SU2C Leadership
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Katie Couric
Co-Founder & SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA)
Katie Couric, an ABC News Special Correspondent and host of the upcoming syndicated daytime talk show Katie, is also well-known as an advocate in the fight against cancer. Spurred by the 1998 death of her husband, Jay Monahan, Katie co-founded the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (NCCRA) with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) in 2000. The televised broadcast of Katie’s colonoscopy led to a 20 percent rise in these procedures, which researchers dubbed “The Couric Effect.” From 2003 to 2007, the death rate from colorectal cancer dropped by about 3% per year, and half of that decrease can be attributed to more people getting screened. Fundraising efforts led by Katie in the fight against colon cancer have generated more than $36 million to date. Scientists conducting cutting-edge research have made significant advances because of NCCRA grants, and some of these funds helped launch the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center, a world-class, multidisciplinary cancer and wellness facility. Katie also worked with the University of Virginia to establish the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center, named for her sister, who died of pancreatic cancer.
Noreen Fraser
Co-Founder
Noreen Fraser is the President and CEO of the Noreen Fraser Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to funding groundbreaking women’s cancer research and raising awareness of the importance of early detection. Noreen is a Stage IV breast cancer survivor who turned her personal experience into a crusade to help others by creating her own organization and co-creating Stand Up To Cancer, as well as co-producing its first “roadblock” televised fundraising special. Noreen has produced award-winning programs, including Entertainment Tonight, ABC’s Home Show and The Richard Simmons Show. Her foundation’s Men for Women Now initiative features comedians and comedy to create awareness about early detection. Noreen’s latest project is a collaboration with Hollywood’s industry newspaper, Variety. Variety’s Annual Power of Comedy brings together A-list comedians for a night of stand-up comedy, which highlights the healing power of laughter.
Sherry Lansing
Co-Founder & SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA)
Sherry Lansing is the founder and current chair of the Sherry Lansing Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on cancer research, health and education. Ms. Lansing was the chair of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures from 1992 to 2005. Currently, Lansing serves on the boards of Friends of Cancer Research, The Lasker Foundation, and Stop Cancer. Lansing is also a Regent of the University of California and a board member of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Lansing graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northwestern University in 1966. Sherry lost her mother to Ovarian cancer.
Kathleen Lobb
Co-Founder & SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA)
Kathleen Lobb runs EIF’s New York office, as well as the EIF’s National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance staff team, which works with corporate supporters, government partners, and the colon cancer advocacy community on programs designed to encourage regular screening. EIF’s NCCRA team liaises with and convenes the scientists the foundation supports at nine leading institutions, coordinates volunteer celebrity involvement in awareness campaigns, and plans and implements fundraising activities. Through this work, Lobb honors the memory of two close friends taken by cancer in the prime of their lives.
Lisa Paulsen
Co-Founder & SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA)
Lisa Paulsen has been President and CEO of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), the collective philanthropy for the television and film businesses, for 22 years. She engaged the industry’s leadership, and CEOs and other senior executives from the studios, networks, talent agencies and guilds are, or have been, members of the foundation’s board of directors. During Lisa’s tenure as CEO, EIF has raised more than $700 million for charitable causes, with a significant portion of that going to cancer research, awareness, prevention and treatment programs. Lisa streamlined the grant-making process to focus resources where they are needed most urgently, working closely with world-class researchers to support breakthroughs such as the breast cancer therapy Herceptin®, which was approved by the FDA far in advance of the timeframe initially anticipated. EIF also launched the Women’s Cancer Research Fund (EIF’s WCRF) with significant leadership from across the entertainment community. Lisa lost both her parents to cancer. In their honor, she led the creation, in their hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana, of the Coleman Cancer Center.
Sung Poblete
President & CEO
Dr. Poblete is President and CEO of Stand Up To Cancer. Prior to joining SU2C in 2011, she was the Director of Clinical and Translational Programs at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Dr. Poblete has served as the chief staff liaison to the Clinical and Translational Committee, the Pediatric Cancer Working Group, the Task Force on Survivorship Research, the Oncology Nursing Society, ASCO, and has led the AACR’s growing Continuing Medical Education program. She spearheaded the SU2C scientific review, grants administration and management, and served as the primary liaison for scientific communications and general administration. Dr. Poblete has received numerous grant awards from CDC, NIH, and private foundations since 2002.
