Staff Spotlight: Meet Melissa Buac Dimacali, a USC alumna helping to advance the cancer registry in Los Angeles County

Melissa Buac Dimacali is a USC alumna who graduated from the Master of Public Health (MPH) online degree program in 2019. She currently works as an Administrative Assistant for the Los Angeles Cancer Surveillance Program (CSP) in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “The Cancer Surveillance Program is a population-based cancer registry that documents all cancer diagnoses in Los Angeles County,” says Dimacali. “This data then informs specific research studies on cancer to gain insights on incidence, survival and mortality rates, cancer trends, and more. Being located in Los Angeles means that our catchment area has very rich data that can advance cancer studies and reduce the burden of cancer overall.”

Read about Dimacali’s time at USC.

What sparked your interest in public health?
Growing up, I was a caregiver to my maternal grandmother who was diabetic and my late mother who was also diabetic and went on to beat breast cancer. Seeing how these chronic diseases affected my loved ones led to my interest in the health field and motivated me to learn more about them to address their health needs.

I studied sociology as an undergraduate student, but after college, I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do. It was during this time that I volunteered at my local American Cancer Society office where I eventually got a job. Working with cancer patients, survivors, their families, and caregivers, combined with my lived experience, inspired me to pursue a master’s degree in public health. The online MPH program at USC was the perfect place for me because it gave me flexibility to continue working full-time and complete the program coursework at my own pace.

How did graduate school prepare you for your current role?
The MPH degree program prepared me in different ways as I was immersed in several areas of public health ranging from epidemiological studies, health promotion, health policy, research, and environmental factors. All these areas are relevant to the work we do in a cancer registry because they are related to activities around the data we collect. Being in this environment also helped me develop important skills in leadership, project management, and communication that are essential to my role.

What are your main responsibilities?
Overall, I support administrative and operational duties. I organize and compile our annual reports which we submit to state and federal funding agencies. These help us stay on track with our goals and give us an opportunity to reflect on all our accomplishments and any challenges that we might face throughout the year. I assist in organizing our annual educational symposium where we showcase significant contributions of the cancer registry. We inform our oncology data specialists about the impact of their work and how our data is used in different research projects. The event typically includes scientific presentations and educational pieces. I am also involved in data dissemination projects that promote registry data, data quality, and operational processes through infographics, one-pagers, and other types of media. Additionally, I facilitate communication with our internal and external stakeholders, including USC-affiliated leadership and CSP collaborators.

How has working at CSP affirmed your decision to continue in this field?
Getting into this work and seeing all the different facets that make up a cancer registry has been very rewarding especially because before I started working here, I didn’t know what went into running a cancer registry. There are so many activities involved in managing a registry that you wouldn’t know from the outside. We receive all kinds of cancer information from many facilities across LA County. Through these processes, I have learned so much about data collection, data management, and quality control. All of these are important factors that ultimately put our data into motion and it’s amazing to see the positive ways it can be used. I am very proud to contribute to this work and be a part of the impact that it has!

What do you enjoy about your work?
The people and the environment— they encourage growth, education, and for us to strive for innovation. The leadership and staff are all welcoming and warm, and willing to answer questions no matter how many we have. They are very supportive and it’s truly a joy working with everyone.

As an alumna of the department do you have any advice for students interested in following in your footsteps?
Stay curious and ask questions! Also, network as much as possible especially with the people in your program. Overall, keep on learning, have an open mind, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.