A note from NCCS CEO Shelley Fuld Nasso:

Dear Friends,

Ellen Stovall, Dr. Richard Pazdur, and Shelley Fuld Nasso

Ellen was truly a legend in cancer advocacy. She and her colleagues and collaborators at NCCS pioneered the concept of survivorship. She touched thousands of lives, personally and through her advocacy. She believed in helping cancer survivors live as well as they can, for as long as they can. And she did exactly that in her own life, even if it was shorter than we would all have hoped. It has been a privilege to work with her for the last several years, and I am honored to carry on her legacy at NCCS. Continuing her dedication to make cancer care better for patients and their families is a promise that is personal to me and the entire staff of NCCS.

Over the last few days, I have talked with many of Ellen’s friends and colleagues who have relayed how Ellen touched their lives, supported them through their own cancer journey, encouraged them in advocacy. The outpouring of love and support for Ellen is remarkable, and we are grateful for the support during this difficult time.

NCCS will host a memorial service in Washington, DC to celebrate Ellen in the coming weeks. Details of this event will be announced soon. We hope that you will join us in celebrating the life and work of our friend Ellen.

Thank you,

Shelley Fuld Nasso
Chief Executive Officer
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship

Remembering Ellen Stovall

From 1992 to 2008, Ellen Stovall was the president and CEO of NCCS, the oldest survivor-led organization advocating for quality cancer care for all Americans. This video, filmed and produced in 2008, features interviews from NCCS co-founders Dr. Patti Ganz and Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, Dr. Julia Rowland, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, the late General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, and others.

Ellen L. Stovall was a 45-year survivor of three bouts with cancer and advocated for more than 30 years to improve cancer care in America. After leading NCCS as president and CEO for 16 years, Ellen served as the Senior Health Policy Advisor. She was a founding member of the Institute of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Board and its successor, the National Cancer Policy Forum. Prior to the establishment of the Forum, Ellen was vice-chair of the National Cancer Policy Board and co-chaired its Committee on Cancer Survivorship. In that capacity, she co-edited the Institute of Medicine’s report “From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition,” which addressed the issues adult cancer survivors face.

Ellen served as vice-chair of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s National Advisory Committee to Promote Excellence in Care at the End of Life, and as the vice-chair of the Foundation’s National Advisory Committee for Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health Care Performance. Ellen served on the Boards of Directors of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and The Leapfrog Group, and she served on a committee of the National Quality Forum (NQF) to establish consensus around cancer care quality measures. She also served on several advisory panels, working groups and committees of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Ms. Stovall also served a six-year term on the National Cancer Institute’s National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB), an appointment she received in 1992 from President Bill Clinton.

Ellen passed away on January 5 suddenly from cardiac complications due to her cancer treatments. To many of us—likely thousands—she was a trustworthy friend, a mentor, a collaborator, a visionary. Ellen was all of this and more, and always with a generous heart, a keen mind, a quick wit, and unswerving ethics. How fortunate we were to know her; how grateful we are for her thinking and her work for all cancer survivors.

UPDATE:
For information on the arrangements for Ellen’s services, see this post: “Remembering Ellen Stovall: Arrangements Announcement.”

If you wish make a gift in honor of Ellen’s legacy, please click here to donate to the Ellen Stovall Memorial Fund.

Remembering Ellen

Below is a guestbook where you can share your thoughts and remembrances of our dear friend and tireless advocate Ellen Stovall.
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