Social Enterprise Leader Honored With Alumni Achievement Award

Social Enterprise Newsletter, Fall 2001

Last spring, Amy Schiffman Langer (MBA '77), executive director of the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, received the Alumni Achievement Award, the highest accolade the School can bestow upon one of its graduates. Her profile, adapted from a special HBS publication honoring Langer and four other recipients, follows.

In 1984, at the age of 29, Amy Schiffman Langer was a senior vice president at Shearson Lehman Brothers when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The life-threatening ordeal inspired her to make a pact with a higher power: "If You get me through this, I will give something back."

After recovering fully from her illness, Langer made good on her promise. In 1990, she was named executive director of the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO), where she had signed on as a volunteer three years earlier. When she joined the New York City-based organization, its annual budget was $17,000; under her leadership, it grew to $7 million. She has guided the organization as it has forged educational partnerships with numerous businesses and become the country's leading nonprofit resource for breast cancer information and education.

NABCO is now a powerful force in patient advocacy, including the promotion of equitable access for medically underserved women. A highly respected spokesperson for patient needs and rights, Langer advises corporate and government cancer programs and medical professional organizations, gives presentations on cancer survivorship at national conferences, and testifies before Congress on cancer research and treatment issues. She is also a much sought-after speaker on social marketing and nonprofit management issues. "Breast cancer creates tremendous fear and panic and claims far too many lives," Langer observes. "But a lot can be done to equip and empower women and their families."

After graduating from Yale in 1975 and then earning her MBA, Langer joined Kuhn Loeb & Co. shortly before its merger with Lehman Brothers. Wall Street, she notes, prepared her well for what she does today. "While the nonprofit sector is becoming more sophisticated," she says, "it is still underperforming in terms of its capacity for consumer impact, social change, and policy influence." Langer is one of many Harvard MBAs who have decided to bring their skills to this complex area of management, where there is an opportunity to have a great impact.

Langer's unflagging dedication to her work and those whom she serves would be remarkable under any circumstances. But five years ago, her courage and determination underwent a second life-altering test. In 1996, Langer sustained severe leg injuries when her family's automobile was struck by a vehicle whose driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. Miraculously, her husband and young son escaped virtually unharmed.

Currently confined to a wheelchair but hopeful that ongoing rehabilitation and prosthetic legs will permit her to walk again, Langer maintains a positive outlook. "One of my nurses," she recalls, "told me that I could go around in my wheelchair, full of rage, or I could turn this into an opportunity to educate others. I try to show people that sitting in a wheelchair has little effect on my ability to lead my life or do my job." The many women whom Langer and NABCO have helped over the years can surely attest to that.