Recap of the Nevada Cancer Control Summit Annual Conference
Reno, Nevada
November 6, 2017
Registry Partners attended the Nevada Cancer Control Summit Annual Conference on November 6, 2017. As part of the conference, a CTR in the state of Nevada who has demonstrated excellence in data reporting is recognized each year with an award.
The summary below was prepared by Cari Herington, MBA, Executive Director of the Nevada Cancer Coalition who presented this year’s 
award to Bob Fritz, in honor of his late wife April Fritz. April made such an impact in the cancer registry profession with a special love and passion for educating registrars across the country.
Cari’s Presentation of the 2017 Nevada Cancer Registrar Award:
Our final award is the Nevada Cancer Registrars Award, given to a registry professional that has demonstrated excellence in data reporting. This year the award is given as a scholarship fund donation in memory and honor of our dear friend April Fritz.
The joint statement put out by the National Cancer Registrars Association and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries stated this – “April Fritz’s name is interwoven throughout the story of cancer surveillance. We lost April in September to cancer, the disease to which she devoted her life’s work. As an employee in both the public and private sectors and as a volunteer to many nonprofits, April played a pivotal role advancing cancer surveillance and, in turn, improving public health across the nation.”
I had no idea that Nevada had such a national treasure, the leading expert in all things cancer surveillance, residing right here in Reno! A mutual friend connected us about 6 years ago…as I was lamenting about the challenges of cancer data in my new job. From the day we met, April became Nevada’s personal consultant on all things cancer surveillance. She spent countless hours working with us on legislation to update and improve Nevada’s cancer data collection laws, a bill which was successfully passed during the 2015 session. She was instrumental in rebuilding the Nevada Cancer Registrars Association and always provided educational sessions to our members, and, when she wasn’t teaching elsewhere across the globe, was right here at our cancer Summits sharing her wealth of knowledge and expertise with us all – usually only accepting a hug in return for her efforts.
April served as an active member on Nevada’s Cancer Surveillance and Research Task Force, advisory board to the Nevada Central Cancer Registry. As such, this year Nevada met numerous silver and gold national standards which means when you look at the national maps of cancer data, Nevada is back on! We are forever grateful to our friend and colleague, April Fritz, and we will miss her dearly.
As the military spouse always outranks the uniformed member, we present this check for the April Fritz memorial scholarship fund to Brigadier General April Fritz’s husband, Colonel Robert Fritz, US Army, Retired.
Mr. Fritz was deeply honored to accept the scholarship fund donation on behalf of his late wife April. April’s memory will forever live on in the world of cancer registry.