Coping with Cancer: Mental Health Tips & Tools with Dr. Meagan Dwyer

Cynthia is a newborn ICU nurse by trade that has spent the last six years in the medical device industry educating nurses and doctors about devices that are new to their facility. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, traveling the world with her family, and creating Halloween animatronics for her annual front yard display. She has a passion for life-long learning and enjoys sharing what she learns with the people around her.

Meagan L. Dwyer, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist with over 14 years of experience in psychosocial oncology. She worked in academic medicine for 12 years, serving as the Director of Onco-Psychology and the APA- Accredited Fellowship at NCCN Designated KU Cancer Center for 8 years. She has been in her private practice, Starboard Therapy & Coaching, for nearly 2 years. This practice is focused on serving those with cancer or other serious/chronic illness, those experiencing grief, and providing support or coaching to healthcare providers around burnout. Dr. Dwyer has research and clinical experience and interests focused on intersections of trauma and health psychology, particularly oncology. She is also interested in end-of-life issues, quality of life, and the interrelationships between psychological and physical health. She has expanded research into professional practice topics, particularly the impact of healthcare-related work on professional providers via compassion satisfaction, fatigue, and burnout, as well as training and program development within psycho-oncology. She has also been engaged in adapting and developing distress screenings, and psychosocial intake process and triage for both academic and clinical application.