Ellie Cohen
Ellie Cohen is a freshman at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) studying Computational and Systems Biology on the pre-Public Health track. She’s been passionate about skin cancer prevention and sun-safety awareness since she was a young teen. She currently chairs the Polka Dot Mama Foundation’s Junior Board of Directors, which recently ran a successful #GivingTuesday campaign to fund a $35,000 MRA research grant. While working with Polka Dot Mama, she spread sun-safety messaging to over 250,000 people by creating and running the #SunscreenIsSelfLove campaign on the foundation’s Instagram.
Ellie currently serves on the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention’s Don't Fry Day Committee and is working to shape the campaign to reach and connect with teenage audiences. In high school, she installed and researched the efficacy of a sunscreen dispenser at her school’s 10,000 seat football stadium, worked with a number of sunscreen vendors to raise skin cancer awareness through her community’s annual Relay for Life benefiting the American Cancer Society, and placed in the top ten globally in the Health Occupation Students of America’s (HOSA) creative problem solving competition. Ellie is thrilled to be an inaugural member of the Associate Board and looks forward to continuing her work to promote melanoma awareness among young adults.