What is the Society of Emerging Leaders?

The Society of Emerging Leaders (SEL) is a community of student and young professional leaders who are legislative ambassadors (volunteers) of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (or ACS CAN), the nonprofit and nonpartisan affiliate of the American Cancer Society that advocates for evidence-based public policies to reduce the cancer burden for everyone. We believe everyone should have a fair and just opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. Together, we’re working to make cancer a top priority for public officials and candidates at the federal, state, and local levels.

Our Programming

Advocacy

  • Implement local, state, and nationwide policy initiatives.

    • speaking at Lobby Days

  • Empower volunteers to design and lead personalized initiatives that address unique and intersectional cancer-related challenges, such as community health education or barriers to healthcare.

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Development

    • speaking at Lobby Days

    • maintaining close relationships with your representatives

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Our Teams

Grassroots Team

  • Develops relationships with lawmakers on the local level (e.g., assembly members, city council members, and state senators) through meetings, email correspondence, and event attendance to advocate for ACS CAN-supported policies and campaigns.

  • Creates & maintains community partnerships with local organizations, health centers, and leaders.

  • Developing a high school health education curriculum focused on cancer prevention, aligned with California Health Education Standards, to be implemented in health classes.

  • Organizes & participates in tabling events across California (mainly at health fairs and farmers markets) via the SEL’s 5 regional grassroots teams: Central, Bay Area, SoCal, Sacramento, and Central Coast. At these events, SEL members collect ACS CAN petition signatures and share cancer prevention & screening information with local communities. Check out our event impact on the “Our Impact” page!

Policy Team

  • Builds relationships with state & federal policymakers, meeting with representatives to discuss and advocate for cancer-related policies.

  • Participates in ACS CAN's national campaigns, contributing to broader efforts to enact laws and policies that prioritize cancer prevention and treatment.

  • Currently working on developing a policy, with the assistance of Dr. Laura Nathan and ACS CAN Affinity Groups.

Map of Grassroots Regional Teams

Membership Levels

General SEL Membership

This includes basic member requirements that are by semester unless stated otherwise. Applications are on a rolling-basis here. General SEL members are free to join the grassroots or policy team (or both!).

    • Zoom meetings every week

    • In-person events in every region at least once per month

    • Add to power analysis

    • Email your representative

    • Tweet/Message/Post about your representative

    • 300-word minimum

    • Can be about any topic you are interested in relating to ACS CAN’s mission (including personal stories!)

    • $50 minimum per semester (5 stories)

    • Recruit someone

    • Help onboard a new SEL member

    • Date coming soon

Grassroots and Policy Leadership

This team includes the leaders of both the grassroots and policy teams on the statewide level. This position requires a time commitment and dedication to the SEL, positions decided by executive team.

  • What should we know about the services you provide? Better descriptions result in more sales.

Executive Team

This team leads the entire Society of Emerging Leaders and the Grassroots & Policy teams. Applications are on an annual-basis.