I grew up in Manhattan, attended Stuyvesant H.S. and then Skidmore College, followed by medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. I developed a passion for surgery and subsequently started my surgical residency at Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital. This led me to an interest in transplant surgery which took me to the University of Pennsylvania for an NIH funded research fellowship, finishing my residency after this fellowship, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. I did a 2-year surgical oncology fellowship at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Los Angeles, during a period where the first sentinel node techniques were being developed there. This gave me the opportunity, upon finishing my training, to organize multicenter clinical trials and secure national leadership positions. I became interested in coordinating systems of care around diseases (mostly cancer care) and was recruited to take a position to build and run a breast center in Annapolis, Maryland. I turned the center from a one cubicle, one nurse, uncoordinated system, into the largest and most comprehensive breast center in the state (The Rebecca Fortney Breast Center) where at our height we employ 6 breast cancer surgeons and 2 plastic surgeons and a supporting staff of over 30. I also started the first breast cancer surgery fellowship in Maryland, and trained over 20 fellows, including surgical oncology fellows from Johns Hopkins surgical research fellows from Walter Reed Medical Center. I became the President of the American Society of Breast Surgery 10 years out of training and founded the accreditation organization for breast centers in partnership with the American College of Surgeons during my tenure. This accomplishment along with many national leadership roles led to work nationally and internationally to help other centers develop, grow, standardize care, and improve market share. My current goal is to find opportunities to leverage my 30-year experience in surgical oncology, and specifically breast cancer care, to guide other health systems and healthcare organizations towards the success we’ve achieved at the Fortney. The lessons learned over that time that address the complexity of delivering quality care, establishing priorities and budgets to deliver that care, and enabling growth in both volume and patient satisfaction will allow me to extend the success we have had to other centers dedicated to excellence in breast and overall cancer care.