Newsletters

 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 

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.