Artie L. Shelton, MD (ret) U.S. Army is President and CEO of Shelton Professional Services.  He currently serves as the Director Veterans Health Council of Vietnam Veterans of Americas the President and CEO of Shelton Professional Services.  Dr. Shelton is a committed PHEN advocate and serves as PHEN’s Regional Coordinator for the Washington, D.C. area. He is an 18-year prostate cancer survivor and advocate for PHEN. Dr. Shelton was appointed by Governor O’Malley to serve a three-year term as a member of the Maryland Council on Cancer Control, and was reappointed under Governor Larry Hogan. Dr. Shelton co-chaired the writing of the Prostate Chapter for the Maryland Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan Executive Summary.

Adrian Backus JD, MDiv, has more than thirty (30) years’ experience as an executive in educational and religious institutions, international assistance programs and industry.  Mr. Backus holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law, and Masters 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, 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.

Richard Lee, MD, PhD is an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA where he sees patients, and he is also involved in community outreach activities.

Dr. Lee was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated AOA with MD and PhD (molecular biology) degrees at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY. After completing internal medicine training at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), he completed the hematology and oncology fellowship at the combined Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Care program, in Boston, MA. His post-doctoral research at MIT was on animal models of metastasis. He joined the medical oncology staff at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2007 and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research has been on biomarkers in genitourinary malignancies as well as clinical trials. Dr. Lee has served on the NCCN Prostate Cancer Guidelines Panel (2010-2018), including 2 years as Vice-Chair (2017-2018). He has received grant funding from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Conquer Cancer Foundation, and Department of Defense.

Thaddeus Bell, MD has been a family doctor for over 45 years and is a passionate advocate and expert on health disparities. He runs a private practice in Charleston, South Carolina. As a solo practitioner with one office manager and no other staff, Dr. Bell not only sees and cares for patients, but he also is the one to call insurance companies when they deny his patients the care they need. “It’s a hassle to be on the telephone with insurance companies so often, getting prior authorization, telling health insurance companies why I want to do XYZ with my patient,” he said. “It takes a significant amount of time.” Most frustrating for Dr. Bell is when a patient changes insurance companies, and the new company wants the patient to get on cheaper medications than the ones that are already working for them. “I have to jump through hurdles to keep my patient on the medicine that works,” he said. “That doesn’t seem right.”