Cindy Chmielewski, Patient Advocate

The Health Design Podcast

Cynthia lives in Lawrenceville, NJ with her husband John. She attended Rutgers University graduating with degrees in Psychology and Education. Upon graduation she secured her first teaching position and immediately fell in love with her chosen profession. Cynthia continued teaching for 28 years. Cynthia, a myeloma survivor, was forced to retire from her beloved teaching career when a stem cell transplant failed to put her cancer into remission. Now retire, she is using her passion for education to teach a new group of "students" - myeloma patients and their caregivers. Using social media to educate is her passion. Cynthia educates and advocates by tweeting @MyelomaTeacher and sharing myeloma resources, educational opportunities, and clinical trial information on her MyelomaTeacher Facebook page. She is the curriculum director of the Myeloma Crowd’s HealthTree University for Myeloma- a free online myeloma education course. https://healthtree.org/myeloma/university Ms. Chmielewski is also a regular patient panelist on CureTalks Podcast. Cynthia sits on the advisory boards of the Patient Empowerment Network, the Myeloma Crowd Research Initiative, and several pharmaceutical companies. Cynthia was an invited panelist and presented posters on using social media in hematology at the annual meetings of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the European Bone Marrow Transplant (EBMT). Additionally, Cynthia is also a member of the Patient Engagement team at Patient Power-A Remedy Health Company. Ms. Chmielewski enjoys serving as a voting member on the IRB at the University of Pennsylvania, a peer reviewer for the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Division of Extramural Affairs and Department of Defense’s CMCRP grant programs. Ms. Chmielewski is a patient advocate on the myeloma steering committees of the NCI and the Academic and Cancer Research United (ACCRU.) More recently Cynthia was asked to serve as a patient advocate on the Mayo Clinic’s Myeloma SPORE. She is also the patient advocate on several research grants. Cynthia serves as a community member on the Rutgers-Cancer Institute of NJ’s Community Cancer Action Board and Mt. Sinai’s Cancer Care Accelerator Group.