Information on Blood Cancer for Veterans

Rajeshwari (Raji) Ayyar, M.D.is a board-certified Hematologist/Oncologist with over 40 years of experience. She has worked with oncology patients in the San Francisco Bay Area, Texas, and most recently at the Veterans Administration in Reno. She has worked at Kaiser Permanente, MD Anderson, and at Bergstrom Air Base Hospital in Austin, TX where she achieved the rank of major. She completed her fellowship in oncology at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute and completed her residency in hematology and internal medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. She attended medical school at King George Medical College in India. In addition to her position at the VA in Reno she currently serves as a volunteer oncologist for Second Opinion in San Francisco offering consulting pro bono and for Amitra Institute of Medical Sciences in Kerala, India helping to improve medical processes and instruction for oncology residents and fellows

Barbara Rodgick Meehan graduated from the University of California San Diego, Revelle College with a BA in molecular biology and a K-12 teaching credential. She spent most of her career working for the federal government where she met her husband, Bill Meehan. Her involvement with veteran health issues began after her husband, a Vietnam veteran, became ill with multiple myeloma, cancer of the plasma cells of the blood. After Bill‘s death, Barbara decided to honor her husband by working on veteran health issues. Her efforts paid off in 2019 when Governor Steve Sisolak signed Nevada Revised Statute (NRS) 417.123-128 which included changes Ms. Rodgick Meehan felt would improve Veteran access to healthcare. She is currently working on another bill for the 2023 Nevada legislative session.

Lisa Maciel is a Veteran Service Officer and the Supervisor for the Northern Nevada Veterans Advocacy and Support Team (VAST) in Reno, Nevada. Lisa previously worked for Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health as the Immunizations Disparities Project Coordinator. Since 2016, she has been an Air Force Reservist, serving as a Medical Administration Officer and Flight Commander for the 349th Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Travis AFB, California. Lisa served in the Nevada Air National Guard for 15 years as a Medical Logistician and a Medical Administration Officer. While in the guard as a full-time Medical Administrator, she managed the Line of Duty program and the Medical/Disability Evaluation Boards for the 152nd Air Wing.

Lisa holds a master’s degree in Public Health and bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from American Military University, as well as an associate degree in Business Administration from Western Nevada College. Lisa is the local chair for the Northern Nevada Chapter of the National Cervical Cancer Coalition, and also serves as the District 1 Post Surgeon for the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Nevada.

Lisa is a lifetime member of the VFW, the VFW National Home for Children, and the National Guard Association of the United States. She is also part of the Military Officers Association of America and the Air National Guard Medical Service Corps Association.

Myra completed an Oncology Nurse preceptorship at the University of Louisville, in the late ‘70’s, which led to an appointment by her hospital as “Oncology Nurse Clinician”. After relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada, she was an experienced Oncology Nurse and joined cohorts to charter the Greater Las Vegas Oncology Nursing chapter. There, she served on the Greater Las Vegas American Cancer Society’s Nursing Education committee, wherein an annual cancer nursing symposium was presented. Along with a colleague, Myra incorporated an Oncology Nursing Education consulting service to teach cancer nursing and cancer chemotherapy courses. She achieved certifications in Oncology Nursing and Infusion therapy (OCN and CRNI).  She was elected as chairperson for the Oncology Nursing Society’s Special Interest Group, Cancer Chemotherapy, which had over 10,000 members. Myra was instrumental in developing standard operating procedures and staff development for several Las Vegas community oncology clinics. She has presented cancer chemotherapy lectures on behalf of major oncology pharmaceutical companies speaker’s bureaus.  She was employed by VA Southern Nevada Health Care Systems as an Oncology Infusion Staff nurse and then promoted to Nurse Manager in primary care clinics. Her diligent work in oncology nursing led to an appointment on the Veteran’s Administration National Oncology Nurse Advisory committee. In this role she and her colleagues researched and developed quality improvement initiatives that were implemented throughout the VA health care systems. And most importantly she is a Servant Leader, learning first -hand from individuals, families, and Oncology Health care providers about the “lived experiences” of cancer survivorship. She is a lifetime contributor in transformational, quality cancer survivorship care.