The BRAVE (Breast Restoration AdVocacy Education) Coalition Foundation has appointed Lisa Shumpert as the new President of its Executive Board, effective immediately. Shumpert brings extensive leadership experience from her role as Chief Human Resources Officer at Comar and as author of the bestselling book Team Turnaround – Spark High Performance in Your Direct Reports. She succeeds John Gwin, who led the organization for two years and prepared it for future growth.
The foundation, established in 2012 by Dr. Allen Gabriel and Dr. Christine Grogan, addresses significant gaps in breast reconstruction care for cancer survivors. Despite the Women’s Health Cancer Rights Act of 1988 (WHCRA) aiming to bridge these gaps, patients continue facing substantial challenges. These include difficulty finding doctors who accept insurance, lack of insurance coverage for many patients, and persistent health disparities where black women experience a 38% higher mortality rate than white women with less access to care.
Shumpert outlined three primary goals for BRAVE under her leadership: expanding the network of breast and plastic surgeons to assist more patients, increasing funding from donors, and continuing partnership with Northwestern University to enhance funding and education activities specifically helping black women access care. She emphasized that providing essential resources to patients will remain a foundational goal for the organization.
The BRAVE Coalition Foundation’s mission focuses on educating breast cancer survivors about reconstruction options, advocating for legislative and insurance industry changes, connecting patients with resources, and restoring quality of life regardless of insurance, socio-economic status, education level, or race. More information about the foundation’s work is available at https://www.bravecoalition.org.
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