In 1996 at age 33, Jean Sachs became Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s first executive director. Since joining the organization, she has significantly expanded its reach and improved its overall health. She increased its annual budget from $100,000 to more than $2 million per year and increased the size of its staff from 2 to 14. Sachs grew LBBC’s membership base from 8,000 to more than 34,000. In 2003, she spearheaded the committee that developed a five-year strategic plan to grow and expand the organization’s programs and services. She diversified the financial base of the organization to include individuals, corporations and foundations, and she established an annual fund-raising gala that in its first year attracted 750 attendees.
During Sachs’ tenure, LBBC has become nationally recognized for the quality of its educational programs for a consumer audience. Each year more than 2,000 women affected by breast cancer attend or participate in LBBC programs. In 1998 and 2003, GlaxoSmithKline honored Living Beyond Breast Cancer for best practices with its International Impact Award, earning the group two unrestricted grants of $40,000 each. LBBC is one of only two organizations in the Philadelphia region to receive this prestigious award twice. In 2007, Charity Navigator named LBBC the top nonprofit organization in the Philadelphia region on the basis of its fiscal responsibility.
Under Sachs’ leadership, Living Beyond Breast Cancer created unique, culturally sensitive publications for African-American and Latina women and families. Getting Connected: African-Americans Living Beyond Breast Cancer was awarded 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 has a long and distinguished career assisting women and families. She served as development director of the National Breast Cancer Coalition from 1993 to 1995, opening the group’s national office in Washington, DC. She worked on the campaign of Pennsylvania state senator (now U.S. Congresswoman) Allyson Y. Schwartz and drafted breast cancer and women’s health legislation during her tenure as Schwartz’s legislative aide. After completing college, Sachs worked at WOMENS WAY, where she started as an administrative assistant and after a year was promoted to special events coordinator. She was appointed to the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, where she will serve as a reviewer of Phase 3 clinical trial concepts. She was recently profiled in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Sachs has master’s degrees in social service and in law and social policy from Bryn Mawr College, in Pennsylvania. She was born and raised in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and now lives in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia with her husband, John, and son, Max. She serves on the board of The Miquon School as co-chair of its capital campaign committee.
