Keynote Presentation: 
Listening to Cancer: Surviving Treatment, Sustaining Self, and Managing Identity

Steve Buechler, PhD
 

Steve Buechler was a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and a Distinguished Faculty Scholar during a 31-year career at Minnesota State University – Mankato. 

After successful treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia in 2016, he became a multi-faceted volunteer and patient advocate in the cancer community. Through these activities, he channels his gratitude and pays it forward while honoring all those who collaborated to save his life.  

Steve has been an LLS First Connection volunteer speaking with newly diagnosed patients since 2017. His well-received, 2018 memoir How Steve Became Ralph: A Cancer/Stem Cell Odyssey (with Jokes) is listed on the LLS Suggested Reading page. In 2023, he published an award-winning article on Language Matters on the LLS website. He then recorded a Bloodline podcast on the value of writing for cancer patients. Steve also designed a writing workshop for LLS members that has been offered several times with his co-facilitator Brad Buchanan. He received the 2023 Upper Plains Region Mission Impact Award from the LLS.  

His new book Listening to Cancer: Essays on Treatment, Survivorship, and Giving Back has just been published this fall.