Beyond Cancer Spotlight: Carrie Ullmer

Carrie Ullmer (She/Her), MEd, is the Senior Program Development Coordinator at Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Read on to learn more about her story. 

1. What are your career/research interests?

My career interests have always encompassed areas of personal connection. Each of my professional experiences has been more of a vocation than a profession, because of the strong purpose each position has held for me. Since I was about 16 or so, I have continued to seek out intentional opportunities that allow me to work cross-culturally. Working in the Community Outreach and Engagement office with the CFCCC encompasses that passion plus weaves in personal experiences.

2. How did your early life experiences shape your education and career choices?

"The story that really shaped my journey was when I was considering college applications as a sophomore in high school. With parents who hadn’t started college themselves until I was beginning my own search, I had to navigate the process largely on my own. I was very independent and determined to get to college without relying on anyone else. I dreamed of going to Pepperdine University but quickly learned I would not be able to afford it even with academic scholarships, Cal Grants, Pell grants, and loans. I didn’t have a college fund sitting somewhere, so I decided that I needed to beef up my college applications with impactful experiences that could make my college applications more competitive. 

During this season, my younger sister asked, “Will you come to this info night with me, so I don’t have to go alone?”  Not knowing what the info night was about, I agreed to go. I later find out that it was an info night for local high school students to volunteer alongside college student interns, who were running English language and culture camps for Taiwanese high school students on the college campus in my hometown, located conveniently on my bus route. This decision to attend an informational session for 1.5 hours changed my entire life and vocational trajectory. It also gave me the desire to apply to one college, which was the college I spent my entire summer in 1997."

3. What brought you to UCI?

Prior to 2014, I grew up, lived, and worked in Los Angeles County my entire life and when my family moved to Orange County in 2014, I always knew I wanted to work closer to the community I reside in. Due to many career advancements and opportunities, it took me 10+ years living in OC to finally feel like the time was right to start looking outside of my former place of employment, which I had worked for 20+ years. Since 100% of my experience was in higher education, I was looking at colleges or universities in Orange County. I started looking on LinkedIn beginning in May of 2024, and almost immediately, I saw the position description for the Senior Program Development Coordinator with the office of Community Outreach and Engagement at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. My heart literally skipped a beat because there were so many personal and professional connections that drew me to the position. It was the only position I actually spent quality time applying for! I spent 2.5 hours on a cover letter because I was so incredibly passionate about the position. When I had a couple of people read that letter, one person said it was one of the best she had ever read and even made her tear up. I hadn’t heard anything about the position for a few months, and then I was scrolling emails at 2am and luckily saw an email from UCI saying how they apologized for the request, but needed me to reapply due to an HR system change, which had caused a few delays in filling the position. Prior to that email, I had given up hope. Long story short, I started in December 2024! People asked, was it hard to leave your position at the place you invested in since 1997? My response was, “No, when something is so clearly my next step, it’s not hard to decide.” I am thrilled to be at UCI and the CFCCC.

4. How did you connect with others to build your own sense of community and belonging at work?

I have always been a person that connects well in smaller groups or one-on-one environments. My top 5 strengths with the Gallup Clifton Strengths are Maximizer, Achiever, Learner, Relator, and Individualization. I think when I build community or belonging at work, I use the Relator and Individualization strengths the most. I love hearing people’s stories or observing people's skills and strengths. I like to see how everyone fits into the puzzle. I can’t remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember specific details and stories about people!

5. What motivates you to serve your community and contribute to the CFCCC mission?

I am motivated to contribute to the CFCCC because I am a breast cancer survivor and am motivated to improve quality of life for our communities through cancer-related research. Specifically, I want to help reduce barriers to achieving health, because the last thing cancer patients and care givers need to worry about is the administrative work that goes into thriving through treatment and healing.  

I was first diagnosed when I was 24 in 2004 and then again in 2019. Through both of these experiences, I had different challenges to overcome. As a result of Breast Cancer Awareness month in October of 2004, I thought, “hmm, I have never checked myself, maybe I should start.” As soon as I did, I could feel the lump. I didn’t tell anyone I had found anything, until I guaranteed my insurance was in order. I remembered that I signed up for student insurance, but wanted to make sure it was active. As it would turn out, I was paying for it, but the institution never activated it. Once I got the proof that my insurance was active, I went to the student health center to be screened. Thankfully, the nurse practitioner doing the screening was a huge advocate for me even though my risk of having breast cancer was slim. Unfortunately, she had journeyed with her mother who had passed away from breast cancer, so she made sure I got immediate pre-authorizations to see a doctor. At the time, I didn’t know what a pre-authorization was, and back then, it took weeks to get. Finally, in early December 2004, I got an appointment, and the doctor said, “let’s just remove it and not do a biopsy.” I was thrilled with this solution because biopsies scared me more than surgeries.  

