Susan Matsuko Shinagawa is a survivor of three breast cancer diagnoses [1991 primary, 1997 recurrent (spine), 2001 primary]. Ms. Shinagawa is widely recognized as the nation's leading Asian American cancer and chronic pain advocate/ activist. She has been appointed to numerous governmental and non-government organizational advisory boards and councils at the national/federal, state and local levels, frequently serving in a leadership capacity.

Ms. Shinagawa is Co-Founder and was the first elected chair of the Intercultural Cancer Council (ICC), and served as the national Community Director for AANCART, a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded Special Populations Network) during its first five years. Currently, she is vice chair of the Governing Committee for APICEM (Asian & Pacific Islander Cancer Education Materials) web portal, a collaborative project of AANCART and the American Cancer Society; serves on the Scientific Advisory Council of WINCART and the Local Advisocy Council of the SDSU/UCSD (San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego) Cancer Partnership, funded by the NCI's Comprehensive Minority Biomedical Branch). From 1998-2001, she was a member of NCI's Special Populations Working Group.

Ms. Shinagawa is a co-Editor and Copy Editor on the University of Hawai‘i's Guest Editorial Board for the 2007-2008 special issue on "Developing Human Resources in the Pacific" of PACIFIC HEALTH DIALOG, a professional, peer-reviewed journal on health in the Pacific, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of CR MAGAZINE, the survivor and patient advocacy magazine of the Amercan Association for Cancer Research.

She recently concluded service as the sole community advocate of the Special Research Initiatives Steering Committee of the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP), leveraging the state's uniqueness of diversity and research resources and identifying innovative research ideas and strategies to increase knowledge about and create solutions to both the environmental causes of breast cancer and the unequal burden of the disease.

She was an appointed member of CBCRP's Research Council, from 1994-1996, serving as the 1995-1996 Council Chair, and also served on the Integration Panel of the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program from 1997 - 2000. She has also served on numerous grants review committees for federal and state agencies, as well as national and regional nonprofit organizations.

Ms. Shinagawa is an often-invited speaker on cancer and pain issues germane to communities of color and poverty, and is the recipient of nearly 30 honors and awards in recognition of her efforts to achieve equity in healthcare access, cancer control and research for underserved communities.

Among her many honors, she has received the 2009 Christopher N.H. Jenkins Award from AANCART, the Prevent Cancer Foundation's Prevention Laurel for Advocacy, the Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural & Minority Medicine's 2006 Eagle Fly Free Award, California Breast Cancer Research Program's 2005 Achievement Award, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month's 2004 Honor Roll Award for Outstanding Advocacy on Behalf of Minorities.

During the Intercultural Cancer Council's 7th Biennial Symposium on Minorities, the Medically Underserved & Cancer, held in February 2000, Ms. Shinagawa was surprised with the (then) newly established Susan Matsuko Shinagawa Cancer Control Leadership Award, now presented as a juried award at each subsequent symposium.

Beginning with this year's 11th Biennial Symposium, the Lance Armstrong Foundation formalized its sponsorship of the ICC award, which is now renamed the Susan Matsuko Shinagawa LiveSTRONG Cancer Control Leadership Award.

Medically disabled with chronic pain since her 1997 recurrent cancer diagnosis, she continues her volunteer advocacy activities from her Spring Valley (San Diego County), California home, where she lives with her husband, Rob Norberg, step-daughter, Claire, and their three dogs.