Community Outreach and Engagement

Short Biography

For Andrea Stubbs, culturally congruent interventions have been at the core of her partnerships with hard-to-reach minority communities to improve their health status. “My approach to building a network of viable community members is to use the tenets of servant leadership—encouraging diversity of thought, creating a culture of trust, having an unselfish mindset, and fostering leadership,” says Stubbs. These words convey her map toward realistic solutions that have the capacity to gain community trust to create the best opportunity for disease prevention.

Her work in bringing a diverse range of stakeholders to the table has been most extensively demonstrated over 14 years (since Oct. 2006) as Coordinator, then Manager, of the HIV Community Research Program for the St. Jude Comprehensive HIV Prevention and Care Program. In these roles she emphasized translating scientific research efforts into community impact. This perspective fuels her current role as the Administrative Director for the HPV Cancer Prevention Program at St. Jude, where she works to improve human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination uptake in the local community and on a national scale to decrease HPV-related cancers.

Stubbs’s leadership in promoting community action to decrease the burden of disease in communities has been recognized on the local and national levels. Local recognition includes the Visionary Award for West Tennessee, awarded by the Tennessee Public Health Association for an exceptional program working to create a healthy community. She also served for many years as the chairperson of a national group of community coordinators who participated in the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions. In addition, she was tapped to lead the Ending HIV Epidemic initiative for Shelby County, 1 of 48 counties involved nationally.

Stubbs is a Memphis native who relishes in exploring the terrain, restaurant scene, and all-around dazzle of Memphis culture in addition to adventures abroad with her husband, Melvin. She is also a long-standing member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., a 100+ year-old civic organization.

Stubbs holds an MPA from Tennessee State University. She is currently working toward a PhD at the University of Memphis School of Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Short Biography

Kate Ayers leads the STEMM Education and Outreach Program at St. Jude. Through intentional school partnership, Ayers works with school and science educators to co-create science learning modules that integrate cancer concepts into the classroom curriculum. In addition, Ayers established the St. Jude Science Ambassadors Program, which intentionally connects Memphis youth to diverse scientists to dispel misconceptions related to who scientists are and who can be a scientist.

Ayers also led the development of two after school clubs. The Afterschool STEMM Clubs are hosted in 24 elementary schools and serves over 400 5th grade students annually. The St. Jude Community Health Clubs are hosted in 4 middle schools and serve approximately 80 7th and 8th graders annually. In 2021, Ayers became a founding member and chair of the Memphis STEM in Medicine Ecosystem, a city-wide initiative aimed at addressing inequities in STEM education specific to the Memphis area.

Ayers holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Union University, a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Research with an emphasis in Structural Biology from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and a PhD in Educational Psychology and Research from the University of Memphis.

Short Biography

Beth Anne Miller serves as the Vice President, St. Jude Global Operations, for Global Pediatric Medicine. With more than 25 years of experience in leadership and change management in healthcare organizations, Miller joined St. Jude in 2016 to help create St. Jude's first global department and establish its main initiative with St. Jude Global.

Miller began her career at the Histiocytosis Association, Inc., a small nonprofit dedicated to funding research and providing education and support to patients and families dealing with the rare disease. In 19 years, she progressed from program assistant to Director of Development and Chief Operating Officer. During that time, she also served as the Administrator for the Histiocyte Society. In December 2014, Beth Anne took the opportunity to work as a Program Manager with Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo in forming the North American Consortium for Histiocytosis, affectionately called NACHO. Based at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, this research collective was formed with funding from a St. Baldrick's Consortium Grant.

Miller is driven to help staff and faculty to build a solid foundation for the robust and diverse programs and initiatives that bring St. Jude to the world. She is passionate about team-building and implementing strong collaborative networks internally and externally to the department. Her strong background in change management and program development optimize her ability to accept the challenge of transitioning the International Outreach Program into Global Pediatric Medicine.  

Raised just outside of Philadelphia in Southern New Jersey, Miller received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rutgers University in Camden, NJ, and Master of Nonprofit Management from Regis University in Denver, CO.