Stovall to Step Down as NCCS President & CEO in 2008, Will Remain Active in Cancer Survivorship Issues

Cancer Advocate has Served 17 Years as Organization’s Leader

Ellen L. Stovall, the long-time President & Chief Executive Officer of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) announced today that she will step down as head of the organization by the end of 2008. Ms. Stovall, who has led NCCS since 1992, said that she was announcing her plans now in order to give NCCS’s Board of Directors ample time to conduct a comprehensive search for a new chief executive and ensure a smooth and orderly leadership transition.  In announcing her plans, Ms. Stovall said that she will continue to be actively involved in cancer survivorship issues as a policy consultant to NCCS and through serving on cancer organization boards and committees.

“Ellen Stovall has made many significant contributions to cancer survivorship over the years, benefiting millions of Americans living with and beyond cancer,” said Robert Sachs, Chair of the NCCS Board of Directors.  “Finding a successor with her passion, expertise and bountiful talent promises to be very challenging,” said Sachs. “Leaders with Ellen’s ability to formulate policy and translate it into action are extremely rare,” he added.

“Having served more than 15 years as NCCS's chief executive, I am deeply grateful for the privilege the Board has given me to apply what I've learned about cancer advocacy, cancer survivorship, and cancer care to advance a patient-centered policy agenda,” said Ms. Stovall.  “Although I will be turning over the leadership reins of this very special organization, I intend to remain actively involved in NCCS and lend my energies wherever a cancer survivor's voice is needed on issues related to quality cancer care," she said.

Sachs said that the NCCS Board has formed a search committee, led by former NCCS Chair Dr. Catherine Harvey, and retained Isaacson Miller, an executive search firm specializing in nonprofit organizations, to conduct a nationwide search for a successor to Ms. Stovall.

A 35-year three-time cancer survivor, Ms. Stovall has been President & CEO of NCCS since 1992.  From 1990 – 1992, she was Vice President of the Board of Directors. Under her leadership, NCCS has achieved many of its goals in advocating for quality cancer care for all Americans.

During the debates over healthcare reform in the early 1990s, Ms. Stovall brought together eight diverse cancer advocacy organizations to work collaboratively on an issue that would have an effect on people with all types of cancer—to assure that all healthcare reform proposals before Congress included language that would require Medicare to cover the routine patient care costs associated with cancer clinical trials.  Over the last 15 years, the eight original participants have evolved into what is known today as the Cancer Leadership Council (CLC)—an independent forum of 33 national organizations representing most of the country’s leading cancer research, treatment, support, and advocacy organizations.  

Under Ms. Stovall’s leadership, NCCS advocated for a separate department at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) devoted to survivorship research including the psychological, social, economic and physiological effects of cancer and its treatments.  In 1996, the Office of Cancer Survivorship was established at NCI, in large measure due to NCCS’s efforts.

In 1998, NCCS convened THE MARCH—Coming Together to Conquer Cancer.  THE MARCH attracted more than 200,000 people to the Nation’s Capital, with a million participants in events nationwide.  Within days of this unprecedented outpouring of cancer survivors, caregivers, families and friends, Congress voted its largest ever increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

Since 1996 Ms. Stovall has served on The National Cancer Policy Board and in Forums convened under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM).  These forums have produced a series of reports dealing with quality cancer care, palliative care, and cancer survivorship which have been published and garnered widespread attention from the public, members of Congress, and Government Agencies.  The latest report, devoted to adult cancer survivorship and entitled From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivors:  Lost in Transition was co-edited by Ms. Stovall.

Building on these efforts, NCCS has made enactment of H.R. 1078 -- “The Comprehensive Cancer Care Improvement Act,” introduced by Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) and Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) to implement the recommendations from this series of Institute of Medicine reports -- its top legislative priority.  Co-sponsored by 60 Members of Congress, the legislation would provide high quality, coordinated and comprehensive cancer to Medicare beneficiaries, assuring that their physicians would develop written care summaries and follow-up survivorship plans.

Last October, on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of NCCS’s founding, NCCS honored Ms. Stovall by announcing a partnership with The Johns Hopkins University to establish a scholarship for a student interested in the development and implementation of health and public policies that would improve the lives of millions of cancer survivors. The recipient would be a candidate for a Master of Health Science in Health Policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  NCCS and Johns Hopkins have named this award for Ms. Stovall.