Speaker Profiles

2009 Speaker: John Hall

John Hall is a 63 year old Emergency Medicine Physician who has practice Emergency Medicine in Anchorage for 31 years.  He is the second of 10 children of a military family and thus lived around the world while growing up. He graduated from UCLA Medical School in 1975 and after completing the UC Davis Family Residence Program he joined the US Public Health Service and was stationed at the Alaska Native Medical Center from 1978 until 1982 when he joined the Emergency Medicine Department at Providence where he continues to work today. He has served as Alaska State EMS Medical Director, as a member and chairman of the Anchorage Medical Advisory Board, as Director of the Emergence Medicine Department at Providence and as the Providence Hospital Chief of Staff.

In 1969 John married Jane Wisser. They have four children, two girls and two boys, who pursue their own careers in Anchorage, Austin, Texas and Capetown South Africa.  In 2004  John rode, with Jane’s support,  2,300 miles from Vancouver BC to Anchorage in twenty-three days raising money for the Children’s Miracle Network. In 2007 Jane was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2008 they decided to cycle the perimeter of the lower forty-eight. In support of and with the support of his wife, John rode a total of 12,015 miles in 120 days.  Together they strived to raise public awareness and they raised more than $130,000 for the Susan Butcher Family Center at the Providence Alaska Cancer Center and for the  Lance Armstrong Foundation.

2008 Speaker: Becky Olson

In 1996, at age 43, Becky went back to school while working a full-time job, to get her college degree.  Three months later she was diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer.  She was given a 60% chance to survive past five years.  She always jokes that she is thankful her doctors were wrong because it took her SEVEN years to graduate.   She graduated in 2003 at age 50.

In 2004 Becky published her first book “The Hat that Saved My Life.”    Five days after sending her manuscript to her publisher to begin the edits, she was diagnosed… AGAIN!  And once again, it was stage 3.

Becky is president and co-founder of Breast Friends®, founded in August 2000 with the help of Sharon Henifin.  Breast Friends® is the friends and family network for support and inspiration and has received funding from Susan G.  Komen For the Cure, for the past four years.

2007 Speaker: Francene Mason, MD

Francene Mason, MD is a medical oncologist and cancer survivorship specialist at Pinnacle Health Care in Boulder, Co. A biology graduate of Swathmore, she completed her medical training at the University of Pittsburgh. She is board certified in both internal medicine and oncology. She has served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Dr. Mason's focus is on exercise and nutrition in the prevention and treatment of cancer. She is the author of numerous papers and lectures on breast cancer and survivorship.

2006 Speaker: Julie Gralow, MD

Julie Gralow, MD is an Associate Professor of Medical Oncology and the Director of the Breast Cancer Research Institute at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She majored in biologic sciences at Stanford University before attending medical school at the University of Southern California. She did a residency in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, followed by a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Specializing in breast cancer, Dr. Gralow is the co-Chair of the Southwest Oncology Group’s Breast Cancer Committee. She is the principle investigator on several national clinical trials related to breast cancer treatment.

2005 Speaker: Christine Clifford

All of us have read or heard stories about people who turn "lemons into lemonade." It is not often that we get the privilege of meeting such an individual. Christine Clifford, CSP has definitely cracked the "glass ceiling." At the age of 40, she was Senior Vice President for SPAR Marketing Services, an international information and merchandising services firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Christine is the President/CEO of The Cancer Club, a company designed to market humorous and helpful products internationally for people with cancer and for their loved ones. Recently, her company was called "the most exciting new business venture to come along in many a decade."

2004 Speaker: Jennie Nash

Ms. Nash's book, The Victoria's Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming and Other Lessons I Learned from Breast Cancer is a story of how the illness made her "a wise old woman at the age of 36." The book was a Lifetime TV Bookshelf Pick for October, 2001. Ms. Nash was featured on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Berman and Berman: For Women Only, and on National Public Radio.

She also appeared in an ABC special produced for the Los Angeles Revlon Run/Walk, and has given keynote addresses all over the country. She has twice taught month-long classes on breast cancer and storytelling for WebMD University.