's happened in two or three years. So why do we do this? And I think that's like the wrong perspective to take. You know, the better perspective would be that boy, you know, we really need to build these relationships now, because, undoubtedly, something, something big and perilous will occur. And that's when having very strong relationships, that's when having trust, that's what all of that will pay off.
DU: So Jay, I want to thank you again for your time, but also very much thank you for sharing the stories, of the important work that all of you are doing. So very much appreciated.
JM: Thank you, Dave. And it was it was really wonderful working with you.
