2024 Rachel Pearline Award
We are pleased to announce Ms. Benda Kithaka, Founder and Executive Director of KILELE Health, in Nairobi, Kenya, as the recipient of the 2024 Rachel Pearline Award. Join us for her keynote address during the 2024 Rachel Pearline Award Ceremony on Thursday, May 9, 10:50am-12:00pm U.S. Eastern Time. Register for ASGCR here.
About Ms. Benda Kithaka
Benda is the Founder and Executive Director of KILELE Health, a Kenyan non-profit organization that promotes cancer prevention and control using the power of storytelling to harness lived experiences as tools for advocacy. KILELE Health is also the Secretariat for The African Cervical Health Alliance, a network of civil society organizations working closely in 16 countries across Africa. Under KILELE Challenge, Benda takes a team of cancer survivors and caregivers to summit Mt. Kenya every September to highlight cancer survivorship challenges, and advocate for post treatment empowerment of cancer survivors across sub-Saharan Africa.
Benda is a trainer, facilitator, and public speaker on advocacy for women’s health with over 25 years of experience in communications, research, and marketing. An alumnus of Strathmore Business School - Institute of Healthcare Management in Kenya, and University of Nairobi Political Science Major, she is a published author in peer-reviewed journals. Benda also serves in an advocacy and advisory role in various global, regional, and local technical working groups, including the UICC Cancer Advocates Program, and the Africa Cancer Research and Control ECHO Steering Committee.
About the Rachel Pearline Award
The Rachel Pearline Award honors Rachel Pearline, MD, MPH. Dr. Pearline was a revered oncology fellow who received the award named in her memory in 2016 following her death at the age of 38, in November 2015, from gastric cancer. While in medical school, she completed rotations in South Africa, Haiti, Romania, and rural China where she learned to speak Mandarin fluently. For her work, she received a prestigious Fogarty International Clinical Research Fellowship and Tulane University’s award for “Outstanding International Relationships.” Dr. Pearline was virtuously committed to global cancer control and provided quality care to her patients. She viewed the practice of medicine as a privilege, always striving to serve her patients better.
In honor of Dr. Rachel Pearline, each year the Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research Steering Committee invites nominations for the Rachel Pearline Award. As part of the Symposium each year, we recognize one outstanding professional who embodies virtue and eminence in cancer research, practice, and/or training in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) setting. The awardee is recognized at the Rachel Pearline Award Ceremony and gives a keynote address that highlights their contributions to cancer research, practice, and/or training in an LMIC setting, and their future perspectives.
Previous Rachel Pearline Award Winners
2023 Yin Ling Woo, MA, MRCOG, PhD, Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Malaysia
2022 C. S. Pramesh, MD, Director, Tata Memorial Hospital, Professor and Head of Thoracic Surgery, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India
2021 Karla Alfaro, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Basic Health International, San Salvador, El Salvador
2020 Frederick Chite Asirwa, MD, Consultant Physician, Medical Oncologist & Hematologist, CEO, International Cancer Institute (ICI), Eldoret, Kenya
2018 You-lin Qiao, MD, PhD, professor and Director for Department of Cancer Epidemiology, Cancer Institute, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Beijing, China.
2017 Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD, Executive Vice President and Chair of the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine and Director of the International Outreach Program
2016 Rachel Pearline, MD, MPH, Diplomate of Medical Oncology
