Shonte Drakeford(she/her) is a 36-year-old Washington, D.C. native, she is a Nurse Practitioner, Army wife, Farmer, German Shepard mama, and a friend to all. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Bowie State University in May 2007 and received a Master of Science in Nursing as an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner, June 2017 at Ball State University.
Shonte was diagnosed with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer in 2015 at the age of 31, as her initial diagnosis. The cancer has metastasized to her lungs, hip, rib, spine, and lymph nodes. She also has a genetic mutation for colon cancer. She is triple positive meaning the cancer grows from Estrogen/Progesteron and the HER 2 receptor. She started cancer detection early, at the age of 25 but unfortunately was denied and delayed early detection diagnostics for 6 years before being diagnosed.
She has been SURVIVING while living a life without fear, as positively as possible. Shonte values quality of life while spending her leisure moments with her high school sweetie/husband, friends, snowboarding, working around her farm- chickens, bees, ducks, growing produce, listening to music, cooking and traveling. Her mantras are “Enjoy Life” & “Do as much as you can, until you can’t”.
Shonte continues to educate & advocate using the most evidenced based research of Metastatic Breast Cancer care. She has partnered with organizations such as local MBC support groups, METAvivor, #ThisisMBC Project, Tigerlily Foundation-Angel Advocate, Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC)- Hear My Voice Advocate, Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance, Broad Institute Of MIT and Harvard- Count Me in Project, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and served on advisory boards for pharmaceutical companies. She is also involved in media and social media, featured in local News Station WUSA9, written/featured in publications with AACR’s Cancer Today, Bay Weekly, For the Breast of Us, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Huffington Post, Touch, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance, 2for2Boobs, Glamour Magazine, and was most recently recognized for being one of the Top DC’s Nurses by Because of Them We Can.
She has a unique perspective of being a patient and a provider. Her core goal is to produce change through her kind heartedness while using realistic, scientific expectations. Utilizing her voice is imperative for inclusion as she strives to hold representation for not only herself, but also the underserved community, young women/men living with breast cancer, women/men of color, and to anyone who will listen.
