UNC Lineberger Community Advisory Board member
Eva May, MBA, is an entrepreneurial leader with a passion for meaningful participation in the paradigm shift to patient-powered research and personalized healthcare for all. Prior to her immersion in translational research, Eva was founder and president of a national multicultural advertising agency, developing successful marketing programs to help Latino immigrants thrive in the US. In 2008, Eva was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer and subsequently learned that she carries a BRCA2 mutation. Her personal breast cancer journey opened her eyes to the world of personalized medicine, and her strong interest led her to close her successful advertising agency and move to South Dakota to join the leadership team of a startup breast cancer research organization. She thoroughly embraced the opportunity to regularly interact with scientists and clinicians involved in the development of personalized breast cancer research and treatment, and to personally witness the promise of translational research and meaningful discoveries.
Since 2014, Eva has dedicated herself to becoming a patient-powered health and research advocate. Eva is a member of several national clinical trial initiatives, including the Breast Immuno-Oncology (BIO) Task Force of the NCI Breast Cancer Steering Committee (BCSC), the NCI Patient Advocate Steering Committee (PASC) and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. She serves as Duke Cancer Institute’s patient advocate on the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC) and as a reviewer for their Cancer Protocol Committee and is a member of several clinical research teams. Eva is also an Advocacy Core member for the UNC Breast Cancer SPORE. Eva is a volunteer research advocate and a peer navigator for FORCE (Facing our Risk of Cancer Empowered) and an Advocate In Science and grant reviewer for Susan G. Komen. Eva is particularly interested in developing bi-directional researcher—patient community partnerships that will broaden the diversity and improve the representative patient population of trial participants, improve the successful implementation of clinical trials, and help power members of the patient community to become successful self-careers. A graduate of UNC with a degree in English, Eva received an MBA in Marketing from Columbia Business School.
