Research at the University of Colorado Cancer Center saves lives. To make that point, cancer center researchers are engaging with people where they live.
The CU Cancer Center’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) is a partner in Research Roadshow events across the state, including a stop Oct. 17 in Steamboat Springs after visits to Pueblo and Greeley earlier in the year. There, community members gather to learn about research, get answers to health questions, and have a chance to sign up for clinical trials and other studies.
→ Research Roadshow Brings the CU Cancer Center to a Cancer-Challenged Community
And now, closer to the CU Anschutz campus, COE has launched the CAFÉ Series, a monthly schedule of gatherings at the Aurora Public Library / Central where cancer investigators talk with the public about their ongoing work.
The next CAFÉ Series session is Oct. 24. CU Cancer Center member Margaret Wierman, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, will present on “Adrenal Cancer: Rare, Deadly and Finally New Advances.”
Both programs aim to “break down the divide between research and community,” says Jeanette Waxmonsky, PhD, who was appointed last year as COE’s assistant director for community-engaged research. She is a clinical associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health.
→ More information on what to expect at a Research Roadshow event and how to attend
The CAFÉ Series launched in September. CAFÉ stands for “Cancer and Community: A Forum for Exchange.” It presents a researcher or research team talking about their work with a small gathering of community members.
“Our tagline for the series is, ‘Pull up a chair. Let’s talk about cancer research together,’” says Waxmonsky, who facilitates the sessions. “It’s really for researchers to get out of the ivory tower and have bi-directional dialog in an intimate setting, a local library, where people can just come in. It’s not a big lecture. It’s more like someone presenting their research in layman’s terms for 20 minutes and then having a conversation with the public and answering their questions.”
She adds: “Given the way life is these days, it’s important that people know what CU Cancer Center scientists are doing, what kind of research they’re doing, and why it should be funded.”
CU Cancer Center member Matthew Sikora, PhD, a breast cancer researcher, was the presenter at the first CAFÉ Series session in September and also was one of several cancer center representatives at the most recent Research Roadshow event on Aug. 15 in Greeley.
Sikora, an associate professor of pathology, was named earlier this year as one of four CU Cancer Center program liaisons between its research initiatives and its outreach programs.
“Matt was the brave soul who volunteered to go first,” Waxmonsky says. “He did a great job in talking to people about scientists at the cancer center, like himself, being their neighbor.”
Sikora notes he has years of experience working with patient groups, “so this kind of thing is not a high bar for me. The barrier that Jeanette and I want to break down is that it shouldn’t be a big deal for any faculty member to go to the library for a couple hours and talk with the public.”
At his session, Sikora offered a “high-level view” of the work of his lab, which focuses on invasive lobular carcinoma, the second most common type of breast cancer. “I tried to give an overview of why we study it, why it’s important in Colorado, and why it deserves attention.”
Sikora says he also “tried to put a face on people in our lab by showing their pictures and saying, ‘These are people in the community just like you. They may be highly trained and have PhDs and all, but we like to do fun things, too. These are the kinds of people behind all the discoveries you read about in the news.’”
The inaugural CAFÉ Series session drew only a handful of people, but Sikora says they “had really good questions. Initially they focused on the type of breast cancer we study, but then the conversation expanded into patient care, insurance coverage, and how cancer impacts the community.”
Waxmonsky hopes CAFÉ Series attendance will grow to the 20 to 30 range once the word gets out. “We don’t want a huge crowd because then you can’t really have dialog,” she says. For now, six more sessions are planned at the Aurora library on the last Friday of each month.
As Sikora sees it, the CAFÉ Series helps to spread the word that CU Anschutz is about more than teaching and healing, as important as those are.
“I live nearby, and I talk to parents of my kids’ friends, and I mention that I’m a scientist here doing biomedical research, and more often than not, their response is, ‘Oh, I knew there was a hospital and a medical school, but I had no idea that research happens there.’ I mean, half of my colleagues on campus are my neighbors, and yet a lot of the people who live around us have no idea what happens here. So I’m enthusiastic about opportunities to get out and interface with people.”
Meanwhile, the Research Roadshow – organized in collaboration with the CU Anschutz Multidisciplinary Center on Aging – continues to feature teams of CU Cancer Center scientists and outreach representatives to explain studies, answer questions, and enroll study participants.
The events are held once each quarter in communities far from the CU Anschutz campus.
“Our catchment area at the CU Cancer Center is the entire state of Colorado, so we’re trying to reach communities far away from us,” Waxmonsky says.
Photo at top: Matthew Sikora, PhD, at the Research Roadshow in Greeley on Aug. 15, 2025. Pictured are (left to right) Deviyani Rao, PhD, a post doc in the Sikora Lab; Sikora; and Carolyn Reuss and Donna Charlevoix, two leaders of the Front Range Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Patient Network. Photo provided by Matthew Sikora.