From the first introduction to REACHnet, Ava knew that she could use her personal experience to make a huge difference in research. Ava takes an ambitious approach to being a Patient Partner and accepts as many offers as possible—she has served on committees, given feedback as a partner, and even been a Patient Co-Investigator. Ava holds high expectations for engagement in research and believes that we should be holding research networks accountable for amplifying patient voices as much as possible.

Being a Patient Partner has inspired Ava in many ways. She made a drastic career change—from being a paralegal to getting her master’s degree in healthcare management—and credits her experience with stakeholder engagement for motivating her switch to work in patient experience. Ava values the REACHnet patient community in how it connects individuals of varied experiences and urges them to contribute in their own ways. As a Patient Partner, Ava hopes to elevate patient voices, steer research towards things that are important to patients, and empower others to take control of their health journeys.  

Lanissa’s primary goals as a patient partner are to dispel misinformation about health research and empower people to take control of their own health. As a Black woman, she is aware of the fears, misconceptions, and mistrust prevalent in the Black community. Lanissa addresses these negative research perceptions by speaking to her family members, friends, and other communities about taking part in clinical research, emphasizing that all communities can benefit from a diverse study population. Lanissa wants individuals to understand that diversity in research is crucial for developing treatments that are beneficial and available to everybody.

To Lanissa, the most rewarding part of the Patient Partner experience is the opportunity to hear from other Patient Partners and share their health experiences. She is always willing to lend an ear to somebody’s health journey and remind them to speak up and express their concerns. She strives to provide research feedback that will actually benefit the real-life patients she knows and cares about. In her own words, Lanissa is “always looking out for myself, but I’m also always looking out for other people and figuring out how I can help them.”  

As an Emeritus professor now living in San Francisco, Jon wears many hats. He is a patient of several conditions (including Coronary Heart Disease, Type II Diabetes, Hypertension, and more), and he uses this lived experience to inform medical research at UCSF. He is a husband, a father, and a grandfather, and he travels extensively to spend time with his sprawling family. In his spare time, Jon stays active on the pickleball court and enjoys doing puzzles with his wife.

To Jon, anything that improves the quality of research is important, but engaging patient partners through all steps of the research process is the best way to amplify patient voices. Jon’s favorite part about being a Patient Partner is working with a team of like-minded, curious, motivated individuals that all bring something different to the table. Jon considers his fluency in scientific language an advantage, as he can express research updates in a comprehensive and accessible way. However, he wants everybody to understand that you don’t have to be a qualified researcher to make a difference—you just have to be yourself.  

As a Patient Partner, Tiffany’s goals and motivations are abundant. Primarily, she wants to empower people of color to take control of their health journeys. Tiffany has noticed a general reluctance within her communities to see a doctor or talk about their health, and she believes this lack of action is contributing to poor long-term health outcomes for women and black people. Tiffany also strives to break the stigma of health care, disease, and cancer. She wants everybody to understand that their personal health is nothing to be ashamed of, and that taking control of your health can bring about incredible opportunities—after all, she credits her diagnosis for revealing her purpose as a Patient Partner.

Tiffany is a people person through and through, and she attributes many of her marketing and networking skills to her background as a stand-up comic in New York. Tiffany proudly recognizes her social nature as an advantage, and she imagines herself as a honeybee— “I take information, and I give it out to people that I think will use it to help themselves. Hopefully I pollinate something that grows.” By informing research, sharing results, and publicly standing up for her own illness, she is influencing others to take their power back and embrace the same rewarding feeling she feels. “Let’s make health care popular!”