National Conference Speaker Listing

Below, learn more about the speakers presenting at the 2025 National Conference on Work & Cancer.

Alan Astrow, MD, FACP

Alan Astrow is Chief of the Division of Hematology/Medical Oncology at New York–Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he focuses on the care and medical treatment of breast and gynecological cancers. He is also Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Astrow has a long-standing interest in improving communication between doctor and patient. At NY–PBMH he is working with the medical center leadership to develop a clinical cancer center in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine and to make available the full range of Weill Cornell cancer program clinical trials.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale University, Dr. Astrow obtained his MD from the Yale School of Medicine. He did his internal residency at Boston City Hospital and his fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at NYU Medical Center.

Dr. Astrow has received several awards and is included in New York Magazine’s list of Best Doctors in New York and the Castle Connolly Guide to Top Doctors New York Metro Region. He serves the editorial advisory board for the Art of Oncology section of the Journal of Clinical Oncology and on the advisory board for the annual Conference on Medicine and Religion.

Rachel Becker, LMSW

Rachel has spent the last decade with Cancer and Careers. As Deputy Director, her responsibilities include oversight of Cancer and Careers’ 12 accredited webinars. She also provides direct support and referrals to CAC’s diverse audiences; oversees CAC's program team; and works to ensure all programs meet the continuing education accreditation standards of various state and national accrediting bodies. Additionally, Rachel regularly presents on topics related to cancer and work at community-based events and cancer conferences around the country.

Before joining Cancer and Careers, Rachel was Head of Client Services at CarePlanners (cofounded by Dr. Nancy Snyderman), where she designed and implemented a technology-based infrastructure for delivering and monitoring support services. Prior to that, she completed a fellowship in psycho oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and worked in a clinical capacity at the Jewish Child Care Association and New York Methodist Hospital.

Rachel holds a BA from Rutgers University and graduated summa cum laude with an MSW from NYU’s Silver School of Social Work. She is a member of the Association of Oncology Social Workers and a proud recipient of the Zelda Foster Fellowship in Palliative and End-of-Life Care.

Victoria Blinder, MD, MSc

Victoria Blinder, MD, MSc, is a board-certified medical oncologist, dedicated to the treatment of patients with breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Her research focuses on employment disparities during and after treatment for breast cancer, as well as the financial and quality-of-life sequelae of these disparities. Dr. Blinder has conducted qualitative and quantitative research on barriers to return to work among ethnically and socioeconomically diverse breast cancer survivors in NYC and California. She is the principal investigator of Breast Cancer and the Workforce, a large multi-center, prospective, longitudinal study of disparities in employment outcomes among African-American, Chinese, Korean, Latina, and non-Latina white NYC breast cancer survivors, funded by the American Cancer Society. Preliminary data from the nearly completed study led to the development of an NCI-funded intervention, currently in pilot testing, to improve job retention.

Dr. Blinder also serves the larger oncology community through committee work with the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. In addition, she has partnered with other nonprofit and business groups to develop a free, publicly available, employer-targeted intervention to help supervisors in corporations accommodate employees who are cancer survivors (http://workplacetransitions.org/).

Jenny B. Fine

Jenny B. Fine has been Executive Editor, Beauty, for WWD since November 2017. She joined the company in November 2001 as Editor-in-Chief of Beauty Inc. Prior to joining Beauty Inc, Jenny was Editor of Luckymag.com, where she was responsible for overseeing its launch and editorial content. She was previously Director of iVillage.com’s Beauty Channel and Beauty Director at SELF. She began her career in magazine publishing at Fairchild, where she served as Senior Associate Editor of Salon News and Beauty News Editor of Women’s Wear. A native of Louisville, KY, Jenny received a BA in art history and an MA in journalism from New York University.

Adam Goldberg

Adam is a Human Resources professional with close to 20 years of experience and has had the honor of working in large multinational companies in the beauty, retail, eCommerce, manufacturing, digital media, advertising, and publishing industries.

Adam grew up as an HR Business Partner and moved into Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Talent Strategy, and Learning and Development based roles as his career grew. Adam has been coaching leaders, managers, and employees throughout his career in an HR capacity but last year he started his path toward full International Coaching Federation certification and completed the ACSTH path. In addition to pursuing his ICF coaching certification, he is a Certified Change Practitioner through Prosci, Inc. and has been certified/had exposure to numerous leadership, personality, and strength-based assessments.

