About CancerChoices

Michael Lerner

Michael Lerner is president and co-founder of Commonweal, the parent organization of CancerChoices. He is co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, The New School at Commonweal, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment and Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies. He led the Symington Foundation Conferences on New Directions in Cancer Care and served as principle consultant to the Office of Technology Assessment of the US Congress on its report, Unconventional Cancer Treatments. His book Choices In Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer was the first book to be well received by the medical journals New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), New Scientist and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), as well as by the patient and integrative cancer care community. He received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983. Prior to founding Commonweal, he taught psychology and politics at Yale University after receiving a B.A. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.

Miki Scheidel

Miki Scheidel is co-founder and creative director of CancerChoices. She led the effort to transform Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, the prior version of CancerChoices, to its current form. Miki and her family were deeply affected by her father’s transformative experience with integrative approaches to metastatic kidney cancer. That experience inspires her work as president of the Scheidel Foundation and as volunteer staff at CancerChoices. She previously worked with the US Agency for International Development and Family Health International among other roles. She received her graduate degree in international development from Georgetown University, a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from George Mason University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Gettysburg College.

Laura Pole, RN, MSN, OCNS

Laura Pole is senior clinical consultant for CancerChoices. Laura is an oncology clinical nurse specialist who has been providing integrative oncology clinical care, navigation, consultation, and education services for over 40 years. She is the co-creator and co-coordinator of the Integrative Oncology Navigation Training at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, DC. Laura also manages the “Media Watch Cancer News That You Can Use” listserv for Smith Center/Commonweal. In her role as a palliative care educator and consultant, Laura has served as statewide Respecting Choices Faculty for the Virginia POST (Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment) Collaborative as well as provided statewide professional education on palliative and end-of-life care for the Virginia Association for Hospices and Palliative Care.

For CancerChoices, Laura curates content and research, networks with clinical and organizational partners, brings awareness and education of integrative oncology at professional and patient conferences and programs, and translates research into information relevant to the patient experience as well as clinical practice.

Laura sees her work with CancerChoices as a perfect alignment of all her passions, knowledge and skills in integrative oncology care. She is honored to serve you.

Nancy Hepp, MS

Nancy Hepp researches, writes, and reviews CancerChoices site content while also serving as program manager. Her graduate training and work in research and cognitive psychology (Purdue University), master’s degree in instructional design (Purdue University), and certificate in web design (Clark State Community College) have all guided her in writing and presenting information for a wide variety of audiences and uses. Nancy’s service as faculty development coordinator in the Department of Family Medicine at Wright State University also provided insights into medical education, medical research, and medical care from the practitioners’ and researchers’ perspectives.

Nancy has observed the ravages of breast cancer, prostate cancer, and lung cancer among extended family members, serving as a caregiver and support.

Andrew Jackson, ND

Andrew Jackson, ND, serves as a CancerChoices research associate. As a naturopathic physician practicing in Kirkland, Washington, he teaches critical evaluation of the medical literature at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington. His great appreciation of scientific inquiry and the scientific process has led him to view research with a critical eye. At its essence, research using the scientific method is humanity’s most ardent expression of the naked truth to our peers. Dr. Jackson believes it is vital to distinguish honest attempts to explore the truth of potential treatments from biased presentations of hopeful remedies or even the occasional heavy-handed attempt at self-promotion. This is why an evidence-based practice is important to him, and this is why he teaches future naturopathic physicians the skills to read and evaluate biomedical literature for potential error or bias, assess whether results are meaningful, and apply the literature to their practices. This is also why he is excited to be a part of the CancerChoices team, to help decipher the complex world of scientific research in cancer treatment and present potential risks and benefits in a clear, manageable form to those affected by cancer.

Maria Williams

Maria Williams is a research and communications consultant who brings over 15 years’ experience in research, consumer education, and science communication to CancerChoices. She has worked primarily in public health and environmental health, leading education campaigns for organizations including Toxic-Free Future, The Institute for Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders, and Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE), a program of Commonweal. She has written and edited science-based educational materials for various audiences and managed content development for a suite of websites on toxicology and public health. Most recently, Maria served as program manager for CHE, planning and executing webinars on pioneering environmental health research, including the popular series The Effects of Plastics on Health. Maria holds a professional editing certificate from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies from Oberlin College. She currently lives in Tokyo, Japan.

Lindsay McDonell

Lindsay McDonell is a speaker, sought-after cancer coach, and celebrated author. Lindsay shares the secrets of how to regain your power and use your curiosity to put fear to the side and maximize your chance of surviving when faced with a cancer diagnosis. Lindsay is Project LEAD certified with the National Breast Cancer Coalition; a certified integrative oncology navigator with the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts; a You Can Thrive coach; and a CancerChoices guide. She is also an eight-year thriver with metastatic breast cancer and chronic myeloid leukemia.