A Business Executive Takes the Helm at a Breast-Cancer Charity

When Hala Moddelmog was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, she encountered a medical landscape far different from that faced by patients 20 years ago.

Thanks in part to organizations like the Susan G. Komen

Breast Cancer Foundation, started in 1982 to stamp out the disease, breast cancer had become a higher priority for oncology researchers, prognoses had improved, and women no longer had to suffer in silence.

“I really didn’t shed a tear or have any anger,” says Ms. Moddelmog, a former fast-food executive, of her diagnosis. “I could go on the Web site of the Komen foundation and see the survival statistics for my type of cancer, stage 2. It was so comforting to know that and to know there was this support network beyond my immediate friends and family.”

So when recruiters from the Komen foundation, in Dallas, called earlier this year to ask Ms. Moddelmog to apply to become the new chief executive, she leapt at the opportunity, even though she hadn’t been considering a move to the nonprofit world at the time. Ms. Moddelmog declined to say how much she will be paid in her new position.

Both her personal battle with breast cancer and her years of marketing and management experience with fast-food companies such as Church’s Chicken impressed the foundation’s trustees, who chose Ms. Moddelmog after a yearlong search that drew in nearly 1,000 candidates. As chief executive officer, she will be charged with managing 200 employees, more than 100 local affiliate organizations, and a budget of approximately $250-million.

“We were looking for someone with a profile exactly like Hala’s,” says Nancy G. Brinker, the organization’s founder. “She ran a very difficult business where she dealt with many partners and franchisees, a structure that is similar to the Komen foundation with its many affiliates.”

Ms. Moddelmog, 50, got her start in the food-service business in 1981 as a market-research manager at Arby’s Franchise Association. She joined Church’s Chicken in 1993 and became its president two years later, the first time a woman had held the job.

As the Komen group — which is best known for its Race for the Cure fund-raising events — prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Ms. Moddelmog will be expected to help the organization evaluate its progress and raise more money.

Breast-cancer experts say that because government support for research has been shrinking, the Komen foundation is becoming an even bigger player in the effort to battle the disease.

“This is a lot of money that is being bandied around, and as a result, the organization has a much bigger burden to look at the money in a strategic fashion and make sure it is deployed strategically,” says Freya Schnabel, chief of the breast-surgery section of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

As the foundation grows, she says, it should consider developing ways to manage its growth and share data with other organizations that finance research about which efforts have shown the most promise.

Ms. Moddelmog says she plans to focus on helping the organization put a new strategic plan into place. Its goals include focusing on ways to fight breast cancer after it has already spread, making it easier for poorer women to afford mammograms and health care, and ensuring that medical research is rapidly translated into new medicines and techniques.

The organization will also explore new ways to raise money toward its mission of eradicating breast cancer. For instance it plans to focus on big donors, and will seek them out by holding art exhibitions underwritten by General Mills and Yoplait in major museums in cities where the organization has affiliates.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Ms. Moddelmog discussed her new position:

Why did you decide to enter the nonprofit world?

There are the obvious reasons that people go into nonprofits: the whole concept of to those who much is given, much is required. It is really about a chance to give back. But beyond some of those obvious reasons, I found that Komen in particular offered so much more than I really had ever thought about in terms of a career move. This is definitely the most important challenge I’ve ever had in my career.

How will being a breast-cancer survivor affect your leadership?

It gives me potentially a unique perspective and, hopefully, credibility with the people we are serving. People have a tendency to feel comfortable talking about their experiences with someone who has shared similar experiences.

But on the other hand, the good news is that being a breast-cancer survivor in a way won’t change my leadership at all, because people who have had breast cancer and have been fortunate enough to have treatments that make them right are able to go back to their normal, energetic self.

Will the organization shift its focus to other areas?

The awareness that has been driven by Komen has been phenomenal, but there are still areas of the country and the world where that part of the mission still needs to be there. We won’t ever stop with that piece. We have the two big buckets, research and education.

Our mission and those buckets won’t ever change, but how we go about it may shift or probably become additive. This model that Komen has of the affiliate network and doing research and support/education, I’m not sure anyone else in the breast-cancer arena really does that. One of the reasons I wanted this position is that we do all those things. So really I wouldn’t say we would change direction. I would say it’s additive.

What has it been like to move from a male-dominated field to one in which you focus on women’s needs?

First of all, men do get breast cancer, so I want to make sure our thinking is always around people.

But I’ve already thought about that several times since I’ve been here, because it was a male-dominated world, in a sense, that I came from. And I have enjoyed so much the women here. They are really bright, strategic, focused, and dedicated. But I’d love to see more men at the foundation. We do have a lot of men and they’re great.

As you might imagine, they are wonderful, self-actualized males who know who they are and what they are about. Often, there is some tie in their family history with breast cancer. But I’d love to see more men at the organization because I am a fan of diversity in all its aspects. That’s when you really get the best thinking. The chair of our board is an African-American male, LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., and the team is looking at making sure we have a broad diversity for our thinking and growth.