Jeanne Rizzo, R.N.
President and CEO of the Breast Cancer Fund

“The epidemic of breast cancer reflects back to the industrialized world our failure to protect the most vulnerable among us.”

Through Ms. Rizzo’s vision and leadership, the Breast Cancer Fund adopted the bold mission to identify – and advocate for elimination of – the environmental and other preventable causes of the disease. 

The organization has published the landmark report, State of the Evidence: What is the Connection between the Environment and Breast Cancer?, now in its fourth edition, and The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls: What We Know, What We Need to Know by Dr. Sandra Steingraber.

Committed to legislative, regulatory and corporate accountability changes that protect women’s health by reducing toxic exposures, the Breast Cancer Fund co-sponsored California legislation to advance the safety of cosmetic products, create the first statewide biomonitoring program and ban toxic chemicals linked to breast cancer from children’s toys. The Breast Cancer Fund is a founding partner of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment as well as the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which is successfully moving cosmetics companies to replace toxic chemicals with safer alternatives.

Ms. Rizzo currently serves on the Special Research Initiative Strategy Team of the California Breast Cancer Research Program. A nurse, then music, theater and film producer, she produced the award-winning film, Climb Against the Odds: Mt. McKinley.