Leadership

Andrew Spiegel has more than two decades of experience in the patient advocacy arena. Mr. Spiegel is in his eleventh year as CEO of the Global Colon Cancer Association. Mr. Spiegel has a personal history with colorectal cancer. In 1998, Spiegel’s mother was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer. She exhibited numerous symptoms that were ignored by her physicians, and she died nine months later. It was then that Mr. Spiegel co-founded the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, now the leading United States based national patient advocacy organization dedicated to colorectal cancer. Mr. Spiegel, an attorney, served on the CCA board, and was CEO of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance for nearly 5 years before co-founding GCCA.

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In addition to his work in the colorectal cancer community, Mr. Spiegel is an active advocate for healthcare policies both in the US and worldwide. He served a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the International Alliance of Patient Organizations (IAPO) where he chaired the fundraising committee. Mr. Spiegel then co-founded the World Patients Alliance, the largest patient organization in the world working across all diseases. He is a co-founder and currently serves on the steering committee of the Alliance for Safe Biologic Medicines (ASBM). He is also on the Board of Directors and past chair of the Digestive Disease National Coalition (DDNC). Mr. Spiegel has won multiple awards for his work in patient advocacy.

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Mr. Spiegel is a 1986 graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with minors in English and philosophy. He is a 1989 graduate of the Widener University School of Law. After working for a Philadelphia litigation firm, Mr. Spiegel opened his own law firm in 1995.

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Nicole Sheahan has dedicated her professional career to health and human service organizations. She is the President of the Global Colon Cancer Association. Before joining GCCA four years ago, Ms. Sheahan held leadership positions at the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, including Chief Development Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

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Advocacy has long been a part of Ms. Sheahan’s life. Her mother’s cancer diagnosis led to the formation of the Greater Washington Coalition for Cancer Survivors, where Ms. Sheahan began her advocacy journey as a teenager. Before joining the colorectal cancer advocacy area, Ms. Sheahan led the corporate giving program and large-scale events for a non-profit organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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While at GCCA, Ms. Sheahan has spearheaded Know Your Biomarker, an awareness, education, and advocacy campaign promoting global access to colorectal cancer biomarker testing. Her commitment to reducing health disparities led to the creation of the CRC Health Equity Grants program, a global initiative that offers timely financial grants to help GCCA member organizations address immediate health equity needs in their communities. Ms. Sheahan has also developed GCCA’s Patient Advocacy Mentorship, a program providing support and expertise to colorectal cancer advocates and organizations around the world.

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Ms. Sheahan is a member of the Global Cancer Coalitions Network, serves on the board of From Testing to Targeted Treatments (FT3), and volunteers for the World Patients Alliance. She is a frequent speaker on precision medicine, patient-centered policies, and partnerships.

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Ms. Sheahan received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Candace Henley serves as the Director of Equity and Partnerships for the Global Colon Cancer Association and is the Chief Surviving Officer of the Blue Hat Foundation, Inc. Ms. Henley’s own battle with colon cancer and the devastation it caused in her and her children’s lives inspired her to create The Blue Hat Foundation. She has spent over 17 years tirelessly advocating for colorectal cancer prevention and support.  

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Ms. Henley developed a strong understanding of healthcare inequities while pursuing her master’s in public health, which expanded her advocacy to include healthcare equity, health equality, and research. As a speaker on community engagement, Ms. Henley often lectures on understanding the history of ethical breaches in human experimentation on minorities, genomic paternalism, and strategies for healthcare providers and academic researchers to apply community engagement and equity lenses to their work.

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As a commitment to health equity, Ms. Henley serves on multiple community and patient advisory boards. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer at Northwestern University Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling, where she teaches courses on Psychosocial Issues in Genetic Counseling II and Master of Science in Clinical Investigation, focusing on Anti-Racism in Clinical and Translational Science. Ms. Henley has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles on health disparities and health equity research. She serves as a patient advocate for Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and guest lecturer for the WELLCOME Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, reaching an international audience.

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Ms. Henley holds a Master of Public Health from Capella University and a Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management from Walden University. She earned her Patient Navigation Certificate from the Harold P. Freeman Institute.

Tumi Ramasodi is GCCA’s first Regional Director for Southern Africa. In 2020, a colon cancer diagnosis changed her course of action and her life path. Ms. Ramasodi’s diagnosis inspired her to want more for others like herself. As a survivor, she wanted more done for patients at the grassroots level and this prompted her to become a colon cancer advocate and patient navigator. Her passion and love for helping others connected her to the Global Colon Cancer Association.

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Ms. Ramasodi’s experience in the non-profit industry and passion for community work began when she joined Wits Health Consortium to provide a service for the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit (RHRU) based in Soweto’s Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. She then joined the Nelson Mandela Aventis project for combating tuberculosis (TBFree), working with communities in 9 South African provinces to create awareness around TB as a disease.

In 2011 she started the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Africa as a Youth Development Professional. She represented South Africa at an international conference held in San Francisco. In 2015, she was selected to represent South Africa for the Boys & Girls club, participating in a project at the Virginia Commonwealth University called Project Push.

Additionally, Ms. Ramasodi has 14 years of experience in Human Resources Management. She has had repeated success in implementing best practices, building HR departments from the ground up, and transforming disorganized HR departments into efficiently run units.

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Ms. Ramasodi brought her great skill in developing and maintaining stakeholder relationships to the Global Colon Cancer Association in 2023.