Upon arrival in Oklahoma, Dooley worked to improve breast cancer treatment and outreach for under-served and health disparity populations, and transformed the OU Breast Institute into the state’s first breast center to be certified by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC).  

Dooley’s involvement in setting higher standards for cancer care has led to national and international recognitions. He serves on the Commission on Cancer – which sets and monitors national quality standards for cancer care – and is a member of the Society of Surgical Oncology, The American Society of Breast Surgeons, the Fellowship of American College of Surgeons and the Society of University Surgeons.

Jennifer Gingerich is a Colorado native; Jenn came to Oklahoma to attend college at the University of Sciences and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha. After graduating from college and moving back to Colorado she worked as a Park Guide for the National Park Service, while also attending Otero Junior College, receiving needed credentials to become a licensed practical nurse; she has been a practicing LPN for 17 years. Jenn has been working at the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) spending all her four years within the Chronic Disease Prevention Service division, currently she is the Cancer Prevention & Control Manager.

Dedicated to life-long learning, Jenn received her Master of Public Administration in Healthcare Management from Grand Canyon University and is nearing completion on her Doctor of Public Health with Cappella University. In her spare time Jenn loves reading, coloring, and watching sci-fi. Generally, most of her non-working time is spent helping her husband (they have been married for a super long time) in caring for their herd of kids (a mix of biological and fosters), with 6 of the 11 (14 if you add the spouses of their adult children) still in the home. Jenn also loves spending time with three grandchildren.

Michelle earned her Bachelor of Science in Community Health from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2007 and then her Master of Public Health from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in 2012. 

Michelle Lessell is the Cancer Programs Coordinator for the Take Charge Program at the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In this role she helps manage the Oklahoma Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program which provides free breast and cervical cancer screenings to those who are uninsured or underinsured. In her role, she supervises staff, provides guidance and assistance to both her team and medical providers to ensure all program guidelines are followed, recruits new providers in high need areas of the state to increase access, promotes the program/services to partner organizations and community members, and completes all CDC and OSDH required reports/grant deliverables for the program.

Prior to her work with Take Charge, Michelle worked for the Oklahoma City-County Health Department for over 14 years. For 12 of those years, she served as the TSET Healthy Living Program Supervisor. During her time as supervisor, she helped guide her team as they worked with organizations throughout the community to make sustainable, system level changes. She also managed the budget, coordinated with the funding agency (Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust), completed reports and wrote strategic plans for the program. Michelle also served as the Tobacco Use Prevention Coalition Coordinator for two years before becoming the Supervisor. In that role, she recruited and trained volunteers, maintained communication with members regularly, facilitated meetings, and encouraged and motivated members to stay active on various activities to assist in tobacco use prevention efforts. During her tenure working in public health, Michelle has worked on a variety of public policies, events, and earned and paid media campaigns, as well as partnered with many individuals and organizations across Oklahoma County.

Michelle earned her Bachelor of Science in Community Health from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2007 and then her Master of Public Health from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in 2012. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Adam, daughter, Mattie, dogs Elvis and Doppler, as well as other family and friends. She also likes watching Oklahoma State football and Thunder basketball, doing craft projects and painting.

Hooper graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Oklahoma State University.

At this time Lead role is vacant for the prostate cancer work group. If you are interested in this position, please email occn@health.ok.gov.

At this time both roles of Lead and Co-Lead are vacant for the childhood cancer work group. If you are interested in either of these positions, please email occn@health.ok.gov.

She is the Co-PI of NRG NCORP cancer prevention and control program including health disparities funded by NCI. She is CO-PI of the SCC NCI LAPS NCTN program for cancer treatment clinical trials. She previously served as PI of the Clinical Center for the NCI ALTS Trial determining HPV testing for detection of cervical pre-cancer and cancer and then the NCI Biomarkers of cervical neoplasia trial SUCCEED. She has been Study Chair of: GOG Lap 2- Randomized study of laparoscopy vs laparotomy for staging of endometrial cancer; GOG 252 A randomized trial of IP chemotherapy cisplatin/paclitaxel and IV paclitaxel vs IP carboplatin and dose dense IV paclitaxel vs IV carbo and dose dense paclitaxel; and GOG 9803/9804 chemoradiation for cervical cancer with weekly cisplatin and paclitaxel.

She now focuses on cancer prevention, symptom management and palliative care at SCC and as PI of NRG NCORP study of salpingectomy for high risk women with BRCA-1 mutation to prevent ovarian cancer. HPV vaccination and cervical cancer prevention with HPV screening is another SGO/CDC campaign for the elimination of cervical cancer mortality. She is also working on several projects having to do with health disparities, and recruitment of URM students into cancer research.