Amy S. Langer
Fighting the Good Fight
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| No limits: Despite a heavy measure of personal adversity, a courageous advocate finds opportunities to help others. Photo by Steve Boljonis |
More than fifty thousand women die from breast cancer every year in the United States. Another two hundred thousand are diagnosed with the disease — the most common form of cancer among women.
Sitting in her apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Amy Langer ticks off these stark statistics. She knows the subject all too well: Langer herself is a breast cancer survivor whose own bout with the disease seventeen years ago led her to leave a successful career at Lehman Brothers to fight cancer on behalf of other women, including those with limited educational and medical resources. Since 1990, Langer has served as executive director of the National Alliance for Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO), a leading patient advocacy and educational nonprofit based in New York City.
“As a patient, I found it very hard to get information,” says Langer. “I wanted to apply the same kind of analysis I could bring to corporate finance, using good information to make informed medical decisions. Here I was — educated at Yale and HBS — and I couldn't figure out what my next move should be.”
Langer initially volunteered at NABCO before being hired as a manager. After her promotion to the organization's top spot, she transformed NABCO over the next decade. Under her leadership, NABCO has used an innovative program of corporate partnerships in cause-related marketing campaigns, linking breast cancer awareness to everything from cosmetics to women's professional basketball. As a result, women in America today are far more knowledgeable about the disease, which has led to earlier detection and treatment, and higher survival rates. Declares Langer, who has become a national advocate and spokesperson for breast cancer research, education, outreach, and treatment options, “There's no question we're now in a completely different part of this race, and heading toward the finish line. Breast cancer will not be the threat to our daughters that it has been to us and to our mothers.”
Langer has used a wheelchair since 1996, when a vehicle whose driver had fallen asleep at the wheel struck her as she stood beside her car on the shoulder of a backroad in upstate New York. She says she's hoping to “finish up” the breast cancer fight soon, so she can work on the “next problem” — improved and equitable access for people with physical disabilities. “The accident was an extraordinary awakening for me,” observes Langer. “I feel very fortunate to be alive, but I also found out how much needs to happen to educate people about access issues.”
Lightning may have struck twice in her life, but Langer, who lives with her husband, Charles, and their 10-year-old son, Henry, maintains her sense of humor and energy for action. “After my accident,” she says, “I got notes from people in the disability community saying, ‘Heard about your accident — great news for us!' I think what they were saying was, ‘With the help of this national health advocate, maybe we can get a movement going, too!'”
“There's a lot of work to do,” notes Langer, a recipient of the HBS Alumni Achievement Award in 2001. “A good bottom line for people like us, with the benefit of the tremendous skills that the School imparts, is there are no limits to how you can use this training to help make the world a better place. It sounds corny, but it's true.”
— Margie Kelley
PROFILES FROM THE CLASS OF 1977
John R. Davis: Nature's Blessing
Michael F. Cronin: A Focus on the Fundamentals
Ann M. Fudge: Enhanced Perspective
Steven C. Watson: Course Change
Karen Gordon Mills: Her Excellent Adventures
Amy S. Langer: Fighting the Good Fight
