Galen Foundation Leadership | PeopleBeatingCancer

Meet the Galen Foundation leadership team and board of directors. Learn about the physicians, cancer survivors, and professionals supporting PeopleBeatingCancer’s mission.

The Galen Foundation DBA PeopleBeatingCancer was launched in June 2004. My vision was to create a free online resource for newly diagnosed cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers to demystify cancer, mind, body, and soul.

After the first few years struggling with my own cancer, I realized that while conventional oncology is central to managing cancer, they are limited to prescribing FDA-approved therapies.

Living with cancer is about much more than surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.

The Galen Board of Directors is essential to the foundation’s operations.

David Emerson — Founder and Director

David is a long-term multiple myeloma survivor and founder of The Galen Foundation DBA PeopleBeatingCancer.org. Diagnosed in 1994, he has remained in remission since 1999 and focuses on evidence-based integrative oncology education.

Dr. Gary Whitman — Medical Chair

Dr. Whitman is a tenured professor of breast imaging and breast radiation oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, Texas, where he serves as the director of breast imaging research, the medical director of the mobile mammography program, and the lead interpreting physician for The Texas Medical Center mammography program.

Brad Withers- Director

Brad is the Founder and President of Brad Withers Resources. BWR services include training classes to improve employee skills and address ineffective behaviors. 

Erik Ovesny- Director

Erik is the Founder and CEO of ARO Effect Marketing. ARO Effect Marketing exists for one reason: to give law firms and medical practices a marketing partner that actually understands their business, delivers measurable results, and communicates like a teammate rather than a vendor hiding behind a dashboard.

Michael Thompson- Director

Michael is a long-term Cancer Survivor.

Jessica Grogan Burnet- Assistant Director, Treasurer

Jessica is PeopleBeatingCancer’s assistant director and Treasurer of the Galen Foundation, responsible for safeguarding the organization’s assets and ensuring its long-term financial solvency.

To learn more about The Galen Foundation and PeopleBeatingCancer-

Beliefs
PeopleBeatingCancer believes that individuals who manage their health live longer, better lives. A cancer diagnosis is frightening, depressing and often overwhelming. There are medical terms we don’t understand and treatments we have never heard of. While conventional oncology is important, both traditional and non-traditional therapies must be considered and the many possible decisions surrounding a diagnosis ultimately rest with the individual.
PeopleBeatingCancer believes that learning from the experiences of others helps people live longer, better lives. Networking is a human instinct. When we need advice, we ask someone with experience. The information we provide is largely experience-based. We are a network, not a textbook.

PeopleBeatingCancer believes that awareness of a full spectrum of approaches to confronting cancer will help people live longer, better lives. We welcome open discussion about any cancer-fighting strategy because we believe everyone has a right to make their own decisions about their health.

We believe that the profit motive can be detrimental to successful disease management. Galen, the ancient Greek physician after whom our organization is named, believed that the profit motive is incompatible with true healing. Unlike many other organizations devoted to health, the Galen Foundation is not funded by pharmaceutical corporations.
History
The Galen Foundation DBA PeopleBeatingCancer was founded by David Emerson, a cancer survivor from Cleveland, Ohio. In 1994 David was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable cancer of the bone marrow.
After surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and a peripheral blood stem cell transplant, the myeloma returned. David’s oncologist told him that nothing more could be done. That was in September of 1997.
Confused and angered by the limitations of conventional oncology, David defied statistical odds by finding and using other therapies to survive. He sought out the Burzynski Research Institute in Houston, Texas where he underwent antineoplaston therapy. Seventeen months later his lesions disappeared and since April of 1999, David has been cancer free.
David learned from his experience and although he knows that the specific therapy he chose will not work for everyone, he believes strongly that people facing cancer have a right to information about a full spectrum of approaches to confronting cancer. The information about multiple myeloma David found on the internet helped to save his life, and he is passionate about helping others succeed in their battles against cancers of all kinds.