"My life experiences inform my work, and vice versa," says Amy Schiffman Langer (MBA 1977). She has turned physical challenges—breast cancer, a disability, and chronic pain—into a focus on cause-marketing and advocacy. "I've parlayed my misfortunes into my career."

Like many of her classmates, Langer began her employment in the financial industry, joining Shearson Lehman Brothers as an investment banker. "I was specializing with retail companies: Federated Department Stores, Macy's, Barneys New York. It was just a great experience," she says.

But a mammogram at age 29 resulted in a breast cancer diagnosis, and Langer's battle against the disease led her to volunteer at the then-pioneering National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO) in 1988. "We had the first extensive, disease-specific cancer site on the Web, and built our reputation and our reach on the Web," she says.

Management skills learned at HBS helped Langer, who became executive director in 1990, establish a diverse and wide-ranging mission of education, advocacy, and treatment, with staff cross-trained in different departments. "NABCO was instrumental in changing the course of breast cancer screening, treatment, and care," she says. "Our physician and corporate partnerships to educate women replaced fear with facts. We helped craft and implement laws and regulations, improving mammography's quality and accuracy and making screening more accessible to poor and under-served groups. Our efforts started a movement that vastly escalated breast cancer research funding, and gave patients and survivors a permanent voice in medical decision making.

"It was very difficult, and very exhilarating," she says.

A natural at fundraising and policy-making, Langer excelled at establishing cause-related marketing at NABCO. "I used to think I'd be terrible at marketing, until I realized how different it is to sell something your heart is in, when you know it's great and needed," she says.

Then in 1996, Langer faced another life-and-death experience when she was struck as a pedestrian by a car whose driver had fallen asleep. She lost both legs and today uses a wheelchair for mobility. "Bashert," she says, using the Yiddish word for destiny. "I was in front of the house of the head of the volunteer fire department. He saved my life."

Langer gave NABCO eight more years, until the nonprofit, which struggled with funding post-9/11, closed its doors in 2004. "We made the decision with $2 million in the bank and gave away intellectual properties to 12 nonprofits," she recalls. Langer has used the time since—"an intermezzo," she calls it—to do volunteer public advocacy work in behalf of people with physical disabilities and chronic pain. She has participated in roundtable discussions with national pain experts and disability sessions with medical personnel, but has intentionally kept a low profile.

"I'm mindful that to make the most impact, I will need to choose one as my focus, and discard the other—at least for now," she says.

She has always been cognizant of expectations. One of the youngest women to attend Harvard Business School in 1975, Langer arrived right after college, having skipped her senior year of high school. She recalls being one of about 80 women in a class of 800—and one with the least amount of work experience.

"I had worked summers at an ad agency writing copy for Columbia Pictures. I made up a lot of corny movie descriptive text," she said.

While writing copy might not have been her strength, the experience gave Langer confidence to establish herself as a force in both the business and not-for-profit worlds.

At HBS's W50 Summit on women and business in April 2013, Langer spoke candidly about her career, and especially her disability, to a grateful audience. "It was a moving experience. I had one woman talk to me who was blind in one eye, someone with a profound learning disability, another with a pain issue," she says. "They all said, 'I didn't think anyone would understand.'"

But Langer has recognized her purpose—one that continues to compel her to respond. "I believe there is a system that has things happen to us for a reason," she says. "When you're given that message, you have to keep going."

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