Women Stand Up to Cancer
Written by Jan Jaben-Eilon Wednesday, May 18 2011
Snapshot: Sue Schwartz
Sue Schwartz is founding partner in the Chicago-based Robertson Schwartz Agency (RSA), a hybrid marketing and branding company with an emphasis on philanthropic endeavors. Prior to founding RSA, Schwartz spent her career in leadership positions with Fortune 500 companies, where she held senior and executive vice president posts at Revlon, Almay Cosmetics, and HSN (Home Shopping Network). She was executive vice president of the HSN and took its internet division from less than $20 million dollars in sales to more than $200 million in one year.
Schwartz is also cofounder of Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), an initiative created to accelerate groundbreaking cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives. She has been instrumental in helping SU2C raise more than $200 million for translational cancer research since its founding in 2008. Because of her wealth of expertise and creativity in developing products and marketing initiatives from concept through completion, Response Magazine named her one of the 25 Most Innovative People in America. Schwartz has been married to her husband Jeffrey for 31 years. She has a daughter and twin grandkids.
Womenetics: I noticed that all of the founders of Stand Up To Cancer are women. Why do you think that is the case?
Sue Schwartz: Well, I think this just goes to show how a few pissed off women can get together to change the world! Seriously, all of the founders have been profoundly touched by cancer and were quite frankly fed up with seeing this disease take the lives of those we love. Laura Ziskin and Noreen Fraser are both cofounders who are living with cancer. Katie Couric lost both her husband and her sister, Sherry Lansing and Rusty Robertson both lost their mothers, Lisa Paulsen lost both her parents, Ellen Ziffren's mother is a lymphoma survivor, and Kathleen Lobb honors the memory of two close friends taken by cancer in the prime of their lives. I lost my mother to multiple myeloma and have a sister who is both a breast and ovarian cancer survivor and another sister who is a breast cancer survivor. We believe it's Up2 all of us to Stand Up To Cancer to end this disease.
Womenetics: How did this group get together to form Stand Up To Cancer?
Schwartz: The story of SU2C is the story of the coming together of two groups of women who were working tirelessly toward the same goal: to harness the power of the media to get everyone in this country committed to eradicating cancer as a leading cause of death. This joining of forces in the fall of 2007 was the first collaboration for Stand Up To Cancer. Next came the networks and then the scientists. Collaboration is woven into the very DNA of Stand Up To Cancer.
Womenetics: What makes this group different from several other organizations that raise money for cancer research?
Schwartz: Stand up To Cancer is committed to funding translational cancer research for all types of cancers with the mandate to accelerate the rate at which the lives of patients and their families will benefit from the tremendous potential of science. To accomplish this, rather than funding institutions, SU2C funds the best and the brightest scientists and physicians in a new model of collaborative and innovative translational cancer research through two new types of scientific grants, Dream Teams and Innovative Research Grants. Dream Team grants are awarded to multi-institutional groups of scientists who work collaboratively, rather than competitively, to develop new treatments quickly in order to save lives now. Innovative Research Grants support groundbreaking cancer research projects that are high risk but could also be high impact and have the potential to significantly affect patient care.
Womenetics: I noticed that several of the founders, if not all, either lost family members to cancer or are survivors. As a cancer survivor myself, I wonder how does this organization determine how much money to devote to research for which kind of cancer?
Schwartz: One hundred percent of the monies raised from the public goes directly to cancer research. We understand that our goals can only be achieved through the support of very high quality research and as such have formed a partnership with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) to facilitate the distribution of research support in a fashion that promotes the highest quality science. Grants management and expert review for SU2C is conducted through the AACR via a rigorous, rapid, and transparent process led by our “blue ribbon” scientific advisory committee. Chaired by Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, the scientific advisory committee is comprised of highly accomplished scientists, physicians, and patient advocates who advise the leadership of SU2C.
Womenetics: What is translational cancer research?
Schwartz: SU2C supports proximal translational research. This means that basic laboratory research is clearly focused on the problem of human cancer and with a discernable potential to lead to the development of markedly better treatments for this disease as rapidly as possible. In other words, we aim to translate therapies from the lab to the patient in as short a period of time as possible.
Womenetics: How do you bring your marketing expertise to this effort?
Schwartz: The Robertson Schwartz Agency is a marketing and branding agency I founded along with my business partner and cofounder of SU2C, Rusty Robertson. Together we head up the marketing of SU2C. It starts with SU2C's core mission to become a populist movement to make cancer a first-tier issue. So everything we do, every campaign we create, is through that lens.
Womenetics: When you worked for the Home Shopping Network, I saw that you quickly expanded internet sales. Do you think shopping on the internet is going to continue to explode?
Schwartz: The internet is going to continue to grow and benefit our lives. Shopping has changed because of the technology we now have available to us. Yes, this is the technology age but more importantly it is the age of information. Consumers are better informed by the research they do online before making purchases. Whether they choose to make the purchase online or not, they are using the internet to inform those purchases. Consumers will become more and more comfortable buying online as retailers offer greater customer service such as free shipping for purchases and returns. Zappos is a good example of a company that has recognized this and done a great job of eliminating the obstacles of buying online.
Womenetics: You are a cofounder of a marketing agency. How much of your time do you spend working on Stand Up To Cancer?
Schwartz: It's always a tough balance. I try and remain fairly fluid so that I can adapt to the changing needs of our clients as well as Stand Up. Fortunately we have great visionary teams at both RSA and SU2C so between all of us things don't fall through the cracks, priorities are met, and we can consistently look for new opportunities for future endeavors for both SU2C and RSA.
Womenetics: With so many cancers in your family, are you afraid that you, too, may be diagnosed with cancer?
Schwartz: Of course. But I know early diagnosis is key. So I get checked regularly and have taken some precautions such as having a prophylactic oophorectomy. Watching my friends and family members battle cancer has humbled me and has taught me that it does not have to be a death sentence.
Womenetics: How do you find balance in your life when you are dealing both with your family’s battles against cancer and your activities with Stand Up To Cancer?
Schwartz: I don't think I have achieved balance in my life at all, but I am happy. I am extremely fortunate to have incredible support from my family, friends, and colleagues. Stand Up To Cancer is an opportunity to really make a difference, to do something noble. When I feel like I need balance, all I need to do is look into the eyes of my friend Laura who is fighting cancer every single moment. That is all the reassurance I need that I am putting my energies where they need to be. I guess at this point in my life, I feel like the idea of balance is overrated. Why does there need to be balance? Maybe a little imbalance is what keeps the world turning on its axis!
Jan Jaben-Eilon was a founding staff writer of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Since then, she has been the international editor of Advertising Age magazine and has written for such publications as The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Journalism Review, and Consumer Reports. She is the author of soon-to-be-published (There is) Life After Cancer. Jan and her husband have homes in Atlanta and Jerusalem.
