Speaker Bios

Holly J. Mitchell, CEO, Crystal Stairs, Inc.
Holly Mitchell is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Crystal Stairs, one of the largest private nonprofit child care development agencies in California facilitating care to approximately 25,000 children on a daily basis. Her team has championed a public affairs agenda that has significantly increased Crystal Stairs’ profile among government agencies, local media, and other community-based organizations while also increasing the visibility of child care as a critical public policy issue.

Ms. Mitchell’s public policy expertise has enabled Crystal Stairs to increase its voice in child care policy making throughout the state. In addition to being invited by various members of the California Legislature to provide expert testimony before policy and budget committees, she has received statewide honors and recognition from the National Women’s Political Caucus— Westside Chapter, the Los Angeles County Black Employees Association, and Black Women for Political Action (BWOPA), among others. Since 2003, Holly has served with other nationally recognized leaders on the selection panel for Good Housekeeping
Magazine’s Annual Women in Government Award.

In addition to her duties at Crystal Stairs, Ms. Mitchell is active in other child care and human services related organizations. These include her leadership roles on the California Resource and Referral Network, and the Children’s Health Sub-committee of the State Department of Health Services’ California Health Information Survey (CHIS). Ms. Mitchell also serves as Chair on the California State Commission on the Status of Women. She has also served on numerous other boards and committees, including the Governor’s Women’s Health Advisory Council and the University of California’s Breast Cancer Research Council. In 2005, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa appointed Ms. Mitchell to serve as a Los Angeles City Commissioner on the Commission for Children, Youth, and their Families.

Ms. Mitchell’s public advocacy career began in the office of State Senator Diane Watson, where she advised members of the legislature on issues related to quality child care as a policy analyst for the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Before joining Crystal Stairs, Ms. Mitchell was a Legislative Advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty where she coordinated with other advocates on health policy issues affecting low-income communities. Prior to this, she was the Executive Director of the California Black Women’s Health Project where she interfaced with community-based agencies, policy makers, government agencies, grant makers, and health care professionals on current trends and data on the status of women’s health. Ms. Mitchell is the proud mother of 7-year old Ryan.

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.
Ecologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health. An enthusiastic and sought-after public speaker, Steingraber has keynoted conferences on human health and the environment throughout the United States and Canada and has been invited to lecture at many universities, medical schools, and teaching hospitals— including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. She is recognized for her ability to serve as a two-way translator between scientists and activists.

In her book Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, she presents cancer as a human rights issue. The book was the first to combine data on toxic releases with data from U.S. cancer registries. It garnered widespread praise from international media. Living Downstream has been recently optioned for a documentary film. Her new book, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, reveals the alarming extent to which environmental hazards now threaten each crucial stage of infant development. Dr. Steingraber received a Hero Award from the Breast Cancer Fund in 2006, and also lectures widely at conferences, universities, medical schools, and teaching hospitals.

M. Ellen Mahoney, M.D.
Ellen’s exceptional care for breast cancer patients and contributions to breast cancer research and to the California Breast Cancer Research Program are many, varied, and ceaseless. She is a practicing breast surgeon and an outspoken advocate for breast cancer patients. Besides her medical practice in Arcata, Dr. Mahoney is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at Stanford University. She is the co-founder of the Community Breast Health Project in Palo Alto. Her work there resulted in extensive knowledge of current breast cancer literature and of the questions and problems faced by patients and families. She has used this knowledge to support other nonprofit breast cancer organizations, including the Breast Cancer Fund and the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project.

She helps Susan Love M.D. in the maintenance of the Personal Guidance service on www.susanlovemd. com. Her goal is that all patients have the latest concepts and knowledge available in language they can understand. She describes herself as “passionate about the need to improve our knowledge about breast cancer and our care of all whose lives are affected by this disease.”

Crystal D. Crawford, Esq.
Crystal Crawford serves as CEO of the California Black Women’s Health Project, where she performs legislative, educational, and policy advocacy to improve the health status of African American women and girls. Throughout her career, she has combined legal and policy approaches to civil rights and social
justice issues.

Ms. Crawford earned her J.D. from New York University Law School, where she served as an editor of the Journal of International Law & Politics, a Hays-Weber Civil Rights Fellow, and Chairperson of the Black Law Students Association.

Ms. Crawford gained litigation experience as an associate with premier corporate law firms in Los Angeles, Boston, and New York, and then turned her attention to the nonprofit sector, serving as Legal Director of the Alliance for Children’s Rights. Crystal serves on a variety of boards and councils including Health Access, VIP Mentors, and California’s Women’s Health Council.

Joe W. Gray, Ph.D.
Dr. Gray is the director of the Life Sciences division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, professor of Laboratory Medicine and Radiation Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, and a principal investigator and coleader of the Breast Oncology Program and Breast SPORE at UCSF. He has been making advances in developing better ways to identify ways to tailor existing therapies to individuals and how best to target new therapies. Using gene expression signatures as biomarkers, Dr. Gray and his colleagues have developed a system to evaluate drug response comprised of a panel of 50 breast cancer cell lines. “Individuals respond differently to different therapeutics because there are substantial differences in the spectrum of genetic, biological and epigenetic characteristics between breast cancers,” he says, “although some recurrent abnormality patterns are emerging that define breast cancer subtypes.

