Jean Sachs
Chief Executive Officer of Living Beyond Breast Cancer

Jean Sachs became Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s first executive director (now CEO) in 1996. She has significantly expanded the organization’s reach and reputation, increasing its annual budget from $100,000 to more than $3 million, expanding staff from two to 16 and increasing membership from 8,000 to more than 40,000.

Living Beyond Breast Cancer is now nationally recognized for the quality of its educational programs and for culturally sensitive publications for African-American and Latina women. Getting Connected: African-Americans Living Beyond Breast Cancer won the H. Winter Griffith Award for Excellence in Patient Education Materials by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.

Sachs diversified Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s donors to include individuals, corporations and foundations. In 2008 she procured a grant of $2.25 million from National Philanthropic Trust as one of only five organizations invited to apply. The funding will help expand education, support and outreach. Sachs also established a gala event that raises more than $500,000 annually and has persuaded national retailers to donate a percentage of sales from “pink” products to the organization.

Charity Navigator has awarded Living Beyond Breast Cancer its highest rating for fiscal responsibility for four years in a row. In 2007 and 2008 the Philadelphia Business Journal named Living Beyond Breast Cancer the top performer among the largest charities in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Sachs has a distinguished record of assisting women and families. In 2008 she was named to the committee that approves grant applications for Pennsylvania’s income-tax check-off. In 2007 she was appointed to the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapy and Evaluation Program, where she is a reviewer of Phase 3 clinical-trial concepts.

From 1993 to 1995 she was development director of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, opening the group’s national office in Washington, D.C. Sachs also worked on the campaign of Pennsylvania State Sen. (now U.S. Rep.) Allyson Y. Schwartz and drafted breast-cancer and women’s-health legislation as a legislative aide. She has worked at WOMENS WAY, the oldest fund-raising federation for women in the country.

Sachs has master’s degrees in social services and in law and social policy from Bryn Mawr College. She was born and raised in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and lives in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia with her husband, John, and son, Max.