Maintaining an impressive resume of professional
accomplishments in pharmacy management and administration, Ellen Scharaga
currently acts as Senior Vice President of Operations at OncoMed Pharmaceutical
Services, a position she has held since 2009. Awarded a Bachelor of Science in
Pharmacology from the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions at St.
John’s University in 1982, Ms. Scharaga moved on to serve in high-level posts
at Health Infusion, Homedco Infusion, Advanced Care, Inc., and Group Health
Incorporated prior to joining OncoMed. Throughout the course of her career, she
has remained actively involved in a number of philanthropic pursuits, focusing
the bulk of her charitable giving on organizations dedicated to eradicating
cancer and other terminal illnesses.
As a supporter of the American Cancer Society (ACS), Ellen
Scharaga helps fund groundbreaking research that has already saved the lives of
millions in the United and across the globe. Thanks to the generosity of
individuals like Ms. Scharaga, ACS is able to allot a considerable amount of
its resources to assist the dedicated scientists and medical professionals who
strive to better understand cancer’s underlying causes and how to apply
actionable methods of preventative medicine. Backing a vast array of external
research projects in conjunction with its own work in areas like cancer
epidemiology, surveillance, and healthcare policy, ACS has played a key role in
almost every important cancer-centric innovation of the past 100 years,
including confirmation of the connection between smoking and lung cancer, how
obesity can lead to various forms of cancer, the vital importance of
mammography in breast cancer detection, and the creation of drugs now widely
employed to treat leukemia and advanced stage breast cancer.
In conjunction with enabling a multiplicity
of meaningful research endeavors, the American Cancer Society oversees national
events to benefit cancer survivors and their families including Relay For Life,
DetermiNation, Choose You Day, and Coaches vs. Cancer.
