I have been a faculty at the University of Puerto Rico for 30 years, and I am the Dean of the School of Health Professions and one of the Principal Investigators of the Hispanic Clinical and Translational Research Education and Career Development (HCTRECD) program (R25MD007607) funded by NIH. I was diagnosed with breast cancer Stage IIB on December 2003 and was in remission for 13 years. On January 2017, she had a recurrence of metastatic breast cancer to the skin. A volunteer for Komen Puerto Rico since 2006, I was Board President for four years. I am a member of the Puerto Rico Cancer Control Coalition, currently serving as the leader of the survivorship committee. I have served several times as a consumer reviewer for the Breast Cancer Research Program of the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs and traveled to Komen Global Initiative to meet with different groups that provided services to breast cancer patients and participate in a public activity of breast. She is the Vice-Chair of Steering Committee for Komen Advocates in Science, and is a member of SWOG Patient Advocates Committee. She is the co-founder and co-investigator of HIDEAS (Hispanics Increasing Diversity to Enhance Advocacy in Science).