2023 Executive Committee Election
The ASPO Nominating Committee presents the following slate of candidates for approval for open Executive Committee positions:
Author: Nicole Brandt
Vaxxed, masked, and ready to meet!
February 2, 2022
Like all of you, we have been closely monitoring the COVID trends and have been listening to your feedback about meeting in person. The Executive Committee met today, and we can confirm that the 2022 Annual Meeting will be live in Tucson, AZ – we will not be offering a virtual attendance option.
COVID has continued longer than we all hoped, and there are no perfect solutions to meeting in 2022. ASPO leadership feels that this is the best path forward for the organization, for the attendees, and for scientific exchange. ASPO prides itself in providing a great venue for networking, meeting new people, and generating ideas. We will follow stringent safety protocols during the meeting and will be holding some events outdoors. We ask everyone to be responsible for helping to keep the meeting as safe as possible – vaccinations and masks are required, testing before arrival is encouraged, please stay home if you are symptomatic.
Scarlett Lin Gomez and Steve Patierno and the Scientific Committee have put together an excellent program, the full agenda is available here. AD/PL also has an engaging lineup for Saturday and Sunday. We will have our third year of the Community and Science program starting on Sunday afternoon, and encourage you to send COE representatives.
Please register and book your rooms – we can’t wait to see everyone in Tucson!
Elena Martinez, PhD
ASPO President
Meeting Live in 2022, Safely
The Annual Meeting will be live, for the first time in two years, in Tucson Arizona March 13-15. The Program Committee for the 46th Annual Meeting has been hard at work preparing a top-notch scientific program, while the EC and ASPO staff have been working to ensure that we will be able to meet safely in 2022.
ASPO is committed to providing a safe and healthy scientific meeting and has developed the following guidelines.
Responsibility of Attendees
We kindly ask that attendees stay home under the following conditions:
- You have not been fully vaccinated (2 Moderna or Pfizer shots, 1 Johnson & Johnson shot, boosters if you are eligible). Accommodations will be made for individuals who are unable to be vaccinated for medical or religious reasons. Proof of vaccination will be required before arrival. Here are the CDC guidelines on boosters.
- You are at high risk of contracting COVID-19
- You have been exposed to COVID-19 in the 14 days prior to arriving in Tucson, even if you are not showing symptoms
- You have had symptoms of COVID-19 in the last 14 days
- You are unable or unwilling to follow the meeting guidelines outlined below
At the Meeting
- Attendees should assess their health prior to leaving their room each morning, if you have any symptoms of COVID-19, please contact conference staff who can provide you with a rapid test.
- Attendees will be required to wear a face mask in all public spaces.
- Attendees will be provided ribbons for their conference badges indicating their preference for interacting with fellow attendees (elbow bumps welcome, I’m being cautious, 6 feet of distance)
- Hand sanitizing stations will be set up outside each event and next to each podium. Attendees will be required to use them as they enter and exit.
- Meals, snacks, and beverage stations will be contactless.
- Social functions will be held outdoors whenever possible.
- The hotel will implement increased cleanings and sanitizing of surfaces and door handles.
These guidelines are subject to change. Last updated: February 11, 2022
Towards Achieving Health Equity – ASPO’s 2022 Annual Meeting
March 13-15, 2022
Marriott University Park, Tucson, Arizona
Communities of color, and people who are low-income, rural, LGBTQ+, immigrants, and Indigenous, among others, face disproportionate and inequitable cancer burdens. While advances in prevention and control research have led to improvements in cancer incidence and better survival from cancer overall, U.S. cancer inequities persist, and for some populations, gaps have widened over time. As highlighted in the 45th ASPO meeting in March 2021, there is an increasing acknowledgment for the impact of structural racism and discrimination as fundamental causes of these cancer inequities.
To further advance the productive discussions from the 2021 ASPO meeting, the theme of the 46thASPO meeting will be Towards Achieving Health Equity and will feature novel approaches to addressing cancer health inequities. The program committee was selected for their commitment and expertise in key areas of cancer health inequities. Working closely with the program committee, we organized a thought-provoking meeting to highlight emergent approaches and opportunities to address cancer inequities.
Four symposia are planned on the topics of:
- cancer interception: from concept to clinic
- innovations in patient navigation: what’s it going to take to achieve cancer equity?
- convergence epidemiology: bridging omics with social determinants and structural factors
- re-situating cancer control within public health and communities.
This year, we have also planned an additional panel discussion on institutional approaches for addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and concurrent sessions on novel approaches of and bias considerations in using electronic health records data in cancer control research, and challenges and successful examples in cancer consortia. The final program is shaping up with prestigious scholars in each of these topics already confirmed.
The call for abstracts will open in September and the highest-scoring abstracts will be selected for oral presentations at the conference and we will have, as usual, best poster awards.
ASPO’s Annual Meeting will be held Sunday, March 13 – Tuesday, March 15 at the Marriott University Park in Tucson, Arizona. The Associate Director and Program Leader Workshop will be held on Sunday, March 12th. More information is available here.
Scarlett Lin Gomez, M.P.H., Ph.D.
2021 ASPO Program Chair
University of California, San Francisco
Steven Patierno, Ph.D.
2021 ASPO Program Chair
Duke University
ASPO Member Survey
The Executive Committee is working on updating the ASPO Strategic Plan and your input is requested. This 7 minute survey will help us to better understand what is working, what is not, and what you desire in your ASPO membership.
The survey will be available through February 15th, and two respondents will be randomly selected to receive free registration to the Annual Meeting.
We thank you in advance for your time!
Executive Committee Elections
There are three open seats on the ASPO Executive Committee – President-Elect, Secretary Treasurer, and Director-at-Large. Terms will start at the close of the 2021 Annual Meeting. Voting will be open January 1 – January 31, and results will be announced in the February 9 ASPO Newsletter.
The Executive Committee works in partnership with the National Office to lead the organization, provide strategic direction, and ensure financial stability. Descriptions of each role are available here.
Candidates and their bios are listed below.
Executive Committee Nominations
There are three open positions on the ASPO Executive Committee starting in April 2021 – President-Elect, Secretary-Treasurer, Director-at-Large. Nominate a qualified candidate or yourself by November 30.
Health Equity, Culture, and Cancer – ASPO’s 2021 Annual Meeting
Health inequities are not new. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recent death of George Floyd among many other people of color has brought the issues of systemic structural racism and discrimination and health inequity into the forefront of American consciousness. Communities of color, and people who are low income, rural, LGBTQ+, immigrants, and Indigenous, among others, face disproportionate and inequitable cancer burden. While advances in prevention and control research have led to improvements in cancer incidence and better survival from cancer overall, U.S. cancer inequities persist, and for some populations, gaps have widened over time.
Meet the New ASPO Team
In all the craziness of the COVID pandemic, ASPO Week, and adjusting to working from home, you may have missed President Karen Basen-Engquist’s announcement about the change in leadership at ASPO.
HollandParlette was selected as the new management company for ASPO at the beginning of 2020 and came on board just before the Annual Conference in March. Our whole team is so excited to be a part of ASPO and to support all of your important work!
You may have already noticed that all ASPO communications are now coming from [email protected]. If you could, please take a moment to do a few things to help ensure you are receiving ASPO emails:
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Meet Your ASPO Team:
ASPO Commitment to Anti-Racism
Dear ASPO Colleagues,
The continued senseless killings of people of color, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have been emotionally overwhelming and traumatic. These events bring to the forefront the significant and inexcusable racism that is an epidemic in our country. We stand with our ASPO members from the Black community, and all Black communities, against racial injustice and support protests and other efforts against racial injustice and systemic racism.