About Us
The Breast and Gynecologic Cancers Research Advocate (BGCRA) Committee is a dedicated group of volunteers made up of patients and survivors who have faced breast, ovarian, endometrial, or cervical cancers. Together, they serve as research advocates for the Breast and Gynecologic Cancers Center (BGCC).
By sharing their voices and experiences, committee members help ensure that research reflects what matters most to patients. Their involvement strengthens the design, goals, and outcomes of studies, bringing a vital perspective to the future of cancer care.
What We Do
BGCRA members collaborate closely with BGCC researchers at every stage of discovery. Advocates provide feedback on grant proposals, pilot studies, clinical trials, and award applications. They also initiate and conduct their own research projects, support fundraising efforts, and engage in community outreach on behalf of BGCC researchers and the broader community.
Through these efforts, the committee is committed to advancing prevention, treatment, and patient outcomes for breast and gynecologic cancers.
Our Leadership
The committee is guided by both advocates and researchers who serve in leadership roles.
Scientific Advisor
Alana Welm, PhD, serves as the liaison between BGCC researchers and committee members, offering scientific guidance and support.
Welm is the Ralph E. and Willia T. Main Presidential Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, senior director of basic science at Huntsman Cancer Institute, and chair and professor of the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah. She is working with many researchers and patient advocates to extend precision medicine to functional testing of drugs on models made from individual tumors, in addition to understanding how the immune system controls metastatic outgrowth. She is passionate about bringing patient advocates to the table because their perspectives can influence the research to have the greatest possible impact.
Chair
Carla Lloyd, PhD, an advocate who leads the committee and works closely with Welm.
Lloyd is co-founder and chair of the Huntsman Cancer Institute’s Breast & Gynecologic Research Advocate Cancers committee. It is the first and currently only research-advocate group to serve a disease center. She leads the BGCRA committee, a volunteer group of patients and survivors of breast, ovarian, endometrial, cervical cancers, who serve as research-specific advocates to support the Breast and Gynecologic Cancers Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute. The committee works with researchers in a variety of ways to help advance the care, treatment, and outcomes of breast and gynecologic cancers patients. Lloyd is a National Breast Cancer Coalition Project LEAD-trained research advocate. She is also the patient-advocate member on the Utah Cancer Registry Oversight Committee and a Komen Advocate in Science. She is an external advisory board member of the Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence ALIVE WELL initiative.
Lloyd is also Professor Emerita from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University where she served for 32 years. She held a dual appointment as a full professor in the Advertising and Mass Communications Departments. Two-thirds of Lloyd’s career was spent as an administrator -- director, department chair and inaugural associate dean of creative & scholarly activity – where she developed innovative programs. She earned many teaching awards and served as chair of the National Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism & Mass Communication.
Lloyd is a Stage 3 breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed in 2011. Her academic career was put on hold for a year and a half so that she could take up full-time treatment of her HER2+ breast cancer that afflicted her right breast and metastasized to her right sentinel node. She received her BA in communications from the University of Utah, MS from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and her PhD in sociology from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Scientific Liaisons provide additional research expertise and organizational guidance. Committee members also serve on subcommittees that focus on specific areas of work, ensuring the group’s efforts are broad, collaborative, and effective.
News/Press Releases
Contact Us
If you are a breast or gynecologic cancer survivor or patient interested in advocacy or for more information, please reach out to alana.welm@hci.utah.edu and carla.lloyd@hci.utah.edu.