These are the people that keep the Arkansas Cancer Coalition running. Their hard work and dedication allows us to continue to connect people across Arkansas to fight cancer together.
Arkansas Cancer Coalition Staff
Trena Mitchell, MA, CNP
Office: (501) 404-2351
Trena.Mitchell@arcancercoalition.org
Board Members
Krista Kirksey Thomas
For 16 years, Krista Kirksey Thomas has served the cancer community of Arkansas at the American Cancer Society. Currently, Krista is the Cancer Control Strategic Partnerships Manager for the state of Arkansas. When she’s not calling the hogs for her beloved Razorbacks, she’s partnering with the state, hospital systems and federally qualified health systems to make an impact on cancer prevention and early detection and quality of life for cancer patients and caregivers. Krista lives in Little Rock with her husband, Keri, daughters, Addy and Emmy, and dog, Marley.
Gwendolyn Bryant-Smith, M.D.
Gwendolyn Bryant-Smith, M.D. is a native of Arkansas. She is the Chief of Breast Imaging and the Breast Imaging Fellowship Director in the Department of Radiology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). A graduate of the UAMS College of Medicine, Bryant-Smith completed her internship at UAMS, followed by a residency in diagnostic radiology and fellowship training in the UAMS Breast Imaging Fellowship program. She is board certified in Diagnostic Radiology.
Bryant-Smith joined the UAMS Department of Radiology in 2006. She served as Director of Breast Imaging in the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) Department of Radiology from July 1, 2008 to February 29, 2016. She was named Chief of Breast Imaging at UAMS in the Department of Radiology March 1, 2016.
She has served as chair of the National Veterans Affairs Mammography Advisory Committee and as a subject matter expert on the Upper Midwest Consolidated Services Center (UMCSC) Biopsy Instruments and Needles Committee with Mayo Clinic. She is a clinical image reviewer for the Arkansas Mammography Accreditation Program, a member of the UAMS Radiology Residency Program Evaluation Committee, a member of the UAMS Mammography Workgroup, and an Envoy Board member of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
Bryant-Smith has a strong interest in patient advocacy and health policy. She testified before the 2017 Arkansas General Assembly House and Senate Insurance and Commerce Committees in a successful effort to gain insurance coverage for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis and Whole Breast Ultrasound for women in the state of Arkansas. Bryant-Smith is a member of the American College of Radiology, Arkansas Radiological Society, Radiological Society of North America, and the Society of Breast Imaging.
Elizabeth (Izzy) Montgomery
Elizabeth (Izzy) Montgomery is a Policy Analyst at the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI). She has over a decade of public health experience, which began with an internship with Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 2010. Since 2012, Montgomery has been part of the ACHI team and has held roles in both project management and policy analysis. During her tenure with ACHI, she has developed countless blogs, explainers, and infographics on key healthcare topics for various stakeholders; provided consulting support to the Arkansas Employee Benefits Division related to plan utilization and program development; and has led internal efforts to identify and pursue external funding opportunities. She also represents ACHI on the Chronic Disease Coordinating Council where she serves as secretary. Montgomery is a graduate of Hendrix College and earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Yara Robertson, MD
Yara V. Robertson, M.D. is fellowship-trained breast surgical oncologist and is board certified in general surgery. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Robertson is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and completed her medical school at Quillen College of Medicine (East Tennessee State University). After finishing her general surgery residency at UAMS, she completed a fellowship in Diseases of the Breast at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at UAMS. In 2011, she moved to Atlanta, GA and spent 9 years in a private breast surgical oncology practice. In 2020, she was recruited back to Little Rock, AR and joined CARTI Cancer Center.
She has served as Vice-Chairman of the Atlanta based organization Sisters by Choice (SBC), a non-profit organization that provides support for women diagnosed with breast cancer, educates on breast health, and provides free breast health screenings to uninsured women. Due to her work with SBC, she has received congressional recognition from Georgia Congressman David Scott. She currently serves as an advisor for Not Putting on a Shirt, which is national non-profit organization that advocates for optimal surgical outcomes for women who choose to go flat after mastectomy. She also serves in an advisory role for the organization Learn Look Locate which provides education and advocacy for the early detection of breast cancer.
As a kidney cancer survivor herself, Dr. Robertson is fully aware of the importance of the patient’s role in shared decision making and advocates for patient centered care.
Katherine Donald
Katherine Donald has served as the Executive Director for the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Arkansas for more than twenty (20) years. She has been instrumental in assisting in the passage of several statewide and local tobacco control laws, and numerous voluntary policies that help to protect the public from exposure to secondhand smoke in places where they live, work, learn, worship, and play.
For the past thirty plus years, Katherine has worked professionally for both the private and public sector, in fields affecting adolescent development, family enrichment, public health, and community development. She is a certified trainer and consultant for a national organization that focuses on family enrichment and parental empowerment issues. Katherine has conducted trainings and supervised iterant programs from California to Massachusetts, and much of the Mid-west. Additionally, she has managed and administered a multiplicity of programs at the local level.
Katherine received her first degree from Philander Smith College, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and continued her education through graduate studies in Rehabilitation Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
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