Dr. Charles R. Rogers

06/02/2026

We often talk about cancer after diagnosis.

Not enough people are talking about what happens before it.

Before the diagnosis.
Before the treatment.
Before the emergency room visit.
Before the life-changing conversation.

A young Black mother being told cancer treatment may affect her ability to have children.

A patient learning they have cancer during an emergency visit instead of through routine screening.

A family left asking whether an earlier conversation could have changed everything.

These are not isolated stories.

They are reminders that prevention only works when people can access it, trust it, and act on it.

Colore**al cancer is increasingly affecting younger adults, particularly in underserved communities.

The challenge is not simply awareness.

The challenge is making prevention feel accessible, relevant, and worth acting on before symptoms force the issue.

When trust is missing, screenings get delayed.

When screenings get delayed, diagnoses often come later.

When diagnoses come later, outcomes become harder to change.

That is why culturally responsive care matters.

That is why trusted messengers matter.

That is why community engagement matters.

I recently spoke with Taneia Surles for BlackDoctor about these issues and what healthcare leaders, clinicians, researchers, and community advocates can do differently.

Read the interview here:
🔗 https://lnkd.in/e29fQsDi

What do you believe is the single most important thing we can do to improve trust and increase cancer screening in our communities?

06/01/2026

My heart is heavy today.

This weekend, the colore**al cancer community lost a giant.

Nearly a decade ago, social media introduced me to Phuong Ly Gallagher. Long before we met, I admired her commitment to helping others. As President of The Colon Club, she made sure young adults facing colore**al cancer never felt alone.

At just 29 years old, Phuong was told she was "too young" for colore**al cancer.

She wasn't.

She was diagnosed with stage III re**al cancer and would go on to endure four metastatic recurrences over the next 18 years.

Many people would have focused only on surviving.

Phuong focused on helping others survive too.

She mentored patients.
She supported families.
She participated in clinical trials.
She advanced research.
She advocated for awareness.
She fought for a cure.

When we finally met, we became collaborators, colleagues, and friends.

One thing I loved about Phuong was that she would never let me pay her directly for her work on research projects. Instead, she would ask me to donate those funds to The Colon Club so more patients and families could be supported.

That tells you everything you need to know about who she was.

Yet what I will remember most isn't the research, the publications, or the awards.

It's that she always asked about my family.

She reminded me that our greatest impact comes from how we treat people.

I am heartbroken that she is gone.

I am grateful that she is no longer suffering.

I am grateful for every conversation, every text message, every lesson, and every opportunity to tell her how much she meant to so many of us.

Phuong's purpose did not end this weekend.

It lives on through every life she touched and every person who continues this fight.

Until colore**al cancer is no longer stealing mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, friends, and advocates, we will keep showing up.

We will keep fighting.

We will keep honoring your legacy.

Rest well and in power, Phuong. 💙

**alCancer

05/27/2026

Awareness alone does not change outcomes.

People act on what they trust.

That trust is shaped long before someone walks into a clinic.

It is shaped by lived experience.
It is shaped by whether systems feel accessible.
It is shaped by whether care feels culturally relevant.
It is shaped by whether people believe they will actually be heard.

Next month in Charleston, I’m looking forward to joining Johnese Bostic at the 2026 SCPHCA Clinical Network Retreat for a fireside conversation on:

“Outreach Is Not Engagement: Rebuilding Trust, Connection, and Action in Community Health.”

We’ll discuss why traditional outreach strategies often fail to create sustained behavior change and what healthcare organizations must rethink if they truly want prevention and engagement to improve.

Excited to join physicians, nurses, pharmacists, behavioral health professionals, and community health leaders across South Carolina for this important conversation around trust, systems design, and patient-centered care.

The strongest healthcare systems of the future will not simply deliver care more efficiently.

They will build systems people trust enough to engage with consistently.

05/27/2026

Every week, another family learns the words:
“Stage 4.”

Then comes the sentence no family should have to hear:
“We wish we had caught it sooner.”

Colore**al cancer is rising among younger adults, yet too many people are still being told:
“You’re too young.”
“It’s probably stress.”
“It’s hemorrhoids.”

Months pass.
Sometimes years.

By the time answers finally come, families are left grieving people who should still be here.

At the Colore**al Cancer Equity Foundation, this is why we continue showing up in communities with education, trusted conversations, and screening resources that help people take action before it is too late.

This work is not about awareness alone.

It is about giving more people the chance to survive.
More families the chance to keep their loved ones.
More dinner tables without empty chairs.

Every conversation matters.
Every screening matters.
Every life matters. 💙

**alCancer

05/22/2026

Too many brilliant women are being rewarded for how much of themselves they are willing to negotiate away.



At nine months pregnant, my wife turned down a $185,000 opportunity because she recognized the deeper ask beneath the offer:

Shrink now.

Bend now.

Prove your worth now.

Sacrifice now.

Many people would call that risky.

I call it clarity.

