Raquel Sanchez

Sanchez is a first generation English speaker, college student, and professional. Her parents left their home country of the Dominican Republic to start their family in Brooklyn, New York.[4] As an immigrant family in one of the most challenging neighborhoods in the US at the time, living in low-income housing, and finding ways to get ahead, Sanchez developed her perseverance, skills in communication and mediation that would later serve her well in her professional life.[5] She moved to Seattle, WA, in 2013 with her husband and two children.[4]

Sanchez attended Townsend Harris High School in 1992 and graduated in 1996. Sanchez went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Fordham University, graduating in 2000. Interested in management, she attended the University of Phoenix from 2003–2005 to complete a Master of Business Administration in Human Resources Management and Services. Today Sanchez continues to pursue a Doctorate of Global Health at the University of Washington.[4][6]

After graduating from Fordham University, Sanchez started her career in research administration at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She began as a Clinical Research Coordinator and rose the ranks to Research Assistant, Research Data Manager, and finally to Operations Manager at the Brain Tumor Center.[6] With Eric Holland, Sanchez helped build the world-renowned brain cancer program at Sloan-Kettering. When Holland was recruited by Fred Hutch in Seattle, he brought Sanchez with him to serve as the Senior Operations Director of the Human Biology Division and Seattle Translational Tumor Research.[2]

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where Sanchez currently works as the managing director of Global Oncology

After four years as Senior Operations Director, Sanchez was promoted to Associate Vice President of Research Administration. She oversaw programs in Health Outcomes Research, Translational Tumor Research, Science Education and Training, and Faculty Affairs. Sanchez was also instrumental in launching a cross-divisional initiative at Fred Hutch called Optimize to Innovate (Opt-In). This initiative was a collaborative push between research administration leadership and senior operations directors to support research administrators who are delivering on new projects while creating new goals of supporting the sciences.[2]

Most recently in 2019, Sanchez was promoted to managing director of Global Oncology at Fred Hutch. She supports the Seattle and Kampala-based teams of about 70 faculty and staff, and delivers strategic support to the Global Oncology Head (Hootie Warren). In this role, Sanchez is involved in Global Oncology's partnership with the Uganda Cancer Institute that researches better ways to treat cancers in low and middle income countries.[2]

Sanchez currently chairs the global health and education foundation, Education Across Borders. In addition, she serves on Fred Hutch's Diversity Council, Diverse Enrollment IRB Subcommittee, Hutch United Advisory Board, and Washington Diversity Council.[2][6]

With less than 11 percent of cancer researchers from underrepresented groups and cancer disproportionately impacting underserved populations, Raquel Sanchez is dedicated to diversifying the healthcare field.[4] From the beginnings of her career as Senior Operations Director at Fred Hutch, Sanchez sought out to change the homogenous environment she entered by creating a diverse team. She oversaw the details of recruiting, outreach, community work fairs, and relationships being built to ensure all people from different background were being reached. In addition, to ensure jobs for specifically minority employees, Sanchez created an internship in her office for first-generation minority candidates interested in health care. These commitments have resulted in a more diverse workplace and employees of color who are high performing and committed to Fred Hutch.[7] Today, Sanchez supports underrepresented minority scientists through the Hutch United Advisory Board, women's breast and ovarian health through the Rivkin Center, and the growth and education of communities in the Dominican Republic through Education Across Borders.[7][8]