Liza Bernstein (she/they), who is NED (No Evidence of Disease) after three separate cases of cancer, is a patient advocate, group facilitator, writer, speaker, coach, interdisciplinary artist, and innovation consultant devoted to connection and repair.
Liza has extensive experience participating in, facilitating, and leading peer groups for/with people impacted by cancer, disability, and chronic illness. She currently leads High Risk COVID Peer Support groups, is co-hosting one with Martha Crawford, and hosts/co-hosts two disability-arts groups. She is also a co-founding member of a highly collaborative, non-hierarchical, anti-racist, social justice grass roots collective. Her background includes a combo of:
- Formative years as an outlier in three vastly different countries (Third Culture Kid)
- 12 years moving the needle in patient advocacy
- A gift she continues to hone for facilitating ideation, collaborative innovation, and cross-cultural understanding (including Design Thinking)
- 80+ hours of group mentor training and practice
- Participation in Martha Crawford's groups and workshops including High Risk Peer Support and Group Group
One of her passions is curating, co-creating, and hosting panel discussions on sensitive topics, including her contribution to Stanford Medicine X 2017, "Death and Bereavement In The Digital Age,” her silo- and norm-busting micro-panel for Stanford Medicine X 2020, “What Is Innovation Without All Of Our Voices?” and the deliberately accessible and diverse “A Window Into Rare” for BioNews in 2022.
A founding ePatient Scholar, advisor, and former board member at Stanford Medicine X, Liza is also an alumna of the AACR’s Scientist <-> Survivor Program. She holds the Diplôme de Sciences Po, Paris, is bilingual English/French, almost fluent in Spanish, and can thread her way through a conversation in Portuguese.
Liza digs deep into her life experience and intensive creative training and practice (dance, acting, ceramics, Capoeira Angola, writing...) to do whatever it takes to facilitate understanding and communication—she’s no stranger to improv, which has the added benefit of yielding lots of laughs.
