About SURVIVEiT

Our mission is to empower you to define your journey and face cancer on your own terms.

Our vision is a world free from the fear of cancer.

SURVIVEiT is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN 46-3365665

What do we do?

We work to facilitate informed-decision making. Through experience-based wisdom, we guide, teach, and support you to define and navigate your chosen path to face cancer with hope.

How do we do it?

We cut through the noise to help you navigate the convoluted process of managing the disease. The SURVIVEiT^® Cancer Navigation Tool offers best-in-class resources and objective information in a personalized, easy-to-use tool from the moment of diagnosis. Our hope is that it helps you as you make critical decisions and seek the best outcomes possible.

Why does it matter?

Everything we do is guided by the wisdom and urgency that can only come from having faced cancer ourselves. We are constantly. moved to help empower you and others to define your journeys and face cancer fearlessly.

Meet Our SURVIVEiT Leadership Team

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Joy Brewster Rusthoven

Executive Director

When her father was diagnosed with cancer weeks after his 52nd birthday, Joy Rusthoven became his sole caregiver, joining him in a 14-month battle against a disease—and a system—that demanded countless seemingly-impossible decisions.

Like so many caregivers, she wanted to do everything in her power to make sure her father was receiving the best care regardless of her limited knowledge in navigating such a convoluted system. At a pivotal time in their journey, a close friend introduced her to Matt Ellefson, who had created SURVIVEiT to help people facing the exact same challenges.

After losing her father, the bittersweet, complicated and haunting experience fueled her passion to do her part in making sure others didn’t experience cancer the way she and her beloved father did.

Hired as the organization’s Director of Operations and User Engagement in 2017, Joy went on to succeed Ellefson as Executive Director at the end of 2018. “It’s going to take boldness, experience, compassion and focus to make the impact we want to make, and Joy has all of those things," Ellefson stated in the press release announcing the appointment.

Joy is currently harnessing those qualities in her efforts to run the organization, focusing specifically on the development of a new, digital tool that gives patients and caregivers the peace of mind, sense of control, and access to better care that she longed for her during her journey.

In her spare time, she can be found enjoying the great outdoors of Colorado with her husband and their dogs, Maggie and Otis, traveling, and cooking.

EXECUTIVE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Steve Mix - Treasurer

Tina Trenkler - Executive Chair

E. Paul Amundson - Secretary

Matthew Smith

Learn more about our Councils, Committees, and Boards.

Medical Advisory Council & Committee

Survivor Advisory Council & Committee

Faith Leadership Board

Medical Advisory Council & Committee

Dr. Christopher Lieu, MD

Dr. Lieu joined the University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty in July 2011. He trained in internal medicine at the University of Colorado, where he served as a Chief Medical Resident. He completed his fellowship training in medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and also served as the Chief Medical Oncology Fellow. Dr. Lieu is the Associate Director for Clinical Research and Director of GI Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, the Vice-Chair of the National Cancer Institute Colon Cancer Task Force, and he serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Panel for Neuroendocrine Cancers.

Research

Dr. Lieu is a member of the Developmental Therapeutics (phase I clinical trials) and Gastrointestinal (GI) Medical Oncology Program. These comprehensive programs include multidisciplinary cancer clinics, tumor boards, and research endeavors. Dr. Lieu is interested in resistance mechanisms to targeted therapy in GI cancers, and he was awarded the Conquer Cancer Foundation Career Development Award, NIH K23 grant, and a NIH R01 grant to study targeted therapies in colorectal cancer. Dr. Lieu is also investigating novel therapeutic strategies to more effectively treat and prevent colorectal cancer in young adults.

Survivor Advisory Council & Committee

Faith Leadership Board