Anjee Davis

Anjee Davis is an patient advocate at heart. It all started with a trip to D.C. for Call-on Congress in 2009. A fire was lit, and Anjee joined Fight Colorectal Cancer in 2011 as the first Director of Community Engagement. In 2015, she accepted the role of President. Under her leadership, Fight CRC grew 30% year-over-year from 2011-2019. Today, the organization continues to relentlessly pursue its mission. Thousands of advocates are now involved at Fight Colorectal Cancer and grassroots movement has started by her and the work at Fight CRC. With nearly two decades of experience in public health and research advocacy, Anjee fights tirelessly for patients’ access to care and treatment advancements. Taking her passion for community outreach, she created the award-winning One Million Strong awareness campaign. Today hundreds of thousands of patients and families have been reached posting a #strongarmselife. She didn’t stop there; her team has led the convening of international researchers to tackle topics like early-age onset colorectal cancer and immunotherapy. She believes in empowering patients. This has led a movement of survivors and families who have fought for an increase medical research funding for colorectal cancer, The Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act was passed, and the first grassroots grant program, called Catalyst, was launched in 2020. Anjee is a champion for patients and uses her voice as a member of many advisory councils and boards, including: ● The NCI’s Clinical Trials and Translational Research Advisory Committee (CTAC) ● The NCI’s Gastrointestinal Cancer Steering Committee (GISC) Under Dr. Ned Sharpless’s leadership at NCI, Anjee served 2 terms (2020 to 2022) as chair of the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Council of Research Advocates (NCRA). In 2020, she was appointed to the President’s Cancer Panel to address colorectal cancer prevention, equity and how to faces new challenges due to COVID-19. Partnering with researchers, she continues to review, design and evaluate concepts for phase two and phase three clinical trials in adult gastrointestinal cancers, and she makes recommendations she believes keeps the values of patients central to the design of a clinical trial. Building collaborations is an important part of Anjee’s role as President and she’s led Fight CRC to become a preferred partner among local, state, and national groups. She has received several local and national awards for her community service and civic leadership, including: ● The Betty Anne Moore Community Leadership Award ● The Prevent Cancer Foundation’s Laurel Award for Advocacy ● The Springfield, MO Business Journal 40 Under 40 Award Prior to leading Fight CRC, she built a statewide awareness and screening program at the University of South Carolina’s Center for Colon Cancer Research. Under Dr. Frank Berger’s leadership, she managed over $11 million from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to build a multidisciplinary basic science team of young investigators in colorectal cancer. Anjee holds a Bachelor’s degree from Southwest Missouri State University and a Master of Public Policy Administration from the University of Missouri St. Louis.