How This Is Building Me, hosted by world-renowned oncologist D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, is a podcast focused on the highs and lows, ups and downs of all those involved with cancer, cancer medicine, and cancer science across the full spectrum of life’s experiences.
In this episode, Dr Camidge sat down with Catharine Young, PhD, who is currently a senior fellow at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Young was formerly the assistant director of Cancer Moonshot Policy and International Engagement in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in Washington, DC.
Camidge and Young, a South African–born scientist, discussed Young's journey from Johannesburg to Charlotte, North Carolina. Young shared that after undergrad, where she majored in biology, she joined a post-baccalaureate fellowship at the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, sparking her passion for research. This led her to pursue a PhD in biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri, focusing on the brain’s role in regulating blood pressure. Catherine noted the challenges of changing labs mid-PhD and her eventual decision to step away from academia.
During her postdoc, Young was inspired by her advisor's science policy fellowship, leading her to pursue a fellowship herself. She was matched with the US Department of Defense, working on chemical and biological threat reduction in former Soviet states and West Africa during the Ebola outbreak. Though she described the experience was eye-opening, she eventually shifted career paths, realizing that long-term government work wasn’t the right fit for her career goals.
From there, Young worked for the British Embassy in Washington, DC, bridging UK and US science priorities. She then joined the Biden Cancer Initiative, continuing the Cancer Moonshot’s momentum through its ups and downs. Young reflected on how her variety of experiences led her to launch the Cancer Moonshot to new heights as she worked to advance cancer research and patient care through cancer-related policy and global engagement. Young concluded by highlighting her passion for continuing to expand medical treatment access worldwide.
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