One thing I’ve learned watching Dr. Tiana build, lead, mother, and refuse to abandon herself in the process:

The most powerful women are not simply chasing success anymore.
They are redefining the terms of it.

That is exactly why Wealthy & Worthy matters.

Not another performative empowerment event.

Not another room where women are told to keep grinding themselves into exhaustion.

This is for women ready to:

✔️ stop negotiating themselves

✔️ stop shrinking for rooms that cannot hold their next level

✔️ build wealth, leadership, and purpose without abandoning peace

Atlanta.

August 21–23, 2026.

The women in that room will not leave the same.

Stop waiting on another 'sign' & reserve your seat:

https://legacy-league.mykajabi.com/a/2148154015/RizPrGNa

At nine months pregnant I turned down $185,000. 🫠

It wasn't the offer per se...it was what came with it.

They asked me to shorten my maternity leave before my baby was even born. Framed it as a small adjustment. A 'business need'. Nobody was particularly unkind about it.

However, I fully understood what was actually being asked. Start bending now. Prove you're committed. Negotiate yourself before you even begin.

I knew in my gut...if this is how it starts, I already know how it ends. So, I said 'no'.

The recruiter was perplexed. My husband thought I had lost my mind. 🤭

But, I knew that I hadn't lost anything. I had finally found something. The line that I was no longer willing to cross.

I've come to learn that success built on concession isn't success. It's a slow negotiation of everything you actually are. How an opportunity treats your boundaries before day one is data.

The most important data you'll ever collect. Keep your head on a swivel.

→If you're ready to stop negotiating yourself and build success on your own terms; Wealthy & Worthy Atlanta is where that work happens in person. ⤵️

05/20/2026

Black communities do not lack resilience.

Too often, we have lacked systems designed to truly help us thrive.

That is why the Council on Black Health’s new 2026–2028 Collective Action Plan matters so much to me. After collaborating with 75 health leaders from across the country in Houston, one thing became clear:

Awareness alone is not enough.

People also need:
• access
• trust
• culturally responsive care
• community-based solutions
• systems willing to meet people where they are

This new roadmap includes 13 strategies and 50+ tactics focused on addressing systemic health disparities in Black communities.

This is what coordinated action looks like.

Much of the framework strongly aligns with the mission of the Colore**al Cancer Equity Foundation, especially the focus on prevention, trust-centered engagement, mobile outreach, workforce development, and turning research into action communities can actually feel.

Real change will require all of us.

Read the plan:
councilbh.org/2026-2028-Collective-Action-Plan

05/19/2026

Black communities do not need more awareness alone.

We need action.
We need access.
We need trust.
We need systems built to actually reach people before prevention becomes crisis care.

After three days of collaboration in Houston and weeks of continued work with 75 health leaders from across the country, the Council on Black Health has officially released its 2026–2028 Collective Action Plan. We are proud that our Founder & President, Dr. Charles R. Rogers, helped contribute to this important national effort.

What makes this plan powerful is that it moves beyond conversation. It outlines real strategies focused on healthcare access, community partnerships, mobile outreach, patient navigation, food access, workforce development, and culturally responsive care.

This connects to the mission of the Colore**al Cancer Equity Foundation because far too many Black families are still experiencing preventable loss from late diagnoses and barriers to screening.

We believe health equity must be something people can actually feel in their everyday lives.

Fewer barriers.
More trust.
Earlier detection.
More lives saved.

We’ve got work to do.
Let’s do it together.

Learn more:
councilbh.org/2026-2028-Collective-Action-Plan

05/11/2026

Too many brilliant women are surviving in rooms that no longer deserve them.

Still leading.
Still producing.
Still carrying everyone else.

Yet quietly shrinking to fit environments that cannot hold their next level.

That kind of shrinking has a cost.

Not just financially.
Emotionally.
Mentally.
Spiritually.

One thing I’ve learned from watching high-performing leaders, including my wife Dr. Tiana:

The right room can change your entire trajectory. 💯

Your confidence grows differently.
Your vision expands differently.
Your peace feels different.

Atlanta is about to be filled with women choosing growth over burnout and expansion over survival.

🔥 Wealthy & Worthy
📍 Atlanta | August 21–23, 2026

This is more than an event.

It’s real strategy.
Real community.
Real recalibration.

The women walking into that room this summer will not leave the same.

Learn more & register:
https://lnkd.in/gnzEkAq7

05/10/2026

🤗💙🙏🏾

On this Mother’s Day, we hold space for every kind of mother.

The mothers celebrating today surrounded by love and family.

The mothers we miss and wish we could hug one more time.

The women still hoping and praying to become mothers.

The mothers carrying the pain of losing a child.

Today can bring smiles, tears, gratitude, and grief all at once.

At the Colore**al Cancer Equity Foundation Foundation, we have seen how much strength mothers carry through illness, caregiving, advocacy, and loss. So many continue showing up for others even while carrying heavy burdens of their own.

To every mother and every heart carrying the love of a mother:
Thank you.

We honor your strength, your sacrifice, and your love today and always.

Happy Mother’s Day. 💙