Andrea (Andi) Dwyer, BS, is the Co-Director and one of the founding members of the Colorado Colorectal Screening Program (CCSP) and implemented the country’s largest screening patient navigation program within the safety net clinics in Colorado. Ms. Dwyer helped build partnerships with over 200 clinical providers throughout the state and trained over 100 navigators, resulting in 20,000 low- and no-cost screenings for colorectal cancer between 2005 and 2015. Nationally recognized for this activity, she has conducted similar PN training nationally for over 200 navigators between 2010 and 2014 in partnership with state-level support from the CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program and Breast and Cervical Screening Program, as well as Susan G. Komen, as an instructor for the Patient Navigation Training Collaborative.
Ms. Dwyer is the former Program Director of the Colorado Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network, a jointly funded thematic network funded by the CDC/NCI to promote the translation and dissemination of evidence-based practices specifically focusing in cancer survivorship and colorectal cancer initiatives. She has served in community engagement efforts and helped to design and deliver a community-based training program for patient navigators that is now being replicated and delivered throughout the United States.
As a co-chair of the National Colorectal Roundtable Evidence Based Health Promotion subcommittee, she has extensive partnerships at the state and national level for health promotion activities and partnerships. In her work with evidence-based health promotion with the CPCRN and NCCRT, she has also worked closely with the CDC to think about the redesign and function of the Community Guide for Preventive Services. Ms. Dwyer is on the Executive Committee of the Colorado Community Health Worker (CHW) and Patient Navigation (PN) Collaborative to help advance this work in Colorado. She is helping to develop competencies to lead the state’s work and differentiate the role of the Community Health Worker and Patient Navigator. Ms. Dwyer is a member of the National Patient Navigator Consortium and been involved in discussions regarding policy and national competency development
In a joint appointment with the Colorado School of Public Health and Fight Colorectal Cancer, Ms. Dwyer is helping direct their health promotion and research aims for the growing number of colorectal cancer survivors and advocates to bridge the public health, research and medical care for better programs and services to colorectal cancer survivors.
