ACE Meeting, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 1:00 – 2:00pm ET. Presentation by Stef Gayhart.
Trauma-Informed Care is a conceptual framework that can be embedded into practice
to enable people and organizations to become aware of and interact with others in a
way that takes into account each individual’s potential traumatic history. We will briefly
discuss the history of trauma as a diagnosis and trauma-informed care, what it entails
(and what it doesn’t), and why this approach is important for advocates to be aware of.
Stephanie (Stef) Gayhart is a registered nurse and independent coach/consultant who
became a patient advocate for cancer survivorship care after being diagnosed with
Stage 3 HPV-negative Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the tongue in August 2019 at
age 37. After her hemi-glossectomy and 30 rounds of radiation, she noticed an acute
need for care coordination, symptom management, and ongoing survivorship care,
especially in the young adult population.
Stef left her bedside career in critical care after treatment and worked in clinical
education, innovation, and survivorship while she returned to school. She received her
Master in Healthcare Innovation from the Ohio State University School of Nursing in
2023 and then became certified in Trauma-Informed Coaching in 2024.
Stef proudly serves on the Ulman Foundation Medical Advisory Board, The American
Nurses Association (ANA) Innovation Advisory Committee, Cancer Nation Cancer
Policy & Advocacy Team, and her local Health Department Cancer Coalition. She is an
active member of Advocates for Collaborative Education (ACE), an ambassador with
the Head & Neck Cancer Alliance, and serves as a patient advocate consultant for
Johnson & Johnson. She has previously served as a patient peer reviewer for the
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program Rare Cancers Research Program.
In 2025 she had her first peer-review article published in Clinical Journal of Oncology
Nursing and was co-author on an ASCO abstract/poster presentation on the feasibility
of a novel peer support program.