Max Wicha, M.D.
Dr. Max Wicha is a physician scientist whose entire career has been devoted to the treatment of women with breast cancer and the study of basic biology of the normal breast and breast cancer. He received his MD degree from Stanford University and after training in internal medicine at the University of Chicago, went to the National Cancer Institute where he trained in medical oncology. It was at that time that he began his research into the study of the factors that control development of the normal breast and breast cancer. In 1980, he went to the University of Michigan where he has spent his entire career. Dr. Wicha was the founding Director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in 1987, a position which he still maintains. He holds the Distinguished Professor of Oncology Chair at the University of Michigan. Dr. Wicha is a practicing medical oncologist whose medical practice is exclusively devoted to women with breast cancer. Over the years his laboratory has made important contributions towards the study of the biology of normal breast development and breast cancer. These studies have included the elucidation of the role of extra cellular matrix in mammary development and pathways that control apoptosis during mammary involution and breast cancer development. Most recently his laboratory has been a pioneer in the study of stem cells in the normal human breast and breast cancer. These studies have included the development of new techniques for the isolation and culture of human mammary stem cells. Dr. Wicha’s group was part of the team that first described stem cells in human breast cancer. This was the first description of tumor stem cells in any solid malignancy. These findings have fundamental importance for understanding the origins of breast cancer and significant implications for breast cancer prevention and therapy.

Musa Mayer
Musa Mayer is an 18-year survivor, advocate, and author of three books on breast cancer. Her articles on breast cancer and advocacy frequently appear in magazines, newsletters, websites, and medical journals. She frequently speaks and consults on many advocacy and survivorship issues, and on advanced and metastatic breast cancer. As a teacher, Ms. Mayer has served as both a faculty member and advocate mentor at the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s science training program, Project LEAD. In addition to doing peer review for the California Breast Cancer Research Program, in 2003 she prepared a position paper for the CBCRP entitled “Treatment and Outcomes for High-Risk and Metastatic Breast Cancer in California: An Inquiry into Disparities and Research Needs.” As an independent advocate, Ms. Mayer has worked with national and local breast cancer organizations, and has been a frequent keynote and plenary speaker at many conferences. Providing daily information and support online for women with advanced (metastatic) breast cancer on the largest Internet mailing list of its kind at www.bcmets.org has informed Ms. Mayer’s work as a Patient Consultant for the FDA’s Cancer Drug Development Program, and a voting Patient Representative to the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee.

Ms. Mayer has recently completed work on an online training course for advocates for the U.S. Cochrane Center, entitled, “Understanding Evidence-Based Healthcare: A Foundation for Action,” to be released in the fall of 2007. She is a consumer reviewer for the Cochrane Collaboration. Other recent projects include a needs assessment survey of women with advanced breast cancer for Living Beyond Breast Cancer, presented at the 2005 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and at the American Psychosocial Oncology Society 2007 conference. Ms. Mayer currently serves on the Institute of Medicine Forum on Drug Discovery, Development and Translation. Her web resource for women with advanced breast cancer can be found at www.AdvancedBC.org.

Marisa Weiss, M.D.
Marisa C. Weiss, M.D., is founder, president, and guiding force behind breastcancer.org, providing over 8 million visitors per year with medically reviewed breast health and breast cancer information. An active breast cancer oncologist for 20 years, Dr. Weiss is a visionary advocate for her innovative and steadfast approach to informing, empowering, and treating breast cancer patients.

Dr. Weiss is also Director of Breast Radiation Oncology and Director of Breast Health Outreach at Lankenau Hospital, part of the Main Line Health Hospitals of the Thomas Jefferson University Health System in the Philadelphia area. For over a decade, she has been a respected medical voice in the media. She is a regular ABC News contributor, and has appeared frequently on CNN House Call and NBC Today Show’s Special Breast Cancer Series. She is regularly quoted in print outlets, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Associated Press. She is a medical source for magazine articles and radio interviews, including Ladies Home Journal, Self, More, People, Redbook, NPR, CNN Radio, ABC Radio, and Cosmopolitan radio. Dr. Weiss co-authored Living Beyond Breast Cancer, and is founder and past president of Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a national nonprofit education and support organization. Dr. Weiss is a regular keynote speaker at international women’s health conferences and a frequent contributor to online conferences through WebMD and breastcancer.org. In 2005, Dr. Weiss was named Doctor of the Year by Philadelphia Magazine, and has received several awards, including 2003 Professor of Survivorship Award from the Susan G. Komen Foundation. She serves on the professional advisory board of Mommy’s Light Lives On, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology. Dr. Weiss is a past board member of the National Breast Cancer Coalition and served in the National Cancer Institute Director’s Consumer Liaison Group from 1997-2007.