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.