On December 20, 2004, I had a lumpectomy and found out a few days later that it was cancer. On December 29, I had a left axillary dissection where they removed 23 lymph nodes. (Yes, 23.....the surgeon was also surprised at how many he removed! Oops!) Luckily, the cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes and the cancer was caught early. From there, I went to see an oncologist and it was decided that I would do 4 rounds of my chemo cocktail. Adriamycin and Cytoxan (AC), 1 dose every two weeks, during my final semester of grad school and working full-time. I would then do radiation for a few months and Tamoxifen for 5 years. Because I was so young and naive, I had no idea what I needed to consider while going through a cancer journey. I am extremely grateful for my oncologist who made sure he made every effort to protect my fertility for the future. Luckily, about 6 months after all my treatments, my body bounced back to being pretty normal. During treatment, I maintained full-time work to cover rent, living expenses, etc. Unfortunately, I had to pull out student loans to cover much of my medical expenses, which I am still paying for to this day! Fast forward to 2012 and 2017, I was able to have two kids without any fertility issues.  

In December 2018, I went into my annual mammogram appointment, and they found another tiny lump. I was about to go on my first trip to Hawaii that month, and I didn’t want my family vacation to be dampened with the possible threat of cancer, so I waited to disclose that I might have cancer again. As soon as we returned home from vacation, my husband found the health provider’s letter recommending further diagnostic tests. Following those diagnostic tests (ultrasound and biopsy), it was advised by a breast surgeon to do a single mastectomy. I asked if they could just do a double mastectomy, which he supported. After the double mastectomy, many reconstruction surgeries followed. Although the mastectomy was pretty easy and straight forward, apparently the radiation from 14 years prior made my skin wonky. My skin just didn’t want to stay closed. It was like wet tissue paper. After 7 minor/not-so-minor surgeries, we gave up on trying to keep any of the skin. After a few months of healing and wearing a prosthetic breast, it was time to consider using skin from elsewhere to reconstruct my entire chest. We decided to do a DIEP FLAP surgery in early 2020. Then the pandemic happened. Non-essential/elective surgeries were postponed with no estimated date in sight. Finally, in October 2020, I was scheduled for my 12-hour surgery, that included 3 surgeons, 2 anesthesiologists, 5-night stay in the hospital, 5 or 6 surgical drains, and 8 full weeks of recovery sleeping in a rocking chair. At the time, my mother and husband managed my 3-year-old and my 8-year-old (who was a huge help too!). In the end, everything was successful. 

I realize my journey is unique to me and my context, so I am mindful of the work I do for CFCCC knowing that insurance coverage, fertility, financial toxicity, support systems, and living beyond cancer is different for everyone. My hope is that my experience grounds me each and every day as a reminder of what someone else may be going through. I do this work in honor of those that are weaved throughout my journey, who have passed from or survived cancer: my sister, friends, professors, and mother-in-law. 

6. What challenges have you experienced in your professional journey?

I have a belief that things happen for a reason and that I need to obey when I feel led to walk a certain path (or not). That said, the COVID-19 pandemic was definitely a challenge that resulted in opportunity. I worked for a Study Abroad Office at another institution for over 15 years and then COVD-19 shut down travel. I had a team of 6 full-time staff and about 20+ student interns all wondering what would happen to our department. Thankfully, they were all reallocated to other positions across campus and everyone was able to maintain a job. This was an incredible outcome considering some institutions eliminated entire offices as soon as the last study abroad student returned home safely in March of 2020. For me, I was fortunate to prove myself during that time that led me to a couple advancements in my career, ultimately landing me in grant and research administration. My entire career prior to the pandemic involved supporting faculty to design cross-cultural opportunities using quality program design elements. This was a very rewarding career watching students, faculty, and other cultures nation-wide and internationally engage in research and education, learning from each other.

7. What personal or professional accomplishment are you most proud of?

I am personally proud that I was able to transfer my skills into more advanced roles following the COVID-19 pandemic. This gave me a lot more confidence to achieve opportunities that weren’t safe and comfortable, but gave me a chance to develop much higher-level skill sets. When I look back at my professional journey, I accomplished more than I ever could have dreamed, so my goals going forward are to contribute to areas of interest, passion, and purpose. This new role in CFCCC blends personal and professional experiences so well, and supports my passion to serve cancer-connected communities.

8. What are your interests/hobbies outside of work? 

 I love coffee, books, country music, and my family. I am a natural introvert, but having kids changes how much “introvert time” I have. The way I balance the chaos is by doing a whole lot of laundry in our household while listening to a book and drinking coffee. I also love traveling. Japan, Germany, and Hawaii being some of my favorite places.

9. What is a fun or random fact about you? 

I am an identical twin and have a younger sister born 1 year and 9 days after me, so we wore handmade identical outfits growing up. People thought we were triplets.

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