International Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer (ILC) Symposium 2024 Poster Meetup
Tuesday, Sept 24
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm local Leuven, Belgium time
Location: Irish College Leuven – Click for Map
In-Person Poster Meetup Guidelines
Instructional Videos
Mentor: Christine Hodgdon, M.S.
Christine Hodgdon was a conservation biologist before her metastatic breast cancer (MBC) diagnosis in April 2015. Her advocacy career began when she launched TheStormRiders.org, an educational resource for MBC patients that includes a searchable clinical trial database. She later co-founded GRASP – Guiding Researchers & Advocates to Scientific Partnerships which empowers patients, clinicians, and researchers to exchange ideas and learn from each other. She is the research working group co-lead of the MBC Alliance and spearheads the Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis (BCBM) Initiative: Marina Kaplan Project with the goal to address the unmet research needs of breast cancer patients living with central nervous system (CNS) metastasis. She was also a founding committee member of MBCBrainMets.org, a resource hub for breast cancer patients living with brain metastasis. She is the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center patient advocate representative for the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC) and she co-leads the Hopkins INSPIRE (Influencing Science through Patient-Informed Research & Education) Advocacy Program. Her advocacy work is inspired and driven by the loss of many friends to MBC.
Twitter: @christeeny513
Mentor: Julia Levine
Julia is a metastatic lobular breast cancer thriver. She is a founding Steering Committee Member of the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance (LBCA) since its inception in 2016. Her roles are Research and Publications Curator, Metastatic Lead Advocate, and Patient & Research Advocate. She is the metastatic liaison between LBCA and the Metastatic Breast Cancer Project, Living Beyond Breast Cancer, and BreastCancerTrials.org.
She is a member of the Cancer Support Community-L.A. and a peer mentor in the stage 3/4 breast cancer support group since 2013 to the present. She has also been involved as an advocate with Metavivor and GRASP. She has attended the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Theresa’s Research Foundation MBC Research Conference, Harvard Medical School conferences, and is on the planning committee for the International Invasive Lobular Cancer (ILC) Symposium at University of Pittsburgh.
She participates in research advocacy to advance her knowledge, educate others, and to provide a patient perspective in the development and implementation of studies in both metastatic and lobular breast cancer.
Twitter: @jackel626
Mentor: Lori Petitti, B.S.
Lori Petitti is a lobular breast cancer survivor. She attended the first International Lobular Breast Cancer Symposium in 2016 and became one of the founding members of the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance (LBCA). She is on the board for the Breast Cancer Care & Research Fund and a volunteer mentor with After Breast Cancer Diagnosis (ABCD) and SHARE cancer support. Lori is a graduate of the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s Project LEAD Institute and has served as an advocate reviewer for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. She is committed to research advocacy and mentoring newly diagnosed patients.
Twitter: @hiplinemedia
Mentor: Kirstin Spencer
Before she was diagnosed and treated for stage 2 lobular breast cancer in 2018, Kirstin could be found performing in the concert halls and recording studios of London, Europe, and the world as a cellist of the BBC London Symphony Orchestra.
Kirstin was diagnosed with metastatic lobular breast cancer in 2021 and in 2023 has seen oligo metastatic progression. She avidly follows breast cancer research, attends conferences, and uses that information to inform the work she does as a patient expert for metastatic breast cancer in the UK. Kirstin was involved in the founding of Lobular Breast Cancer UK and she advocates for METUP UK, the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance (LBCA), the Lobular Moonshot Project, and every woman afflicted by this infinitely heterogenous disease.
She is passionate about allowing science to alleviate fear and misunderstanding of a breast cancer diagnosis, and advocates to facilitate kinder, more personalized breast cancer treatment pathways to reduce the stress on patients and their families. She believes that no patient should feel alone or uncared for, and that science is magic in practice that sustains a never-ending golden thread of hope.
Twitter: @kjscello
Mentor: Stephanie Walker, R.N.
Stephanie Walker was diagnosed in July 2015 with de novo metastatic breast cancer (MBC). She is a retired RN with close to 40 years of clinical practice and 3 years teaching in a community college. Her experience has been pediatric and adult critical care working in level 1 trauma centers and critical access hospitals. The last 15 years of her nursing career were with hospice care. She is a member of many organizations, local- and national-based, and a recipient of the Spirit to Impact award. She is also project lead on an initiative called BECOME (Black Experience of Clinical Trials and Opportunities of Meaningful Engagement), as part of the MBC Alliance. She is advocating for men and women in rural areas for equal access to quality healthcare, treatment modalities, and resources. She does not want anyone to feel alone, isolated, or defeated.
Twitter: @faceofstage4
Thank you to our sponsors:
