(soft music) - My name is Dr. Danielle Twum, and I'm a cancer immunologist.

To explain what cancer immunology is, basically you have in your bodies an immune system, which you never, ever recognize exists until you actually get sick, and this immune system plays a huge role in helping prevent cancer and fight cancer when you get it.

It's really exciting to know that there's so many people in different corners of the country, all working together to cure cancer.

We've learned that together, we're stronger, and in the field of cancer research, we know that.

So there is no cure that comes from the work of one person.

If we have a diversity of voices at the table contributing to how the cure must be found, that is how I think that everybody is gonna get access to the different cures that are coming out.

So one of the greatest STEM initiatives I've been involved in is the If/Then initiative, which is, "If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world," which is an initiative aimed at increasing visibility of women in STEM as role models for young children, and we had the honor, it was the highest honor, to be featured at the Smithsonian as part of Women's History Month.

We all had 3D statues of ourselves and we had a chance to interact with the public, telling them about the different avenues that we've gone on with our science degrees.

It's been very fulfilling and I'm very proud of it.

(crowd clapping) You have to make your own mold, you have to stay flexible when it comes to a STEM degree or thinking about what a scientist looks like, and you have to be like water.

Like, if they pour you into any receptacle, take that shape and, you know, give it your all.

Give it 200, 300%, 1,000%.

There is a lot of data out there about how a lot of marginalized groups do not have access to clinical trials because they just don't know it.

And one doctor described a clinical trial as the bus that takes you to the cure.

And so if you don't even get access to the bus, how are you even gonna get to the cure?

So one of the things I try to work on is I try to encourage a lot of especially black young women who want to go into STEM.

I try to encourage 'em because that is the only way we can change the conversation, and if there isn't a seat for you at the table, well, Shirley Chisholm said bring your own chair, but I love to even build my own table.

I'm originally from Ghana, West Africa, and I grew up in a home, my father is a software engineer, my mother is a lawyer, but my mother was not a traditional student and my mother was probably my first role model because she first had my sister and I before she went to college.

And I saw how much work it was for her to juggle raising two kids and also, you know, going to college and then becoming a lawyer on top of it.

And while she was gone, my grandmother was the one who raised us.

And if there was ever a fierce warrior woman, it was this woman.

She defended us to the end.

And she always told us, she's like, "It doesn't matter what you do, you have to finish your studies."

And every time I wanted to quit in graduate school.

I would just hear my grandma say, "You have to finish.

You can't just leave this be.

Take a break if you have to, but you have to finish this."

- Oh, my gosh!

(laughter) - My sister and I have never run out of things to talk about, ever.

My brother-in-law is always fascinated by the fact that we always have stuff to talk about.

I was precocious as a kid.

I asked questions all the time.

I did not take the word no as an answer.

I'm like, why?

And I had a very, very supportive family.

So they always just put a book in my hand and said, "Look up the answer," which is why I still love books to this day.

I wanted to be an astronaut.

I wanted to be a lawyer.

I wanted to be a medical doctor.

I wanted to go into environmental law.

I wanted to do everything.

So it's funny how it all comes back to me being a scientist and asking why.

When I was seven, my uncle, with whom I share a birthday with, he died of a brain tumor before he had a chance to hit his 35th birthday.

It's the only time I've ever seen my mother cry.

And so in college I knew I was interested in STEM.

I knew I was interested in research, but I'd always wanted to ask what is cancer, and why does it kill people in such a terrible way?

I don't want another child to have a story like mine.

It's been years since my uncle died, but I can still see his face clearly in my head.

And the whole point is to, what I do every day is to make sure that people get access to care that he never got, had a chance to.

(upbeat music)