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

Bonnie Spanier Co-President, Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer! (CRAAB!)
Home: Albany, New York
Professional interests: Associate Professor, Women’s Studies, University of Albany
Recent book: V.I. Warshawski Novels by Sara Paretsky “I like her because she’s a feminist detective…tough. She uses social justice issues as the backdrop.” (as of 12/2005)
Why I do what I do: “I feel a real big weight of the problems of the world. It feels better when I try to do something that can really make a difference.”

Bonnie Spanier never expected to be a breast cancer activist. “I did not come out of an activist family or background. I believed in science. I was educated to believe science was good and would make everyone healthy.” Yet in her scientific work she saw the role racism, sexism, and class-bias played. Increasingly, she felt a responsibility to share what she knew, raise awareness, and motivate people to change.

Then, in 1993, Dr. Spanier’s good friend Dr. Patricia Brown was diagnosed with breast cancer. After reviewing the scientific literature to learn more about the available treatments, Dr. Brown was appalled to see how little evidence there was to support these therapies. She involved Dr. Spanier in forming CRAAB! The organization’s initial meetings focused on reviewing the scientific literature on breast cancer, empowering women to be active in their own care, and discussing ways to cope with the disease.

Understanding cause and effect in the relationship between environment and health is often murky, notes Dr. Spanier. At this point in our understanding, “scientific information that’s accurate and understands its limitations is very valuable for trying to figure out how to create solutions.” Noting in particular Silent Spring Institute’s sampling program and new methodologies for gathering information about what is in the environment, she says the Institute, is “trying to do the kind of scientific work that needs to be done.”

The environmental degradation we see today, she believes, is caused by a “long history of people not thinking about the impact of what they are doing.” It’s “greed at its most awful. I just want to turn that upside down. Of course people want to be healthy. There’s no reason why companies can’t make decent profits” without destroying the environment.

Dr. Spanier is concerned that not enough attention is given to understanding the political and economic forces that are the root causes behind the degradation of the environment. If we fail to understand and address the causes, she believes, true and lasting change will not be possible.

Dr. Spanier is currently working on a book about breast cancer advocacy and the use of scientific evidence. The book, which she expects will be completed by summer 2006 is tentatively titled Politics and Science of Breast Cancer. It is about “how breast cancer advocates use scientific evidence about breast cancer diagnosis and treatments, and how their politics affect that relationship to scientific evidence.”

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.