Bridgette Hempstead

Bridgette Hempstead is the founder of Cierra Sisters, a Seattle-based breast cancer survivor support and education organization she started in 1996 after being told she did not need a mammogram at 35 because Black women rarely got breast cancer. She was diagnosed soon after.

For three decades she has worked on early detection, clinical trial participation and disparities in cancer care for Black women, and has served on institutional review boards and community advisory panels at major research centers.