About

I am a breast cancer research advocate and  Breast Cancer Advocate is a place for me to blog for CHANGE.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer on the day after Mother’s Day in 2007.  It was shocking for me, my husband, and my three kids who were 7, 11, and 15 at the time.  I had no risk factors and a family tree of pioneers who almost always lived into their 90′s.  I coped by gathering as much information as I could.  I jumped into advocacy pretty quickly, after realizing how much was still unknown about breast cancer – what causes it, why it spreads in some to take their lives and not in others, and how to stop its growth.  I found out that the treatments hadn’t changed a whole lot over the years, and still involved the equivalent of trying to drop a bomb on the cancer.  Survivors hope the bombs do the trick, but also worry about what other problems they will have from the bombs.

We need change, and a lot of it.

Here I will write about the news, advocacy, research, and legislation on breast cancer.   I enjoy writing and am passionate about finding a cure.  I studied environmental studies and political science in college, and nutritional biochemistry in graduate school.  I’ve worked as a researcher, a medical reporter,  a nutritionist, a proposal writer, and am currently the Director of Research and Quality Care Programs at the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC).