Shoba Rao

Shoba Rao is an Advocacy Mentor, enabling people to advocate for themselves. She passionately empowers self-advocacy, be it health, at work or elsewhere. She is a cancer survivor who inspires audiences with her powerful speeches about overcoming life’s toughest challenges. As a strong advocate for self-advocacy in health, she shares her journey through three cancers and a kidney transplant to empower others.

She fervently believes in empowering women to advocate against bias, barriers and discrimination and aids by conducting workshops on better communication.

Looking for a speaker? Interested in these topics?

Self-Advocacy for your health

Are you the captain of your ship, when it comes to health?

Self-Advocacy at work

Career advancement amidst biases, stigmas, representations and opportunities.

Advocacy and Communications

Using your body gestures, postures, vocal modulations, tone of voice, to send a message.

A practical workshop giving insights and tips on how to use our body language to complement presentations.

Shoba Rao

Shoba is a TEDx Speaker, a Distinguished Toastmaster and often shares her life journey in various speeches, focusing on inspirational speeches with a humorous touch.

Her speeches come from her experience of going through three cancers and a kidney transplant. She is a strong advocate for patient’s self advocacy when it comes to their health.

She has published her first book, “My Race Against Death”, chronicling her fight with cancer and kidney failure with the hope that the lessons she learnt could help others in similar situations.

She is an engineer at heart and has a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

She is a successful career woman with twenty-seven years of experience in the semiconductor industry and currently serves as director of manufacturing engineering in the Solid State Lithium ion industry. Her experience has taught her the importance of self-advocacy, especially for women, at work, to speak up against bias and barriers.

In her spare time, she enjoys exercising, reading books, dancing, painting, baking, cooking, and volunteering with various organizations.

My Race Against Death

When cancer strikes, the same body that you trusted, has produced cells that are ready to kill you.

The horrors of chemo, surgery, hospitalization, and everything that is thrown at you with the aim of making you better, breaks you physically and mentally.

It would be so amazing if you were cured and never got it again. Unfortunately, that is not a guarantee anyone can make. But should that stop you from living?

In My Race Against Death, Shoba Rao shares the most important lesson she has learned as a three-time cancer survivor and a kidney transplant recipient: You are not your disease.

It does not define your life, rather it reminds you to live life to the fullest extent.

This book is for all patients who would hopefully gain some insight on how to tackle a disease like cancer both physically and emotionally.

It’s also for family and friends looking for advice on how to best support their loved ones through this journey.

My Talks

Shoba Rao | Speak Up: Moving Beyond Bias and Barriers | SPEAK: Resilience

In this powerful speech, the speaker recounts personal experiences of gender bias

The importance of healthcare self advocacy | Shoba Rao | TEDxTaftAvenue

How asking questions, second opinions and research to learn more about her

Inspiration in Imperfection

Here is a Toastmaster speech on Imperfection and how to make every

Interview with Shoba Rao author of “My Race Against Death”

Henry DeVries of Forbes.com interviews author Shoba Rao. Shoba was born and

My Race Against Death

Here is a short speech that I delivered at IFF forum, conducted

Epiphany

Humorous Speech at Area Level Contest

"Shoba Rao offers an honest appraisal of a lifetime's worth of experiences that enabled her to overcome several significant health crises with a sense of wisdom from which we can all benefit. Her courage and determination as she faced these struggles serve as a reference guide for the uncertainties that we will each face throughout our lives."

CORRIE PAINTERCancer survivor, Scientist and Advocate for cancer research

"Cancer and chronic disease memoirs abound but none I've read are from the perspective of a Hindu girl who grew up in India then moved to the US to become an engineer and forge a successful high-tech career in a male dominated world. An accomplished Toastmaster speaker, the speechwriting skills honed by the author shine throughout this captivating book."

GLORIA GENE MOORESurvivor of Non-Hodgkins lymphomas, Breast cancer, and Angiosarcoma

"'Running or hiding from struggles and dislikes does not make them go away. They always come back to find you' - this quote from the book got me to read the entire book in one sitting. In this inspiring book, author Shoba Rao brings us an insightful and a warm approach to a difficult subject. Her engineering mind and resolute spirit are beautifully portrayed as Shoba takes us on her complex journey into the world of cancer and shares her thoughts, fears, frustrations, etc. She weaves her story of grit and determination in an easy-to-read format which makes the book very apt for all."

LAKSHMI MYSORETeacher

A very genuine, engaging insight into the world of a cancer survivor. As a cancer scientist, I found the seamless integration of the scientific and medical details with the human experience that takes center stage in the book to be particularly well done, making this not only a thoughtful read but informative for those both familiar and unfamiliar with the subject matter. Would recommend for any audience!

Kshithija MulamScientist

How can one go through so much and still stay somewhat upbeat and focus on everyday things like work and volunteering and Toastmasters? Beating cancer once is hard enough, but thrice over?! And the battle never ends, they say, when it comes to cancer. The book makes you realize no matter how small or big your problems are in life, you can choose to live life in your terms by taking the reins and doing what is within your realm of control. Aptly put ‘ I am not my disease’. You are not anything you are forced to be, you are anything you choose to be. Highly recommend reading if you are looking to combat hard problems life is throwing your way, if you or your loved ones are struggling with health problems or cancer or if you are into reading survivor stories to get inspired and motivated. The book is written in a very matter of fact way, even humor at times, on life or death situations, showing how the author takes challenges coming her way. I am inspired.

Zeena Benjamin