Speakers

Candace Henley is the Chief Surviving Officer of the Blue Hat Foundation, Inc. and has over 15 years of tireless advocacy for colon cancer prevention and support. Her battle with colon cancer and the devastation it left on her life and that of her children inspired her to create The Blue Hat Foundation. The organization was built on unconditional support and compassion for people fighting colon cancer. Their mission is to provide education, information, and free screenings for colon cancer in the minority and medically underserved communities through community partnerships with healthcare providers, hospital systems, and FQHC’s. Ms. Henley developed a strong understanding of healthcare inequities by pursuing her Masters in Public Health, which grew her advocacy to include healthcare equity, health equality, and research. She serves on the Community Advisory Board for the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center and University of Chicago Medicine, the University of Illinois at Chicago Cancer Center, and Duke Center for Research to Advance Healthcare Equity.

Currently, Ms. Henley is the first member representing a patient advocacy organization and focuses on patient engagement in the design and conduct of clinical trials as community chair for the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC) at Northwestern University. She serves as a liaison to researchers, patients, and university communities. As a speaker on community engagement, Ms. Henley often lectures on understanding the history of ethical breaches to human experimentations on minorities, genomic paternalism, and strategies for healthcare providers and academic researchers to apply community engagement and equity lenses to their work. Ms. Henley has expanded her reach to international audiences as a patient advocate for Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and as a guest lecturer for WELLCOME Genetics. She has contributed to several articles regarding colorectal cancer, the financial toxicity of cancer, the importance of minority participation in clinical trials, and several articles written about her cancer journey and her tireless advocacy. In 2022, Ms. Henley joined the Global Colon Cancer Association as Director of Equity and Partnerships to support the most vulnerable populations throughout the world.