Advocate Profiles

Silent Spring Institute is grateful to the women and men who ask for - and tirelessly pursue - answers to the difficult questions we must resolve in order to stop the breast cancer epidemic. Their dedication and energy are a source of continuing inspiration. Through these profiles we hope to honor them and highlight their contributions.

Deb Forter
Executive Director, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition

Joyce Clements
President and Environmental Chair, Maine Breast Cancer Coalition

Nancy Crumpacker
Secretary-Treasurer of the Board, Rachel’s Friends Breast Cancer Coalition

Joan Sheehan
Co-President, Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer! (CRAAB!)

Bonnie Spanier
Co-President, Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer! (CRAAB!)

Additional profiles will be posted regularly

Joan Sheehan Co-President, Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer! (CRAAB!)
Home: Colonie, New York, a suburb of Albany
Professional interests: Educational issues for children, especially how the environment impacts children
Hobbies: Reading
Recent book: Janet and Me: An Illustrated Story of Love and Loss by Stan Mack. After reading his book, Ms. Sheehan invited Mr. Mack to be a speaker at CRAAB! to share his experiences as a caregiver. Catherine Coulter—FBI mysteries (as of 12/2005)

After her breast cancer diagnosis in 1986, Joan Sheehan was grateful to receive a visitor from the American Cancer Society. “At the time I knew no one [with breast cancer]. Not one person.” Realizing how important it was to her to speak with someone who had had breast cancer, in 1987 Ms. Sheehan became a volunteer. She stopped after 12 years because women were leaving the hospital after just one day and it was hard to get to them. In addition, she had become involved in grassroots work in 1996, and found it to be a better fit.

Along with Drs. Bonnie Spanier and Patricia Brown, she founded CRAAB! in 1997. Between 1997 and 1998, they, along with others at CRAAB! and leaders of New York groups, spearheaded development of the New York State Breast Cancer Network (NYSBCN). The NYSBCN has 23 member organizations located in communities throughout New York, from Buffalo to Long Island.

The NYSBCN serves a variety of functions: advocating for the adoption of the Precautionary Principle in guiding public policy and planning in New York State and hosting educational forums including a recent event on biomonitoring with the Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors at Cornell University. Biomonitoring describes the measurement of chemicals in our bodies.

Ms. Sheehan believes there is a pressing need to focus on environmental health. As a retired elementary school teacher, she is especially sensitive to how the environment affects children and identifies biomonitoring as an important area of research. She hopes that with advances in technology, we may be able to identify chemicals that cause breast cancer.

Ms. Sheehan identifies the challenges facing CRAAB! as follows: to “keep our integrity as a grassroots organization, find … funding, and get out the message about how important it is to find environmental causes to breast cancer.” CRAAB! would like to make the environment its priority, but Ms. Sheehan has found it’s hard to find grant support for this work.

Although she is concerned that the “major [breast cancer] organizations [are] not really working on the environment,” she believes people working at the grassroots can educate the public and urge their state legislators to support research into environmental health. She notes that organizations like CRAAB! are limited in terms of the direct lobbying they can do, so individuals can make a difference by being involved and vocal.

The Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer! (CRAAB!) is a non-profit, community-based organization created in 1997 to make the eradication of breast cancer a priority through education and advocacy.