June 2019 Newsletter - Zero Breast Cancer

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
From Melissa Felder, ZBC Board President!

I am delighted to announce that the Zero Breast Cancer Executive Director Search Committee has concluded an almost 5 month search with the professional support of recruitment consultants, Penny Schultz, LLC. The search committee consisted of myself, Kevin Gay (Treasurer) and Arbella Odishoo Parrot, PsyD (Member, Board of Directors). ZBC's outgoing Executive Director, Rose Barlow, was also involved in facilitating and supporting this process and meeting with candidates. 6 candidates from many different locations around the Bay Area progressed past initial screening with 2 candidates clearly emerging in the lead. Our chosen candidate is as excited about joining ZBC as we are in having her become the third Executive Director in ZBC's 24 year history.

A native San Franciscan, Genevieve Gandal spent the last two decades in Chicago and Washington DC. Her career focus has been non-profit leadership and relationship development for multiple causes encompassing international trade, advocacy, and medical administration. In past positions, Genevieve has been pivotal in motivating and inspiring communities to learn, connect, and invest in the causes which she has championed. Opportunities to strategize for on-target organizational growth is where Genevieve excels. Professional satisfaction for Genevieve comes from leading teams towards relevant and impactful goals. Acutely aware of the financial imperatives confronting small non-profit organizations, she focuses her operational skills on working within realistic budgets with an eye on increasing value.

Within the healthcare space, Genevieve created a credentialing exam prep course ensuring a standard of knowledge needed within the Medical Administration industry. She ran that program and expanded for the United States Army National Guard Medical Operations division. The training program served all Deputy State Surgeons and their staff covering key aspects of public health management and healthcare management. Genevieve Gandal holds a CAAMA, Credentialed by the American Academy of Medical Administrators.

Genevieve wants to leave a better, healthier world for her daughter, Chloe, who recently graduated from college and is now starting her own career. To that end, she is inspired by the very important mission of Zero Breast Cancer. As you can imagine, she is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with an organization strongly aligning with her beliefs and interests. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her family camping, hiking, cooking and traveling.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, the ZBC Scientific Advisory Group, the professional team, our many mission aligned and business partners and the wider community we serve we welcome Genevieve. The Board is fully committed to supporting her as she steps up to focus on sustaining and increasing ZBC's resources in order to ensure that it can continue to be a leading voice in breast cancer risk reduction outreach and education making an impact on reducing the burden of breast cancer for the next generation.

It is with gratitude that we will bid Rose Barlow farewell following her handover to Genevieve during the month of July. We thank Rose for leaving ZBC in such a healthy state organizationally and fiscally after four years as ED and in ensuring that this change in leadership takes place as seamlessly and smoothly as possible. We wish her well in retirement!

Thank you for your ongoing support of the mission of Zero Breast Cancer and the sharing the vision of a world with zero breast cancer.

Melissa Felder

Board President
Zero Breast Cancer

Lots of Exciting News!

Dear Reader,

Information in the news

I want to share a couple of useful items with you as I have this newsletter as a platform and a soap box for the last time;

There are many chemicals in personal care and household products that may be hazardous to your health. Even if not explicitly toxic, chronic exposure to them may disrupt hormones and over time add to an accumulation of risks for health problems including breast cancer risk. We don't necessarily think about the chemicals added to provide 'fragrance' to these products as potentially harmful but they may well be. Zero Breast Cancer has long recommended 'fragrance free' where possible. Here is a very informative newsletter from Safer Made with some key updates on efforts underway to bring more attention to these chemicals and efforts to increase consumer protections.
Breast cancer survivors come in all ages, including those who are diagnosed before the age of 41. This group is often less visible than other groups because it is relatively small in number and the stereotype of breast cancer survivors tends to be older women pretty much past childbearing years. One organization really understands these young adult survivors and works tirelessly to provide resources and support. YSC (Young Survival Coalition) has recently updated its vision "A world were no young adult faces breast cancer alone" and a new mission statement "YSC strengthens the community, addresses the unique needs, amplifies the voice and improves the quality of life of young adults affected by breast cancer, locally, nationally and internationally." If you know someone who could benefit by the support from this community, please let them know about this organization.

Partnerships in the news

ZBC is proud and delighted to have received a 13th year of funding from the Safeway Foundation. This award of $25,000 is the highest ever made to ZBC by the Safeway Foundation, for which we are very grateful. Please read more about this valued partnership here. Thank you Safeway customers who gave so generously to the April Cancer campaign across Northern California. Your support will ensure that the ZBC messages about healthy puberty will reach tens of thousands of people and change lives.

