A Powerful Partner
Susan Dinter leads The Pap Corps in step with Sylvester to discover a cure for cancer
By Stacey Bomser
Photography by Sonya Revell
Susan Dinter is recruiting younger members to continue The Pap Corps mission.
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fter moving to Florida in 2006, Susan Dinter wanted to get involved in her new community. When a neighbor told her about The Pap Corps Champions for Cancer Research, which has the sole mission of raising money for Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, she felt an immediate connection. Dinter’s father died of glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, and she often donated to support cancer research.
Dinter jumped in with The Pap Corps, eventually taking on various leadership roles within her local chapter before joining the board of directors. She has served as chair for the past five years, tapping managerial skills she honed from her corporate career to lead the grassroots organization.
“I believe so strongly in what we do,” said Dinter, who is motivated by the numerous cancer survivors The Pap Corps has helped. “I think Sylvester is the only cancer center to have an organization like The Pap Corps supporting it and its researchers. We’ve been doing this for nearly 73 years now and have no intention of stopping until there is a cure for all cancer.”
Sylvester scientists are making great strides toward reaching that shared goal, thanks to the more than $110 million The Pap Corps has donated, including a historic $50 million pledge to Sylvester in 2016. These funds have supported endowed chairs, hundreds of research projects, Game Changer vehicles, Sylvester and the Dolphins Cancer Challenge.
“The Pap Corps is Sylvester’s longest-standing partnership,” said Sylvester Director Stephen D. Nimer, M.D., the Oscar de la Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research and executive dean for research at the Miller School. “We are so grateful for their tireless support and immense generosity. Their unwavering determination to advance scientific research has been simply unparalleled.”
In 1952, five visionary women, concerned about the lack of research on women’s cancers, founded The Pap Corps. They raised money for researchers fighting all types of cancer at what was then the Dade County Cancer Institute. When Dr. George Papanicolaou, who invented the Pap smear for diagnosing cervical cancer, came to Miami to lead the institute, it was renamed Papanicolaou Cancer Research Institute. The women formally became The Papanicolaou Women’s Corp, and later The Pap Corps Champions for Cancer Research. The Papanicolaou center merged with the Miller School’s cancer center in 1984, becoming the Papanicolaou Laboratories and relocating to the Sylvester campus when it opened in 1992.
Today, The Pap Corps is South Florida’s largest volunteer fundraising organization, with more than 20,000 members. With its diamond anniversary just around the corner, Dinter says the organization is looking to recruit more younger members to continue its critical mission to fund research until a cure for cancer is discovered. “Our hope for the future is — if it’s impossible to have a world without cancer — that we live in a world where cancer is not so scary and the survival rate is much, much higher,” Dinter said. “This may not happen during my lifetime, but it will happen sooner with every dollar The Pap Corps gives toward research at Sylvester.” 
