Dr. Walens is a second year postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer Control Education Program at UNC-CH. She completed her PhD in molecular cancer biology from Duke University in June 2019. For her thesis project, she studied the role of the tumor microenvironment in breast cancer dormancy and recurrence, in addition to tumor evolution through breast cancer dormancy and recurrence. She is currently studying the tumor microenvironment and potential novel biomarkers for addressing breast cancer mortality disparities in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study.