Ysabel Duron is a pioneering, award-winning Latina journalist, a cancer survivor, and, for the past 21 years, a leader in Latino/Hispanic cancer education, advocacy, and research collaboration. In 2017, Duron founded The Latino Cancer Institute (TLCI), a nationwide network dedicated to developing and sharing best practice programs to enhance the work of Latino community service agencies provide collaboration with the global cancer research community and drive policy to address the issues and diminish the burden of Latino cancer. Duron has served on the institutional review board (IRB) for the All of Us Research Program at the NIH since 2016. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM), and a board member of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM /Stem Cell Research). One of Duron’s first policy acts was to promote a requirement that scientific applicants for CIRM taxpayer dollars must show an inclusive plan for the engagement of racial/ethnic communities in clinical trials—which now applies to most research. Due to this requirement, reviewers must take these plans into consideration, and patient advocates can award up to ten points for the worthiest proposals. Since then, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have been wrapped into most of CIRM’s internal and external policies. Duron also serves on CommuniVax: A Coalition to Strengthen the Community’s Involvement in an Equitable Vaccination Rollout, at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. Most recently, CommuniVax recommendations, from its second national report, helped inform President Biden’s rollout of a new, $65 billion 10-year pandemic response plan that specifically calls for the engagement and funding of community-based organizations and community health workers.
