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| Annual Reports |Mission |Personal History | Administrative Organization |
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Annual Reports
2005 Annual Report | 2004 Annual Report | 2003 Annual Report
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Mission
The Nancy R. Gelman Foundation is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to improving outcomes for patients with breast cancer. Founded in 2001 by Nancy R. Gelman's family shortly after her death from breast cancer, NRGF endeavors to honor her memory by supporting and promoting breast cancer research and awareness. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and the phenomenal success of the 2002 Family Fitness Walk/Run, NRGF has established itself as a flagship supporter of the Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center. We plan to build on this success by branching out to support additional research aimed at overcoming the bottlenecks to innovation in breast cancer therapy.
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| We hope to accelerate the development of new therapies for breast cancer, drastically increasing survival times and cure rates. We will do this by supporting research aimed at overcoming bottlenecks to the development of new therapies. For example, many patients with breast cancer, like Nancy Gelman, are eager to participate in clinical trials, but only 2% of patients do so. The Cancer Center at HUMC, with our support, aims to raise their participation rate to 50% over the next five years, leading to faster approval of new treatments. By targeting critical steps in the research process, NRGF hopes to maximize the return on its investment in terms of more and healthier breast cancer survivors. Our focus on translational research and clinically relevant outcomes distinguishes us from other organizations which have a more diffuse scope and support more basic research; we seek to capitalize on these achievements in ways that will directly benefit patients.
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Personal History
Nancy R. Gelman (nee Sugarman) was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1946 and raised in Montreal. While in Chicago for graduate training in speech pathology, she met attorney-in-training Jon Gelman, whom she would marry in 1971, settling in Wayne, NJ. When Jon left his firm to start his own law practice in 1979, she became a full partner in the effort, handling administrative tasks and running the office's day-to-day operations while raising two young sons (Michael, born 1976, and Jason, born 1978). Her tireless idealism found expression in helping secure justice for injured workers and victims of corporate deception. As a founder of Parents for Academically and Artistically Talented Students (PAATS), a local advocacy group, she was also instrumental in establishing a comprehensive gifted and talented education program in the Wayne public school system.
When Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991, she approached her treatment (surgery and chemotherapy) with the same fighting spirit she brought to everything in life. Her efforts were rewarded with a five-year remission, but her cancer recurred. After risking death during a draining course of high-dose chemotherapy with stem-cell rescue in early 1997, she recovered to the point that her son Jason later remarked, "It was hard to tell that my mother had cancer." When her cancer recurred again in fall 1998, she began regular chemotherapy but was nonetheless able to lead a full life, including a vacation in Italy in summer 2000. On her return from that trip, however, it became clear that the chemotherapy was failing. She aggressively pursued opportunities to enroll in clinical trials, hoping to improve the prospects for future cancer patients as well as to find a therapy that could help her. Even just after being released from the hospital for complications from treatment side effects, she announced her readiness to resume chemotherapy. Ultimately, however, her disease progressed, and after several weeks at home with her family, Nancy Gelman's ten-year battle with cancer ended on June 3, 2001.
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Administrative Organization
NRGF is governed by a Board of Trustees, with day-to-day operations delegated to a Board of Directors. We raise money through capital campaigns and special events. Last year's donors included staff and employees of HUMC, members of the New York-New Jersey and national legal communities, college and graduate students in New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin, and family and friends of Nancy Gelman. Operating expenses are funded by donations made specifically for that purpose, so all funds raised through special events go directly to program support. In addition to current projects, we also maintain an endowment from which to fund future programs.
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| Michael A. Gelman, MD, PhD, President, is a co-founder, along with his father Jon and brother Jason, of the Nancy R. Gelman Foundation. He credits Nancy Gelman, his mother, with instilling in him the love of learning that led him to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard in 1996 at the age of 20 and the strong sense of social justice and responsibility that informs his involvement with NRGF. Michael recently graduated from a combined MD/PhD program at the University of Wisconsin, and is continuing his training with a residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals in Seattle. His ultimate professional goal is to pursue a career in medical research and practice.
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| Jason Gelman, Treasurer, is a co-founder of the Nancy R. Gelman Foundation. Jason graduated from Dartmouth College in 2000 with a BA in computer science and from Duke Law School in 2005 with a JD. Jason has a diverse background in law, consulting and business and is currently an Associate in the Manhattan office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Jason credits his mother with giving him the self-confidence that has made him comfortable taking risks and with instilling in him a rigorous work ethic.
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