I started out as a Komen 3-Day walker, intending to celebrate my friends’ survival and the lives of those who were not so fortunate, and to raise funds for Breast Cancer research - for a “cure” . I then added the Avon 2-Day walk to my annual pilgrimages. Over the last 4 or 5 years, my teams have raised over $350,000 for the cause. However, I’ve become impatient with the unfulfilled promise of ”the cure”. I don’t always feel that the funds my team mates and I raise, are adding to the body of knowledge that will expedite the scientific community’s abillity to achieve our real goal - eradicating breast cancer. Some of the fundraising proceeds and sponsorships emanating from these walks is dedicated to the NBCCF through its partners - for example, the National Philanthropic Trust and Avon. But I’ve observed that there are sometimes obstacles to dedicating the bulk of these funds to research that has been properly vetted to maximize its potential for productive, results-oriented scientific study. It occurred to me that there has to be a more thoughtful and targeted way of approaching research, and I think I’ve found that with the NBCCF. In addition to learning ways to more effectively advocate before Congress and local government bodies, I’m hoping to explore another kind of advocacy during this conference - reaching out to some well known, well-intentioned national organizations for potential collaborations. I hope to answer some fundamental questions through my participation in the conference: What inhibits the creation of partnerships among organizations that can lay claim to overlapping goals, if not strictly the same approach or philosophy? Do we need to bring more chairs to the table? And how can I help encourage mutually beneficial collaborations between organizations to facilitate and fund serious, productive scientific research and eradicate breast cancer?