The Next Generation Choices Foundation, commonly known as "Less Cancer," has named two industry leaders to its board of directors. Joining the board is Dr. Tricia Petzold of Utah and Dr. Vanessa Shami of Virginia.

Tricia Petzold, MD is a family physician. She has worked at the Snowbird Medical Clinic in Alta, Utah for 18 years. She has also worked in emergency medicine in the Park City Hospital Emergency Department and in family medicine at the University of Utah Community Clinics. Petzold currently directs the Health Promotion and Integrative Health pathway, and teaches the Culinary Medicine elective and the Layers of Medicine course at the University of Utah Medical School. She is a Dartmouth Medical School graduate.

Vanessa M. Shami, MD is professor of medicine and director of endoscopic ultrasound in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Virginia Medical Center. She completed her internal medicine residency as well as her gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Virginia. Subsequently, she completed an advanced therapeutic endoscopy fellowship at the University of Chicago.

"The board of directors is pleased to welcome Drs. Tricia Petzold and Vanessa Shami to our group. Their commitment and expertise in cancer prevention will be incredibly valuable to our work," said Chairwoman Jann Balmer, Ph.D, RN.

Added Less Cancer Founder and President Bill Couzens: "Less Cancer takes pride in facilitating continuing medical education in prevention for physicians, nurses and public health professionals. We are thrilled to have these public health leaders join the board of Less Cancer to advance the cause of cancer prevention."

About Less Cancer

Founded in 2004, the Next Generation Choices Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity known more widely as "Less Cancer." The organization works to educate the public, create proactive public policies, and offer continuing education credit to physicians, nurses, and public health professionals regarding cancer, over 50 percent of which are preventable. Less Cancer signifies a new paradigm for addressing cancer, one focused on prevention. This is a departure from previous treatment-focused approaches, which focus on beating, conquering, or curing cancer.