“My grandmother died from breast cancer when I was 10 years old and when I was 18, my aunt died of breast cancer,” she said. “I knew early on that I wanted to do something with cancer and fight for a cure.”

Mueller pursued a career as an oncology nurse that started with nursing school at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and ended in June, when she retired after 21 years as the chief nursing officer at Gainesville’s North Florida Regional Medical Center.

She also embarked on a 35-year run of volunteer work with the American Cancer Society that recently culminated in her being elected as chairman of the board of directors for the national American Cancer Society.

Mueller, 60, will lead the 21-member board that sets policy goals and oversees budgeting and operations for the organization that is the country’s largest non-government source of funding for cancer research.

For Mueller, who has served five years on the national board, the one-year term as chair continues a lifelong commitment to the cause of cancer research in search of better treatments and a cure.

“It has certainly been my passion and will continue to be long after I’m chair,” she said.

After graduating from UNC, she eventually became the nursing director of the oncology clinical trials unit at nearby Duke University, where tests went on for drugs that are “standard treatment” for cancer today.

During her years in North Carolina, she taught women how to perform breast self-exams and stressed the importance of mammograms for early detection.

Mueller moved to Gainesville 27 years ago to become the first coordinator of the cancer center at North Florida Regional.

She became active in the local chapter of the American Cancer Society, working on the Relay for Life and the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Events and serving as a speaker at events. She spent 18 years on the state board, serving as president/chair in 2004-05.

Robert E. Youle, a Colorado attorney who served as chair of the national board last year, has known Mueller some 15 years and worked with her more closely on American Cancer Society initiatives for about seven years.

“The lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans will rely on how well Scarlott does her job this year,” Youle said. “That is a very sobering thought but I have the utmost confidence in her. She is smart, decisive, tough, a strategic thinker. But she also keeps the cancer patient first and foremost in mind and that is the most important thing.”

Looking ahead, Mueller said beyond working to raise money for research, some priorities during her term as president include making headway on the organization’s goal of having 80 percent of Americans over age 50 screened for colon cancer by 2018.

She said the organization also wants continue to see a decrease in smoking to combat lung cancer and to open more Hope Lodge facilities like the one in Gainesville where patients stay while undergoing cancer treatments.

Reflecting on her decades of professional and volunteer involvement in fighting cancer, Mueller said while much needs to be done, research has advanced treatments and diagnostic capabilities to extend lives and improved quality of life.

“I know if my grandmother was diagnosed today, she would have had a whole different situation than what happened when I was 10 years old,” she said.

Reprinted with the permission of The Gainesville Sun.