Rusty Robertson
Co-Founder & SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA)
Named as one of the Top 100 Marketers by Advertising Age magazine, and as one of the most entrepreneurial women in the United States, Rusty Robertson is a founding partner in RSA and the founder of RPR & Associates, which was featured in Success magazine as one of America’s Super 8 companies. Rusty is also a literary agent and award winning brand marketer, branding hundreds of major corporations and generating over $500 million for her clients and their companies. She helped create the Margaret Thatcher Foundation and was instrumental in the launch of the Susan G. Komen Foundation with Nancy Brinker. Rusty lost her mother to lung cancer.
Sue Schwartz
Co-Founder & SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA)
A founding partner in Robertson Schwartz Agency (RSA), Schwartz was named one of the most innovative people in America by Response magazine. Prior to founding RSA, Schwartz held Sr. and Exec. VP positions at Revlon and Almay Cosmetics, responsible for sales of all mass cosmetic, fragrance, and health and beauty brands. As Vice President of Almay she was a force behind the meteoric growth in sales. Sue was also the Executive Vice President of the Home Shopping Network and more than quadrupled their internet sales in one year. Sue, along with her colleagues at RSA, spearheads the marketing, branding, and promotional initiatives for Stand Up To Cancer, as well as being a fundraiser and executive leader of the organization. She stands up for her mother who she lost to multiple myeloma, as well as her sister who is both a breast and ovarian cancer survivor and her other sister who is a breast cancer survivor.
Pamela Oas Williams
SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA)
Pamela oversees creative production for Stand Up To Cancer. She was the Executive Producer of the 2010 multi-network show and Supervising Producer on the 2008 show. She also wrote and produced the “Change The Odds” PSA featuring young Hollywood talent. Pamela has been Laura Ziskin’s producing partner for the past 11 years at Laura Ziskin Productions, overseeing a slate of film and television projects. Prior to partnering with Ziskin, Pamela ran George Clooney’s television company, Maysville Television, and was a Producer on “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” When Laura Ziskin was diagnosed with cancer, Pamela worked side by side with her to initiate a rallying cry to unite all those affected by cancer to demand an answer to cancer. She will continue to carry on Laura’s vision until there is a day when cancer is no more.
Ellen Ziffren
Co-Founder & SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA)
The former VP of Corporate Communications for International Creative Management, Ellen also co-founded Rob Reiner’s I Am Your Child Foundation in 1994 and helped build it from the ground up. In 2005 she began working as a marketing consultant for the Skoll Foundation, which invests in, connects, and celebrates social entrepreneurs around the world. This year, Ellen also became a partner in the Global Philanthropy Group, working with high net worth individuals, charitable foundations and corporations to design and implement highly-leveraged philanthropic strategies. Ellen’s mother is a lymphoma survivor.
The Late Laura Ziskin
Co-Founder
Laura Ziskin, a legendary film producer who passed away from breast cancer in June 2011 after living courageously with the disease for seven years, was also a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer. As the only cancer survivor on the initiative’s lay Executive Leadership Council, Laura played a key role in shaping SU2C’s patient-centric vision. Additionally, she executive produced the landmark 2008 and 2010 Stand Up To Cancer fundraising broadcasts, and created numerous public awareness spots for SU2C. Film credits from her trail-blazing 35-year career include “What About Bob?”, “The Doctor”, “No Way Out”, “Pretty Woman”, “To Die For” and “As Good As It Gets”. As the founding President of Fox 2000, she shepherded such films as “The Thin Red Line”, “Fight Club”, “Soul Food”, and “Courage Under Fire”. In 2002, Laura became the first woman to solo executive produce the Academy Awards. She held that position again in 2007, producing the first-ever “Green” Oscars ceremony. She also produced three Spider-Man features, the last of which became the highest-grossing film in Sony’s history. At the time of her death, she was at work on a fourth, “The Amazing Spider-Man”. Laura was awarded The Producers Guild of America’s 2011 Visionary Award for her work as a film producer and her humanitarian efforts in the fight against cancer.
Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF)
Stand Up To Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. In 1942, Samuel Goldwyn and other Hollywood luminaries pooled the industry’s charitable resources, and the organization that became the Entertainment Industry Foundation - EIF - was born. Since then, EIF has raised $300 million for cancer research and prevention; diabetes awareness; and arts and music education programs. People from every facet of the entertainment community—actors and executives; guild and union members; and employees of studios, networks and talent agencies—volunteer their time, talent and services to support this work. EIF is a major force in the fight against cancer, raising critically needed dollars for research and treatment, fast-tracking the most promising science, and generating awareness. Film, television and recording stars appear in PSAs to drive home the importance of prevention and early detection.
Why Stand Up To Cancer?
