SFA Honors Johns Hopkins’ Devon Ciampa, LCSW-C, OSW-C, with 2022 Compassionate Care Award
The Sarcoma Foundation of America (SFA), an organization dedicated to increasing research and awareness for sarcoma, today announced that Devon Ciampa, LCSW-C, OSW-C, will receive the Compassionate Care Award during SFA’s Stand Up to Sarcoma Gala on September 28, 2022, in New York, NY.
The SFA Compassionate Care Award is given annually to recognize a patient/nurse navigator (clinical/nurse, community health worker, social worker in the role of a navigator) for his or her outstanding contributions to patient care, support or education. Ciampa was nominated by the family of Officer Spencer Butler Wiersberg. The family stated, “Devon understood the unique struggles Spencer was facing, both as a cancer patient and as a young adult professional. She tirelessly helped us do the behind-the-scenes work to benefit Spencer so that all he saw was a seamless, united front of people who love him. Devon is one of the blessings we continue to carry with us from the worst time in our lives.”
Ciampa is a clinical social worker in pediatric oncology at The Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, Md., and the adolescent and young adult (AYA) patient navigator for Johns Hopkins through the Ulman Foundation. As an AYA patient navigator, she participates in NIH research related to improving AYA patient care and is working on building the unit’s first AYA program focused on important periods of transition.
Throughout her career, Ciampa has concentrated on the needs of adolescent and young adults in various crisis situations. She was senior manager of transitioning youth at CASA for Children of DC and education consultant with Visions Global Empowerment. In addition, she has helped run educational and leadership programs for youth in India and Sri Lanka. While in Shanghai, China, Ciampa was language learning director of the largest English school with The Walt Disney Company. She has also served in the Peace Corps as a university teacher in Chongqing, China. Ms. Ciampa has been a speaker at various events on topics related to the young adult community including those for the FDA, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the World Learning African Exchange on Children in Need and the AIR American/Russian Delegation Exchange on Transitioning Youth.
Ciampa holds advanced degrees in film production from Boston University as well as in International Educational Policy and Social Work, both from Columbia University. She is currently a doctoral candidate in University of Pennsylvania’s DSW program.
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About the Sarcoma Foundation of America
The Sarcoma Foundation of America (SFA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization, is an advocate for increased research to find new and better therapies with which to treat patients with sarcoma. The organization raises money to privately fund grants for sarcoma researchers and conducts education and advocacy efforts on behalf of sarcoma patients. For more information, please visit www.curesarcoma.org.
About Sarcoma
Sarcoma is a rare cancer in adults (1 percent of all adult cancers) but rather prevalent in children (about 15% of all childhood cancers). At any one time, 50,000 patients and their families are struggling with sarcoma. Every year, nearly 16,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 6,000 people die from the disease.