With this issue of the RIS Update, we officially welcome Julieann Selden as the editor of the RIS electronic newsletter and express our deep appreciation to Raúl Zavaleta who has edited this publication for the last three and one-half years.
Raúl, who lives in San Francisco, works for Intuitive Surgical as a project manager. While studying marketing and international affairs at the University of Texas, he lost an aunt to breast cancer. After this loss, he wanted to make a difference for cancer patients and served as an intern with the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
After he moved to San Francisco, Raúl continued to want to make that difference and volunteering remotely as editor of the RIS electronic newspaper allowed him to do that. He has now decided to pursue a graduate degree in public health which will continue to give him new opportunities to help others. He says “Rein in Sarcoma has given me a fantastic opportunity to educate and inform people about sarcoma cancers and in so doing empower them to better deal with the disease.”
Our new RIS Update editor is Julieann Selden, who while not a stranger to RIS, now lives Salt Lake City with her husband Ken, who was diagnosed with a Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma in 2016. Julieann grew up in Las Vegas while Ken grew up in Woodbury, MN. They met and fell in love at Brigham Young University. Married in 2010, they now have a four year old son, Tanner who was born on their third anniversary. Ken and Julieann shared their story at the 2017 Party in the Park.
Ken’s sarcoma diagnosis sent Julieann to social media for support and it was though our Facebook page that she discovered Rein in Sarcoma. She found that writing was not only a strong suit for her but was an important way to deal with Ken’s sarcoma journey. She created both a blog, Contemplatingcancer.com and a Contemplating Cancer Facebook page. “Sometimes writing about the hardest times can very helpful,” Julieann commented. “It is a way to process the situation and feel less alone.”
We thank Raúl for his three plus years of capable editing and wish him well in his studies.
We welcome Julieann as our new editor.
