A Recap of our 2025 West Coast Conference

Cristian Gomez on October 30, 2025

This past Saturday, October 25th, we hosted our 11th annual West Coast Conference on Work & Cancer virtually. With 100 individuals in attendance, the day was filled with connections, guidance, and empowerment! Attendees included patients, survivors, caregivers, HR professionals, nonprofit and healthcare workers, along with managers, coworkers, advocates, friends and family members from around the country.

Two sessions were presented: How to: Navigate Work & Cancer led by CAC staff members Nicole Jarvis and Scott Sinclair, as well as How to: Identify & Set Boundaries presented by Ali Schaffer. Ali brought over two decades of experience supporting individuals coping with health challenges and life transitions, including those affected by cancer. She broke through the virtual boundaries in her session, encouraging participants to reflect on their own limits and triggers while offering practical strategies for setting healthy boundaries at work after a cancer diagnosis—empowering attendees to protect their well-being and boost their productivity.

While attendees are still in the process of submitting post-event evaluations, the feedback thus far has been overwhelmingly positive. One attendee shared, “I would certainly recommend this conference to others who are interested in understanding the intersection of work and cancer. The sessions were well-structured and covered a wide range of topics relevant to both survivors and those supporting them in their professional journeys.”

Though our Technology Assistance Program, we provided laptops to cancer patients and survivors who don’t have access to a reliable device and would be otherwise unable to attend the Conference. (If you are interested in being notified about future Technology Assistance Programs, click here.) To further our commitment to accessibility, we also provided real-time closed captioning throughout the day for all attendees.

If you were unable to join us for the West Coast Conference, please check out the remaining webinars in our Balancing Work & Cancer Webinars where we will provide practical self-care tools for managing work, caregiving, and life’s daily demands. We also offer these sessions on our video archive to replay at your convenience. The 2026 schedule of webinars will be released later in the fall. In addition, registration is open for our virtual Midwest Conference on Work & Cancer happening in March, 2026.

None of this would be possible without our generous sponsors, whose support ensures we are able to provide this conference free of charge! Thanks to our sponsors: