The Work Doesn’t Stop: Jessica DeHart Continues to Redefine Survivorship
For many breast cancer survivors, the end of treatment marks the beginning of a new uncertainty. The medical appointments slow. The support systems shift. And yet the physical, emotional, and metabolic effects of cancer often remain.
Jessica DeHart, an associate professor at Claremont Graduate University’s School of Community & Global Health, is working at the university with numerous other organizations to redefine the very idea of cancer survivorship. “There are over 4 million breast cancer survivors right now,” she says. “I mean, talk about a public health issue. And we’re not addressing it.”
Through traditional academic research, a storytelling initiative, and a growing cohort of health coaches, DeHart and her colleagues are creating pathways for breast cancer survivors to flourish for the long term. CGU, and its focus on real-world impact, was in a unique position to support the efforts.
“Public health and cancer research rarely, truly collide,” DeHart says. “Nobody else in the country is doing this. I don’t know that any other academic institution would have allowed me to do this — translating research into the community in this unique way could only be done here at CGU.”
She adds: “The pillars all drive each other. Stories from survivors are incorporated into training for coaches, and research undergirds the overarching evidence-based strategies that guide us every step of the way.”
From Research to Real-World Impact
This April, DeHart will present a new study at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in San Diego, a national platform that continues to underscore the growing visibility of her research.
The study examines the effects of health and wellness coaching on metabolic health, quality of life, and the self-confidence needed to maintain recommended lifestyle behaviors for breast cancer survivors. Results have been notably positive. “Every single person who has been coached tells us, ‘I finally feel seen and heard,'” DeHart says.
For DeHart and her students, publications are only the beginning. She has submitted a grant to expand the project into its next phase through collaboration with multiple departments and institutions:
- CGU’s School of Community and Global Health and its students
- LYTE, DeHart’s nonprofit organization, through which much of the community implementation occurs
- Regional clinical partners, including City of Hope Cancer Center and Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center
- Breast cancer advocacy organizations
These partnerships are designed to build out a scalable model. “We wanted our first partnerships to be with a big cancer center, like City of Hope, and a community hospital like Pomona Valley,” DeHart says. “That way, we can demonstrate effectiveness in multiple common treatment spaces for survivors.”
Sherry Hite, Director of Rehabilitation Services at City of Hope, says that cancer centers are in need of support like that offered by DeHart and her research. “We look for credible resources in the community to help our patients transition from an active care model into a community care model which is so needed,” she says. “Their work really facilitates confidence for us, the cancer center, that our patients will be cared for in the community. We know the extent of survivors’ needs, and the evidence-based methods they use demonstrate how well-acquainted they are with the needs of survivors as well.”
The partnership with the Claremont Flourishing Center is equally well-suited — it was created to teach people how to thrive, imparting the latest scientific findings about human well-being locally and globally. Stewart Donaldson, distinguished university professor at CGU and president of the center, says DeHart’s work “is a real-life example of helping people flourish in their lives who have been through a traumatic event.”
This integrated model, built on university research, nonprofit implementation, and healthcare system partnership, ensures findings move directly into community practice. “It’s hard work, but I love it,” DeHart says. “It’s got to be done. And it offers more real-world experience and practicalities of research my students need to grow professionally and be even more prepared than students from traditional universities.”
Healing Through Storytelling and Training Future Clinicians
DeHart’s research has also shaped how the next generation of clinicians is trained. A Fletcher Jones Foundation grant allowed her to launch a notable initiative: Healing Through Storytelling: A PERMAH-Guided Study of Voice Exchange Between Breast Cancer Survivors and MPH-DO Students.
The program pairs survivors with students in CGU’s Public Health and Osteopathic Medicine dual-degree program, jointly enrolled at CGU and Western University of Health Sciences, and serves a dual purpose:
- Supporting survivors through structured storytelling
- Training future physicians in empathy and whole-person care
This pillar of her work, as DeHart puts it, allows CGU to “impact two populations at the same time. We look at the effect of storytelling on flourishing (for survivors) and the impact of collecting and listening to stories on empathy (for future physicians).”
Recruitment for the study is underway. By embedding survivors’ experiences directly into medical and public health education, the program aims to enhance participant well-being while better preparing the next generation of clinicians to practice compassionate, patient-centered care.
Scaling Impact
At the center of this expansion is LYTE’s Health Coaching Training Program, which continues to grow in reach and reputation. Fully accredited by the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaches, the program equips advocates and community members with evidence-based tools to support breast cancer survivors navigating life after treatment. A new cohort will begin this summer.
DeHart stresses that this training is free and survivors will not be charged for working with LYTE’s coaches. “Accessible, survivor-centered health coaching in breast cancer is new and critically needed, so this has been a massive piece of success for us as we grow and evolve,” she says. “It’s how we rebuild healthy survivorship in a real and systematic way. We are using coaching to build something that empowers survivors to design their lives after cancer while providing them with the tools to live that life.”
A Vision of Flourishing
DeHart’s long-term vision is both ambitious and deeply human: a future in which no breast cancer survivor faces the post-treatment chapter alone.
By bridging research, nonprofit leadership, healthcare systems, and graduate education, she is building a scalable model of survivorship care that addresses metabolic health, emotional resilience, and community connection. “With community research, every community is different,” she says. “We cannot perfectly replicate from one community to another. But by being slow and intentional, for the time being, we are able to scale in ways that meet each community’s unique needs.”