Much of Adam’s life has been surrounded by cancer starting at a young age with his grandmother who survived breast, skin, and lung cancer, and then in more recent years with his sister who is a breast and thyroid cancer survivor. In addition, Adam recently lost his mother to pancreatic cancer in late 2022 and has decided to dedicate some of his time to his amazing community.

Adam attended Rutgers University for his undergraduate studies and stayed on to receive his Master’s in Labor and Employment Relations. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife who is a cancer surgeon and his daughter, who he calls the “mayor” of her elementary school.

Ariane Hunter, MBA

Ariane is an Author, Speaker, Coach & Founder of My Mentors Circle; an online community and mentoring service for Black women in business to gain access to leading Mentors of color. She brings over twenty years of career and business coaching expertise to help today’s career changers and business builders navigate their careers and grow their businesses. Ariane’s methodology centers around holistic, actionable insights to help individuals go farther, faster.

Ariane’s debut book Dreaming on Purpose: A Manifesto for Black Women on Taking the Leap & Building Her Business Baby with Indigo River Publishers is a business leadership book for Black women. Ariane draws on decades of experience working for the top marketing and branding agencies in New York City and supporting high profile clients to become key players in their industry. She holds an MBA and is a certified coach. Ariane was hand selected for NYC's inaugural BE NYC mentoring program for entrepreneurs that was endorsed by Bill De Blasio. She has worked with industry leaders including Women in Stem Leadership at Stony Brook University, Women’s Catalyst group at Hewlett Packard, Oracle, and many more. She has spoken for Ladies Get Paid, Jopwell, NYU Stern Women in Business, Advancing Women in Tech, Karen Millen, ABC Home, Emerging Leaders for NY Arts, and has been featured guest on numerous empowerment podcasts. Ariane is also a published writer whose work appears in Time.com, Levo League, Ivy Exec, and The Muse. She’s been quoted in CNBC, The Daily Worth, Her Agenda, and more.

Brian Keith McNeil, MD, MBA, FACS

Brian Keith McNeil is the Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Vice Chair of the Department of Urology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. He completed a clinical fellowship in urologic-oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center following research fellowships in urologic-oncology at both the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute and James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Similar to the "Doughnut City" concept, previously used to describe booming economic centers surrounded by concentrated pockets of poverty, some patient groups have access to state-of-the-art treatments while other more vulnerable populations lack access to standard of care therapy. This is an issue in most fields of health care. Brian’s focus is care in medically underserved communities, a dilemma international in scope, which he strongly believes we must “think globally and act locally” to address.

Brian was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Morehouse College, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the New York University Stern School of Business. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, active member of the American Urological Association and 2023 Presidential Leadership Scholar. He currently serves as a member of the Urology Care Foundation Board of Directors, Montessori School of Raleigh Board of Trustees and Weeksville Heritage Center Board of Trustees.

John Moerer

Educated as a Computer Engineer, John has worked as a technology, product, and program management consultant and leader for more than 25 years. He joined Publicis Sapient in 2017 as a VP, Project Management when his company was acquired by Publicis Groupe. John was diagnosed with Brain Cancer in 2019, and has been balancing treatment, recovery and work ever since.  He has been following the Artificial Intelligence space carefully for several years now as a technologist, business leader, consultant, cancer survivor and neurodiversity advocate.

Rebecca V. Nellis, MPP

Rebecca V. Nellis, MPP is the Executive Director of Cancer and Careers. Since 2004 she has helped evolve the organization from early concept to national prominence. Rebecca oversees CAC’s programming and fundraising strategies to ensure long-term growth and sustainability. Under her leadership, the organization’s services transform the everyday lives of survivors while promoting lasting, systemic change for tomorrow’s workplace.

Featured in The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Women’s Health and on the TODAY show, Rebecca is a subject-matter expert on cancer–workplace issues. She travels the country presenting at national conferences, leading hospitals and community events about the intersection of life, work and cancer. She has been an invited speaker for the American Public Health Association, the Association of Oncology Social Workers, the National Business Group on Health and South by Southwest, among others.

