Kelly Shanahan, M.D.
METAvivor President and Director of Research
Phew, it’s been a crazy start to 2025 but we’ve hit the ground running here at METAvivor. As you may know, METAvivor did some deep soul-searching last year and hired a new management team. We’ve been getting our ducks in a row under the capable leadership of our new executive director, Crystal Moore, and are very, very excited for the future. While I’ve been volunteering for METAvivor for a decade and on the board for 5 years, I was just elected president in January, an honor – and a responsibility – for which I am very grateful. I commit to representing METAvivor wholeheartedly, and with transparency.
A bit of background for those who don’t know me: like most of us, I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, in 2008. I thought it was a mere bump in the road, and quickly put it behind me after a bilateral mastectomy and 4 months of iv chemo. Cancer, however, wasn’t finished with me: I was diagnosed with widespread bone metastasis in November 2013. I was super lucky to remain NEAD (no evidence of active disease) for 7 years, but have had several progressions since, including a solitary liver met – I’m on my 5th line of treatment, and have participated in a phase 1 clinical trial. Permanent neuropathy from taxanes after the MBC diagnosis cost me my career as an obstetrician-gynecologist but I’ve found new purpose in advocacy. On the personal side, I’ve been married for 30 years, have a 26 year old daughter who is my everything, and 2 dogs. For fun I read voraciously, love to travel the world, and hike around my beautiful home of Lake Tahoe.
Information sharing and transparency will be priorities for my term as president of METAvivor’s board of directors. Hence, this newsletter, where we will be sharing what we’re doing as a board, ways to get involved as a volunteer, upcoming events and programming, as well as updates on research we have funded (see the article here from me in my role as director of research). Living with MBC sucks, but being part of a community can help. We’ll be inviting you, our community, to submit blogs/articles/info about events or fundraisers, too.
Kelly
