Kirkland resident and Washington State Lead Ambassador for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) Eunice Hostetter was appointed to Gov. Jay Inslee’s Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund Board to help the state invest in cancer research. Hostetter is a 13-year breast cancer survivor and state lead ambassador for ACS CAN, the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society.

Approved by the Washington legislature and signed by Inslee in 2015, the Cancer Research Endowment Fund will receive up to $10 million per year for 10 years from the state to fund cancer research projects from Washington organizations. To be eligible for these state grants, each organization must present their own matching funds.

Board members are responsible for soliciting, selecting and awarding the research grant recipients as well as overseeing the new state-level research fund. Hostetter and fellow ACS CAN ambassador Jennifer Kampsula Wong of Vancouver are the only two non-researchers appointed by the governor.

Hostetter has been a champion for cancer research funding in her volunteer leadership roles with ACS CAN. Each year, Hostetter travels to Washington, D.C. to urge her members of Congress to make cancer a national priority. She was successful in getting Washington’s congressional delegation to support the largest federal increase in cancer research in a decade. Additionally, Hostetter works with other volunteers and elected officials at the local and state level to pass laws and policies that eliminate cancer. Hostetter is also active in her local American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Kirkland. For more than 10 years she has served as an advocate reviewer of breast cancer research proposals for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, Komen for the Cure and the California Breast Cancer Research Program.

ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority.

For more information, visit www.acscan.org.