Rev. Adrian Backus

Rev. Adrian Backus

Director of Church Partnerships and Community Outreach

Director of Church Partnerships and Community Outreach

PHEN

Adrian Backus JD, MDiv, has more than thirty (30) years’ experience as an executive in educational and religious institutions, international assistance programs and industry.  Rev. Backus holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law, and a Master of Divinity, from Princeton Theological Seminary.  He currently serves as Director for Partnership Development and Outreach for the Prostate Health Education Network (PHEN). Additionally, he served for 15 years as Princeton Theological Seminary’s first, vice president for information technology. Prior to that, he served as Director of Institutional Research and Strategic Planning as well as Assistant Director for Student Advisement. In 2003-2005, during his vice presidency, Adrian also served as, Interim pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey with a focused ministry on congregational care and ministerial outreach.  In 2013 and 2015, for the CME Church Ninth Episcopal District Mid- Winter Councils, Mr. Backus lectured and led workshops on estate planning and church giving.  From 2014-2016, Mr. Backus served as Assistant Dean for the Rutgers University higher education prison degree granting program in 9 prisons throughout New Jersey.

Adrian’s other experiences include serving as general counsel for an information technology company and as a U.S. Department of State diplomatic escort officer and country director in Rwanda and Senegal Africa, for Africare. Adrian is married to Abiola. Their children and grandchildren include his daughter, Sikira, husband Sidiki; two grandsons, Cody and Maddox, and one granddaughter, Jocelyn Eliana; his son, Joel, and grandson Jeremiah, and his daughter, Adria Joi.

Dr. Keith Crawford

Dr. Keith Crawford

Director of Clinical Trials and Patient Education

Director of Clinical Trials and Patient Education

PHEN

Dr. Keith Crawford joined PHEN in 2019.  As Director of Clinical Trials and Patient Education, he is responsible for implementing programs in these areas as well as working with patients and PHEN partners.

Dr. Crawford has more than 20 years of experience in the Life Sciences and completed his graduate and post-graduate training at Harvard Medical School where he developed competencies in the area of genomics, proteomics, immunology, microbiology, infectious diseases, and regenerative medicine.

During his post-doctoral training, Keith was selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a Harold Amos Fellow. His work in the field of immunology caught the eye of the Department of Defense where he received funding to develop antidotes for chemical and biological weapons exposure as well as create a high throughput platform for the detection of biological weapons and emerging infectious agents.

After completing this directive, Dr. Crawford became the Director of the Center for Molecular Orthopedics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was responsible for leading research efforts at the center, which gave rise to the discovery of a novel population of early lineage adult stem cells.  Dr. Crawford and his colleagues were responsible for the preclinical studies, which laid the foundation for a spinal fusion therapeutic. 

Dr. Crawford is a graduate of Prairie View University, the University of Texas Medical School in Houston (Medical Doctorate), and Harvard University (Doctor Philosophy) where he studied cell biology and immunology.

Mr. Thomas A. Farrington

Mr. Thomas A. Farrington

President and Founder

President and Founder

PHEN

Thomas Farrington founded the Prostate Health Education Network (PHEN) in 2003 after receiving treatment for prostate cancer in 2000 and publishing his first book Battling The Killer Within in 2001. Under Mr. Farrington’s leadership, PHEN is recognized as the leading prostate cancer education and advocacy organization with national programs and initiatives focused on the needs of African Americans.

A key foundation for PHEN’s success is its national network of prostate cancer survivors and their loved ones who support the organization’s efforts within their communities. PHEN partners with hundreds of churches across the nation to bring education and awareness programs into their communities and recruit local prostate cancer medical specialists as educators for these events.

PHEN also makes extensive use of online programming to reach and support individual educational needs. Mr. Farrington’s background is in Information Technology.  Farrington currently serves as a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s (NCCN) Prostate Cancer Treatment Guidelines Panel and the NCCN Prostate Cancer Early Detection Guidelines Panel. He serves as a trustee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and as an advisor to a number of other healthcare organizations and programs. Mr. Farrington received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1966.