Shonnah has been nominated for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's woman of the year award The Man & Woman of the Year Campaign is a 10-week fundraising competition amongst some of the most philanthropic leaders across the Greater Bay Area. Shonnah has assembled an amazing team that is sentimentally named Myeloma Moonshots! The Myeloma Moonshots are teaming up with community members and organizations to run, walk, cycle, and stroll their way to increasing access to education and treatment for myeloma for everyone impacted by this disease. It might sound like a moonshot, but we can do it! The distance from the moon to the Earth is 238,900 miles. If we can log 1% of those miles (2,389) and raise $10 per mile, we’ll make a huge impact. As you may know, My dad was diagnosed and died of multiple myeloma which is why this cause is so important to me. Shonnah herself was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014, her philanthropic efforts have been primarily focused on raising awareness surrounding the lack of representation of underrepresented individuals in technology. However, recent events with the pandemic have exacerbated the inequity in healthcare practices from treatments to clinical studies. Since Multiple Myeloma is the most common blood cancer in African Americans and only accounts for 2% of all cancers, however, African Americans have more than twice the incidence rate of multiple myeloma compared to white Americans. The lack of relative improvement in survival in African Americans with myeloma is complex but is likely due to multiple factors, including reduced use of autologous stem cell transplant, access to novel therapies, and enrollment in clinical trials. It is very important to diagnose the disease early on, as we find better ways to treat the disease and possibly even prevent it from becoming active, it is imperative for the African American community to be aware of the onset of the disease.