Gerald Green is a retired Mechanical Engineer. In 2007 Congresswoman Barbara Lee honored him for his: 1) engineering expertise, 2) ten years’ service as a mentor volunteer to at risk youth, and 3) for being a distinguished writer.Baba Green released his memoir Life Constricted: ToLove, Hugs and Laughter in 2010, which chronicled his family’s victories over tongue cancer in1995, neck cancer in 1997 and prostate cancer in 2008. He has published numerous articles andis currently writing a book about African American men’s journey with prostate cancer. Baba Green is a member of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group-American College Radiology Imaging Network, where he serves as an advocate on the Head and Neck Committee. He, also, advocates for the Prostate Health Support Group for African American Men, sponsored by the University of California at San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center andAlameda County. In 2020, he worked with Oakland Community Organizations and Dr. Rhoads tolaunch Umoja Health, which was designed to address COVID-19 deficiencies in East Oakland,and now provides cancer screening and navigation for community members at no cost.

Baba Gerald Green was a unicorn he was a 29 year three time cancer survivor and staunch community and patient advocate.

But some of you may be aware Baba Gerald was already an advocate with the UCSF Health and Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center before I came back up to UCSF from Stanford. 

He was working on prostate cancer in Black men because he recognized the need for education and information in order to address long-standing disparities. He was also an advocate with the ECOG-ACRIN which is a professional society with a focus on radiation oncology due to his history of tongue and head and neck cancers. 

He wasn’t afraid to speak truth to power and was instrumental in influencing our Cancer Center‘s leadership to hire me as the Director of community outreach engagement. 

Along with one of our other longtime prostate cancer advocates, Baba Gerald cofounded the Brotherhood of Elders Network which provided a platform for us to spring into action when prostate cancer had to be put on the back burner so we could help the community survive the covid 19 pandemic.  

When Allan Balmain asked me to participate in preparing the application for Patiwnt Advocates for team PROMINENT, I knew that I would be inviting Baba Gerald along for the ride. He and I worked together to develop the strategy for patient advocate involvement and engagement and met with Mimi and Maggie from team Mutographs to get a better understanding of the role of the patient advocate. 

When we started our process of training with the future leaders, he was always deeply engaged with the material and had great questions. 

Baba Gerald was particularly interested in the work we were doing in prominent because he worked for one of the major gas companies during the 1970s gas crisis and over period of time was exposed to numerous carcinogens, including benzene. 

His departure leaves a big hole in our patient advocate team, but I know that he would want us to continue forward. I also know that he would want us to reach as many people as we can with information from this particular grand challenge. As the Challenge on normal phenotypes because the normal phenotypes challenge applies to everyone, everyone has the risk of developing cancer and frankly, everyone who is affected has the same question– why or how did this happen to me or my family member? 

While we all recognize that we aren’t going to answer that question at the individual level yet, Baba Gerald’s widow, Monica,  told me that he was honored and energized by being part of the team trying to solve this mystery.

With that I just want to appreciate all that he contributed to our team and to the other advocates and future leaders through their interactions with him.