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Mara Mogensen Flaherty Memorial Lecture

The Oncology Nursing Foundation Board of Trustees will identify and invite a leading expert to lecture on a topic related to the psychosocial aspects of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and care. The lecture and award are presented yearly at ONS Congress®.


Award Information:

The Oncology Nursing Foundation’s Mara Mogensen Flaherty Memorial Lecture Award supports an annual lecture on a topic related to the psychosocial aspects of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and care presented by an individual who is an inspiration in the field. The first lecture was delivered in 1982 and was the first program initiative of the newly established Foundation. Its namesake was a young woman, Mara, who at the young age of 19 was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma. She was told she did not have long to live, but her passion for education and survivorship advocacy sustained her for another 14 years. She managed the National Cancer Institute’s Coping with Cancer program, where her work on the project and her own remarkable ability to cope with cancer inspired her friends and colleagues to establish a lectureship in her memory.

2024 Mara Mogensen Flaherty Memorial Lectureship

Supported in part by Memorial Sloan Kettering Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Event Details

Friday, April 26, 2024 — 8:15 AM - 9:45 AM 
Ballroom (Walter E. Washington Convention Center)

Renowned filmmaker Bill Brummel is a 27-year cancer survivor who lost his voice box due to long-term damage from radiation treatments. Subsequently, he produced "Can You Hear My Voice?". The film tells the story of London’s Shout at Cancer choir, whose members are without voice boxes, as they prepare for their most ambitious concert. Along the way, choir members’ cancer stories unfold, revealing emotional struggles with self-identity, self-doubt, and loss that they confronted on the road to survivorship. Using illustrative film clips, Brummel weaves themes of the movie with his own cancer story.

Preview Film Register Now

 


2023 Award Recipients

Suzanne Carroll, RN, MS, AOCN®

Lauren V. Ghazal, PhD, FNP-BC

Amy E. Rettig, DNP, MALM, MSN, BSN, RN, ACNS-BC, PMHNP-BC


Mara Mogensen Flaherty Memorial Lecture Recordings

Past Award Winners