Agenda
8-9am Registration and Continental Breakfast
9-10:45am Program with Shane Jacobson, CEO, American Cancer Society
Mission Moment with survivor and researcher Dr. Chad Pecot
Panel Moderator: Dr. Norman Sharpless, past NCI Director, UNC Professor of Cancer Policy and Innovation
Panel: 3 NCI Cancer Center Directors – The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center – Dr. Robert L. Ferris, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center – Dr. Ruben Mesa, Duke Cancer Institute – Dr. Erik Sulman
10:45-11:30am Researcher presentations in reception area
11:30am-12:30pm VIP Lunch
Event Information
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) advocates for evidence-based public policies to reduce the cancer burden for everyone. We engage our volunteers across the country to make their voices heard by policymakers at every level of government. We believe everyone should have a fair and just opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer.
Shane Jacobson is the CEO of both the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). Jacobson is a dynamic, visionary leader who has dedicated his career to fueling nonprofit impact and driving growth. As CEO and alongside the ACS Board of Directors, he is charged with guiding both organizations – and their more than 3,000 team members and 1.3 million volunteers – toward a vision to end cancer as we know it, for everyone.
With more than two decades of nonprofit experience, including 15 years in nonprofit executive management, Jacobson has a history of leading organizations to achieve record-setting results and mission-driven outcomes. He comes to ACS most recently from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, where he has served as CEO since 2021 and led a team focused on accelerating game-changing research and funding top scientists.
Dr. Paul Hull is the head of the ACS CAN’s Hope Region, which includes 25 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Hull joined the American Cancer Society in 2002, serving for ten years as the Vice President for Advocacy and Public Policy for the former Florida Division prior to taking on multi-state, regional roles at ACS CAN. He has nearly 40 years of experience in the legislative, government relations, and public policy arenas. During his tenure with the organization, he has driven highly successful campaigns in the areas of smoke-free workplaces, tobacco prevention and education, tobacco taxes, breast cancer screening, and cancer research. He gained extensive experience in government and public policy during his nearly 15 years as a legislative staffer, serving in committee analyst roles for several years and then as the chief policy aide for multiple members of Florida Senate leadership.
Hull earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida and an MPA from Florida State University. He completed a Ph.D. in Public Policy at Liberty University, with a dissertation on the impact of state investment in cancer research capacity and infrastructure. Hull teaches courses on state and local government and health politics and policy at the University of North Florida. A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Hull is currently based in that area. He and his wife, Holly, together have six children.
Chad Pecot was diagnosed with an aggressive form of testicular cancer in college while studying Biomedical Engineering. While living in the ACS Hope Lodge in Miami he received intense chemotherapy and has been cured for the past 26 years. After befriending numerous patients at the Hope Lodge and throughout his care, he decided to devote his career to being an oncologist. The ACS has played a major role in Chad’s life and career, starting with living at the Hope Lodge, to participating in many Relay for Life fundraisers, to then sponsoring his first Career Development Award as a physician-scientist. Now, Chad is a tenured Professor at UNC where he specializes in lung cancer. He directs the RNA Discovery Center, co-leads the Cancer Therapeutics Program in UNC Lineberger Cancer Center, and runs a research lab studying how cancer spreads. He is also a founder of EnFuego Therapeutics, which creates engineered RNA medicines to tackle some of cancer’s most challenging targets.
Since 2001, as the American Cancer Society’s nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate, ACS CAN has successfully advocated for billions of dollars in cancer research funding, expanded access to quality affordable health care, and advanced proven tobacco control measures.
We stand with our volunteers—people whose lives have been impacted by cancer—rallying to demand change. Together, we’re working to make cancer a top priority for public officials and candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. By engaging advocates across the country to make their voices heard, ACS CAN influences legislative and regulatory solutions that will end cancer as we know it, for everyone.
Learn MoreFor more than 2 decades, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network has been dedicated to pursing better outcomes for every cancer, every life. Today, more people are surviving cancer than ever before, but there is still work to be done. Join us, support us, and help us end cancer as we know it, for everyone.
Protected and secured $4.8 billion in state appropriations through advocacy to help fund cancer research and programs that reduce the tobacco burden and increase access to screenings.
Held the tobacco industry responsible for decades of public deceit through a requirement for companies to post truthful statements about their deadly products at nearly 220,000 retail outlets nationwide.
Expand insurance coverage of comprehensive biomarker testing in over 20 states and counting.