Over the years, Rebecca has launched many of Cancer and Careers’ signature programs and services, including the National and Regional Conferences on Work & Cancer, In-Service Trainings for Healthcare Professionals and Financial Assistance and Technology Access Grants. As an active member of the cancer community, she has served on numerous committees and working groups.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York University and a Master of Public Policy degree from Georgetown University. Her graduate thesis was entitled “Implications of Cancer Survivorship on Financial Assets, Work Productivity and Employment Circumstances.”

Ruth Oratz, MD, FACP

Ruth Oratz is Professor of Clinical Medicine at NYU School of Medicine/NYU Langone Health, where she practices and teaches. She is a medical oncologist specializing in the care of people with and at risk for breast cancer. She is especially committed to helping the individual with cancer continue to live life actively and fully, placing significant attention on flexible treatment programs and those that address concerns about career, family life, relationships and sexuality. Her teaching focuses on the art of medicine, bringing humanities to the sciences. Dr. Oratz is also on the Advisory Board of The Bellevue Literary Review, a journal committed to cultivating the humanistic side of medical practice.

Dr. Oratz is an advisor to several national advocacy organizations, including breastcancer.org, Living Beyond Breast Cancer, CancerCare, Young Survival Coalition, Moving For Life and Sharsheret. She served as Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of Susan G. Komen, Greater NYC, and on the National Board of the YWCA, USA. She was named “Physician of the Year” by CancerCare and has been recognized in “The Best Doctors in America” and “The Best Doctors in NYC.” Dr. Oratz is active both locally and nationally as a speaker and healthcare educator, appearing on television and radio and lecturing to the public.

Sissy Silva, MA

As Senior Manager of Programs and Spanish Resources, Sissy Silva manages CAC’s Balancear el trabajo y el cáncer (Balancing Work & Cancer) virtual event series, Resume Review Service, Harris research projects and the organization’s extensive library of publications. Since joining the team in 2018, Sissy has overseen all CAC’s initiatives that serve Spanish-language speakers across the cancer community, including Spanish publications, blogs, video content, and in-person and virtual educational events. Sissy is regularly called upon to present in both English and Spanish on the challenges that sit at the intersection of work and cancer.

Sissy received her BA in psychology from Rutgers University in 2014 and went on to work in the field of mental health research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, before pursuing her MA in Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies from Universitat Jaume I, in Spain, in 2017. As a master’s candidate, she interned at Safe Passage Project and became actively involved in the labor movement, working for the American Federation of Teachers, in Washington D.C.

Scott Sinclair

Scott is a Senior Manager of Programs for Cancer and Careers. In his position, Scott oversees communications, including PR, social media and paid awareness efforts. He also manages CAC’s English website as well as the Balancing Work & Cancer Webinars — a 12-part series offering information and resources on targeted topics each month. Scott has been a member of CAC’s Young Professionals Committee since 2018, and regularly worked in a volunteer capacity supporting CAC's program initiatives before signing on as a full time member of the team. Prior to this role, Scott worked at CEW, Inc., where he supported Carlotta Jacobson, President of CEW and Founder of Cancer and Careers.

In a previous life, Scott worked on Broadway for five years on productions such as Kinky Boots and Evita. He earned his BA from Emerson College.

Chris Vasami

Chris is a husband, father, speaker, coach and mentor. A former division 1 baseball player at Notre Dame and Elon University who was then drafted by the Colorado Rockies. Chris started his entrepreneurial journey 20 years ago with Vasami Training, where he takes a holistic approach to developing young baseball and softball players to not only be the best player, but also the best human they can be. Chris has been fortunate enough to have helped over 80 players make it to the collegiate level.

His experience battling cancer and hypothyroidism over the last eight years has shaped his perspective on performance coaching. Chris intertwines his passion for coaching, nutrition, lifestyle, and human connection to empower individuals in achieving their peak performance. As a speaker, Chris draws from his journey as a cancer survivor, his athletic career, and two decades of coaching experience. He equips audiences with the tools to overcome their inevitable adversity, take decisive action, and recognize their potential and personal greatness. With spirited honesty and thought-provoking questions, Chris inspires and empowers everyone in the room. Residing in Charlotte, NC, Chris shares his life with his wife, Paige, and their two daughters, Lanie and Georgia.