Sunday, March 25, 2007
Experience with cancer helped to put her on a national committee.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HOWLAND -- Barbara Kubiak spends much of her time these days making kolache in the basement kitchen of Sts. Cyril & amp; Methodius School building in Warren.
When she's not baking ethnic Easter treats, Kubiak is helping the American Cancer Society to decide who will receive about 120 million annually in society grants.
Kubiak, 57, of Howland, is a lay member, or stakeholder, of one of 18 ACS peer review committees. Stakeholders have no formal science background.
Each committee consists of a panel of 20 experts and two stakeholders whose role it is to identify the outstanding applications for funding.
"They [ACS] want input from people who use the system," Kubiak said last week, during a break from baking.
Kubiak has been a part of the cancer system -- a five-year non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer survivor and a caregiver to a woman who has advanced ovarian cancer.
In 2004, Kubiak recalled, she was in a doctor's office reading Coping with Cancer magazine when she noticed an advertisement about ACS' looking for lay people to serve on committees that deal with grant applications.
The society receives about 1,700 grant proposals annually from scientists nationwide.
"I had a real interest in treatment," Kubiak said. "I wanted to do something because the illness is so life-changing."
Got the call
The ad led her to realize that she could do something more. But it wasn't until November 2005 that she heard from ACS, asking if she was interested in serving on its genetic mechanism peer committee that deals with treatments at the cellular level.
In mid-2006, Kubiak spent time training at ACS headquarters in Atlanta. In January, her committee received 106 grant applications to review.
Each committee has two scientists assigned to it to review the scientific merits of the applications.
As a stakeholder, Kubiak's role is to determine if the research projects have cancer relevance and merit funding.
"I was really engaged in what these people said to each other. They're brilliant," said Kubiak, who is serving a two-year term.
"You have to be involved. You have to read and listen," she explained.
Who requests grants
Most of the research grant applications are from colleges, universities and cancer institutions. They are vying for money raised, for example, from Relay for Life.
There are also requests from companies such as those in the pharmaceutical business that want specific cancer research done.
Once the review and ranking of the applications is completed by the peer review committees, the most highly rated are reviewed by the cancer society's Council of Extramural Grants.
The council is composed of leaders from the science community and stakeholders, and decides which proposals will receive funding.
The society has funded nearly 3 billion in cancer research and health professional training since 1946, and 40 society-funded researchers have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
Kubiak is also a licensed social worker and prevention specialist, dealing with tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse. She is also an AIDS educator with the American Red Cross.
Her husband, Robert, is the recently retired executive director of Trumbull County Children Services.
yovich@vindy.com