Shekinah N. Elmore ’04, of Chapel Hill, N.C.; Jul. 24. “She was a pioneer in global oncology, stellar physician, visionary in humanity, a wife, mother, sister, and beloved friend to many,” said a statement from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where she was an assistant professor in the department of radiation oncology. As a child she had undergone open heart surgery, followed by diagnosis and treatment for pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma (a rare cancer) at age seven, that came back again in her early teens. After Brown, while preparing to enter Harvard medical school, she was diagnosed with breast and lung cancer and underwent treatment while choosing not to delay beginning school. She completed her coursework and received her medical degree from Harvard and a master’s in public health from Columbia University. During her time at Harvard, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to work with Partners in Health in Rwanda to explore the patient experience of cancer care. In 2020, she joined the UNC radiation oncology faculty and, in addition to being a radiation oncologist for U.S. patients, she was involved in global cancer care. Though her career may have been short-lived, she left a profound mark on the oncology field. She understood firsthand what her patients were experiencing, allowing her to both inform and comfort patients and family members. As an attending radiation oncologist at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, she underwent cancer treatment while continuing her work and she continued to mentor faculty and students while she was on hospice. She was the recipient of several awards, including the Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology’s Rising Star Award, UNC Chapel Hill’s resident-chosen Teaching Award, and in 2022 was recognized as one of Chapel Hill Magazine’s Women of Achievement. In 2023, she began explaining how her experience with illness shaped her as a physician and patient advocate in the first episode of the podcast “Not Otherwise Specified.” She published articles in Elemental, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of Global Oncology, and the New England Journal of Medicine. In the last months of her life she wrote a series of posts on Substack and her TEDTalk spoke of her balance between being a patient and a provider (it’s titled The Courage to Live with Radical Uncertainty). In a 2022 interview with UNC Research, she said: “I try to celebrate with people the small, good things that happen if they’re open to that…. It’s so easy to hang onto the dark and heavy. We need more Today is good. Today I got a good result. Today I’m going to celebrate.” Shekinah is survived by her husband, Adam Cluff; a son; and many in the medical community.