Deborah Lefkowitz
Doctoral Candidate, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine
Deborah Lefkowitz is completing her doctoral dissertation on breast cancer survivorship in California’s Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Her research addresses the complexities of how healthcare access and survivorship get enacted through the practices of both individuals and organizations, and features a case study of the Cancer Legal Resource Center and its telephone assistance line. Her research is supported through a fellowship award from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, with previous research support from the University of California Humanities Research Institute and the UC Irvine Center for Organizational Research.
Deborah has volunteered on the CLRC telephone assistance line since 2014 and is actively engaged with the cancer community as a member of the Inland Empire Access to Cancer Care Coalition, Komen Inland Empire Affiliate’s Breast Health Collaborative, and an Advisory Committee member of The Care Project. She was selected for a leadership role as Coordinator with the American Cancer Society’s Reach to Recovery Program, and served as a Consumer Reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs’ Breast Cancer Research Program.
Prior to her graduate studies, Deborah trained in documentary film and visual studies at Harvard University (B.A. summa cum laude) and went on to achieve international recognition for her work as filmmaker and installation artist.