PAULA SELESNICK

PAULA SELESNICK has been a huge supporter of PHASE ONE since learning about the charity from friend and board member, Marc Lebowitz. After attending FACT for PHASE ONE and the gala for the past two years, she was fortunate enough to be asked to serve on the granting committees which has been an amazing experience in seeing the insights and interior of PHASE ONE. While volunteering on the Gala Committee, she found herself surrounded and supported by so many other like-minded people. Paula has been involved in charitable organizations for the past 25 years. In her seven years at The National Charity League, she served as the liaison for both the West Valley Food Pantry and the Boys & Girls Club. Along with many other organizations, Paula was also involved with Relay for Life for six years.

Cancer has affected too many people in her family. In the Spring of 2017, Paula’s youngest daughter was diagnosed with CML, a chronic form of leukemia that typically affects men in their late 60s, not normally found in 15-year-old girls. Every day she takes a life-saving medicine that started from a Phase I trial. Then, only three years later in late 2020, Paula was diagnosed with Stage 2A triple-negative breast cancer. Paula was lucky enough to be patient 49 of 50 in a Phase II clinical trial at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center that ended up saving her life. In fact, the immunotherapy she was given is now a standard of care for breast cancer treatment. Like too many others, Paula has had multiple family members wrestle with cancer. Paula’s father passed away from liver cancer, and currently, her stepmother-in-law is fighting stage 4 lung cancer. She is a passionate supporter of PHASE ONE and its mission to change the face of cancer.

Paula has been happily married for the past 27 years to Andy Selesnick and they have two beautiful daughters, Hannah (25) and Kaela (21), as well as a golden retriever named Maverick. Paula received her B.A. in Political Science from Loyola University (Maryland) and her J.D. from Catholic University School of Law in Washington D.C. For the past 24 years, she has proudly served as a Deputy District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles.