Rivienne Shedd-Steele retires after paving inroads into medically underserved populations

By Cindy Dashnaw

Thursday, June 30, 2022

IU School of Medicine psychologist Greg Zimet, Ph.D., HSPP, was deep into studying people’s attitudes toward a vaccine that could prevent HPV—and thus stop nearly all cervical cancers—when he met Rivienne Shedd-Steele. He couldn’t believe his luck.

It was 2010, and Zimet was looking for someone to help him establish an Indiana office of Cervical Cancer-Free Indiana (CCFIN) to increase local cancer screenings and HPV vaccinations. Experience told him that making inroads into medically underserved populations would be tough, and here was someone sharing stories of how she’d done just that.

“I said to myself, ‘I need this woman as a partner,’” Zimet said. “I was very impressed with Rivienne and her outreach to different community and minority groups. I asked if she’d be willing to work with me, and fortunately, she said yes.”

Shedd-Steele worked with Zimet for the next 12 years, eventually directing Cervical Cancer-Free Indiana while also serving as director of community outreach and engagement at  the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Shedd-Steele will retire this summer, leaving her current dual director positions with CCFIN and the cancer center’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (OCOE). According to Zimet and other colleagues, she’ll leave big shoes to fill.

Collaboration starts with communication

Shedd-Steele came to the medical field indirectly, starting her career doing public relations for various non-medical organizations. The turning point came when she met people and families affected by cancer as the minority cancer education director for The Little Red Door Cancer Agency in 1992.

“Having been employed in corporate America, I previously hadn’t provided programming directly to medically underserved populations. At The Little Red Door, I was working directly with people who’d tell me their mother had just died of cancer without insurance and the family didn’t have enough food to eat. I started to wonder how I could help them at least learn what resources were available,” Shedd-Steele said. “It was more compelling work than anything I’d ever done. I was able to be more creative, lend a hand and get a rich experience. It was so rewarding.”

A nine-year stint as partnership program coordinator with the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Cancer Information Service, Midwest Region—which was positioned within the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center—followed. Next, she joined the center formally, becoming outreach and diversity coordinator in 2008. The many professional relationships she’d made over the years in medically underserved communities and the organizations that serve them benefited not only Shedd-Steele in her new role but the center itself.  

“I had made so many connections and had so many partners across the Midwest by that time. I basically created a department that focused on community outreach,” she said, speaking of the precursor to today’s OCOE.

Since then, Shedd-Steele has improved doctor-patient relationships through better cultural and linguistic competency.

“The more we can translate research findings to the community, the more it’s a win-win for everyone,” she said. “One of the main things I do is develop programs that enhance patient and provider communications. The NCI really wants to enhance efforts to develop systematic approaches to coordinating patient behavior and clinical research for more accurate program evaluations.”

Shedd-Steele is an African American who calls attention not just to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and lower-income groups of all ethnicities, but also to rural communities.

“People who live in rural areas face related barriers to health care, too: no transportation, can’t afford to be off work, grandkids to care for, lack of knowledge or less education. Disparate populations have always been a target of cancer research, but now the medical community is seeing a bigger picture of how research can dovetail with communications to best reach those populations,” she said.

She acknowledged that being in a racial minority population herself immediately lowers barriers in some settings.

“Oftentimes, it’s tough if the people you’re trying to sell an idea to don’t identify with you—if they don’t see people who look like them or speak as they do. Looking like the group you’re working with, or at least being able to present people with strong backgrounds who understand a group’s barriers to care, has worked for us.”

OCOE’s objective is to form the partnerships that make engagement work, she said. For instance, they’ll partner with a well-attended church, recruit a popular radio DJ or a minority newscaster to promote a cancer screening event. Shedd-Steele oftentimes recruits members from her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Inc., to spread the word statewide about the importance of cancer prevention and screening measures.  Knowing what a population will identify with lets OCOE craft the most appropriate message.

This mindset has also made recruiting volunteers for research studies much easier, Shedd-Steele said.

“If we want to find out why African Americans in a community aren’t getting colorectal cancer screenings, then we’ll develop an advisory board of people from that same population. They’re usually thrilled just to be asked and the relationships are reciprocal—that’s the piece people miss a lot of times. It’s not just about what we need you to do for us. We’re all benefiting.”

Playing a key role in research success

Shedd-Steele joined the NIH-funded research team of Victoria L. Champion, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, specifically to bring researchers together with the people who need their findings the most.

“Rivienne was instrumental in helping me have an impact at places like Indiana Black Expo. Her most valuable asset is her broad base of relationships, and if she believes in something, she goes for it,” Champion said.

Susan Rawl, Ph.D., IU School of Nursing professor emerita, called Shedd-Steele “an instrumental and essential” partner.

“Rivienne has been an invaluable collaborator who has brought tremendous expertise to our research,” Rawl said. “With Rivienne’s assistance, I have been able to build interventions and programs to increase colorectal-cancer screening among vulnerable populations, including low-income and minority populations here in Indiana. She is so well-connected in those communities that she gives outstanding guidance to researchers and links us to so many tremendous community resources. I attribute much of the success of my research studies to Rivienne.”

Champion, Rawl and Zimet all said they’d miss the connections their colleague has developed over her career. They’re glad she will remain a consultant for OCOE, even though she may take a Zoom meeting or two from a Jamaican beach (she also puts together Jamaican vacation packages). Even there, she said, she’ll miss the people she works with and interacting with the community.

“I like helping people understand that they can live a healthy life no matter who they are, where they came from or how much money they make—and I like providing that type of knowledge piggybacked with resources like screenings and preventive education. I’ve found it to be unbelievably rewarding. As you see, I put in over 30 years.”

Cindy Dashnaw finds and tells nonprofit stories that inspire audiences to share, show up and support. She honed her ability to craft a message that fits an audience during 20 years in nonprofit PR and communications. Now a freelancer, she's a copywriter and a storyteller for nonprofits across the United States. And she earned her degree from IUPUI.