Change in the news

And finally I am delighted and ready to begin the process of handing over the reigns of ZBC to Genevieve Gandal tomorrow!

I know Genevieve is is going bring lots of energy, excellent listening skills, a sharp mind and extensive resource development experience to Zero Breast Cancer. Just as I have become more deeply knowledgeable about breast cancer than I ever though possible, so will Genevieve. All the ZBC programs for youth, teens, survivors and the community remain in the excellent hands of Catherine Thomsen, Lianna Hartmour and Shweta Chooramani. Anne Hartwig will continue to provide bookkeeping support and Dipsea Hike coordination support.

Last but not least Dipsea Hike news

It remains for me to announce that this year, instead of producing the Dipsea Hike for Zero Breast Cancer, I will actually participate in the hike and conduct my own fundraising efforts.

I would be very grateful and deeply touched if, by way of a farewell and appreciation for what the ZBC team has accomplished over the last four years on my watch, you would would make a donation to my page here. Thank you!

Au Revoir!

So I guess this is less of goodbye and more of farewell! Thank you for reading my many words these past four years, being complimentary and providing insights into opportunities for improvement. Every single interaction is appreciated.

For the very last time I remain yours in health and gratitude,

Rose Barlow

Immediate Past Executive Director

PS. Please support ZBC by donating to the Dipsea Hike for Zero Breast Cancer Fundraiser here!

17TH ANNUAL DIPSEA HIKE : REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Here!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED, PLEASE SIGN UP NOW!

Here!

This year the hike is taking place on SEPTEMBER 28th, 2019. If you are an early bird, we start setting up at 6:30 a.m. Spirits are high and many hands make light work (sorry, corny joke!). Don't worry if this is just too early for you on a Saturday morning! There are tons of opportunities to contribute to this wonderful event by doing office work ahead of time, soliciting prizes and in-kind donations, marking the trails, monitoring the trails, serving food, cleaning up and lots more. Please use this link here to tell us you want to be involved. We are excited to hear from you! We will bring the coffee, the food, the love and the appreciation.

FUN FACT: ZBC has estimated that over the past 16 years over 1,000 volunteers have helped make this a fun, safe and successful event. Some of you have done so for every one of those 16 years!

We hope to see the veteran volunteers back and welcome new ones, too. You are all special and important.

THE HIKE CAN'T HAPPEN WITHOUT YOU!

From the Desk Of Shweta Chooramani, MBA, MPH, Program Advisor : Food, Health and Decisions

“People who love to eat are always the best people”.

This quote from Julia Child resonates with me to the core. Food has tremendous power to heal and the potential to improve overall well-being. Food is not just necessary for life but something that feeds our souls and our emotions. For many it is a comfort and enhances many experiences and brings much pleasure. From a public health lens, understanding how different communities access and consume food can give important clues about diet-related health disparities. Yes, that’s the power of food.

Food as Medicine

Over the past decade, extensive research has established a ‘food as medicine’ trend to reverse the effect of chronic diseases like diabetes or for reduction of obesity-related cancer, which disproportionately affects females. Research shows how a girl’s intake of fiber has been shown to offer some protection from early menarche and breast cancer susceptibility. Therefore, for risk reduction, a basic solution lies in managing a healthy weight, being physically active and making smart decisions around buying healthy food for pre-teens and adolescent girls. Despite the current knowledge and extensive efforts across a variety of communication channels, adopting and sticking with a healthy diet has been a challenge for low-income minority populations and it goes beyond the issue of access and affordability.

Shweta joined ZBC in May to work on special projects. You can read her bio here and you can read the rest of Shweta's thoughtful blog here. She will be writing more on this topic over the next several months.

ZBC Partner Series : Barbara (Bibi) Summer, design maven!

Next up in our Meet ZBC Partners series is Barbara “Bibi” Gelfand Summer of Barbara Gelfand Summer Design. Bibi has been ZBC’s most prolific designer since 2015. Working with our style guide and color palette, she has designed a wide variety of materials for ZBC, including all of the 13 Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer assets, donor appreciation brochures, and much more. Bibi has helped us to ensure our materials are simple but not simplistic and feel genuinely high quality and inclusive. We love that she has learned about breast cancer risk reduction from ZBC while teaching ZBC some of the secrets of how good design powers effective communication.

You can read Bibi's full interview here and you can view the ZBC 21 Year History video she produced (her personal favorite of all her ZBC work).

Bibi has been an extraordinary trusted thought partner supporting ZBC’s mission, donor communication and fundraising in a collaborative and creative way!