The meeting began with past board president, Patti Burmahl, sharing the Foundation’s background and history with the photo of Norma Logan on the screen to emphasize the reason why everyone was in attendance this night. The Foundation, founded in 2006 by Norma and Sandy Maniscalco along with a small team hand picked by Norma. Patti, went on to provide additional background and how Norma’s vision has evolved over 20 years and has raised $6.9M and awarded 67 grants. 

Patti also shared information about the 20th anniversary Walk for a Cure 2025 set for Oct. 4. This includes a special registration deal where from May 20 through June 8 (20 days), walkers can register for $20 and receive a $20 gift card to the TBBCF online store, set to open in early June, where one can purchase cool TBBCF merchandise. On June 9, the registration fee will be set at $30.

The opening also included an acknowledgment and introduction of the TBBCF volunteer team, including the Foundation’s executive committee and the multiple-hat-wearing and amazing board of directors. A huge group of people who make things happen. 

Sponsors and the countless volunteers committing countless hours to the Foundation were also recognized. 

Also introduced were a couple of new faces. Shelley Gregory is the newest board member and Emma Ayala joined the communications and graphics support team. 

 

TBBCF treasurer Stacey Gualtieri talks numbers, but also people 

“We really do seek out people who are willing to get their hands dirty,” she said, praising the hundreds of volunteers whose efforts support the Foundation’s mission to ensure all fundraising dollars go to research.

She also recognized the Top Fundraisers, all of whom she said, have “Some connection to breast cancer and make the list year after year after year.”

The Top Walk teams are led by “very strong individuals,” Stacey said. “you see the same teams come up year after year and some new ones, too. They all really fight hard for us. I’m in awe of them.”

Stacey also pointed to Top Events and Promotions. “A lot of people do a lot of work to run these fundraisers.” These ongoing events and fundraisers are run by organizations, businesses, schools, groups, and others and include sports tourneys, golf tourneys, dinners, and school walk-a-thons, among a myriad others. 

“They make great money for us,” Stacey noted, adding that in the case of school walk-a-thons, “We see young folks getting involved. I see an evolution and a way forward in the future.”

“Everyone does what they can, and that’s the reason we’re here.”

 

It’s all about funding breast cancer research, every dollar

Next up was Dr. John L. LaMattina, former Pfizer SVP and President, Pfizer Global Research and Development, and TBBCF Scientific Advisory Board Co-Chair. 

LaMattina introduced the Scientific Advisory Board and then the 2025 fellows.

From a total of 23 researcher applications, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, to Harvard, Cornell, MIT, Mount Sinai, and more, four researchers were each awarded $125,000 grants. 

“That’s half a million dollars each year,” LaMattina said. 

The fellows for 2025 are: Genevra Kuziel, PhD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Sherry Shen, MD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Benjamin Schrank, MD, PhD MD Anderson Cancer Center, Megan J. Priestley, PhD MIT - Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Read more about the 2025 awardees here. 

To date, TBBCF has awarded 67 research grants to young scientists.

LaMattina then introduced the 2025 TBBCF Annual Meeting keynote speaker, 2024 TBBCF research fellow, Sam Kleeman, MD, PhD of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 

Kleeman received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cambridge, UK and his MD from the University of Oxford, UK. Subsequently, he completed a two-year internal medicine internship in the National Health Service, UK. He started his PhD studies at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY in August 2020, in the laboratories of Dr. Tobias Janowitz and Dr. Hiro Furukawa. His research is focused on the study of immune responses against NMDA receptors and their application to the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer.

“When he tells his story, you realize how important, how cool this fellowship is,” LaMattina said.

Kleeman told the audience how “incredibly grateful he is for TBBCF’s support. He then segued into his presentation, ‘Borrowing clues from the brain to treat triple negative breast cancer’ before a rapt audience. 

Watch his full presentation on the TBBCF YouTube channel here. 

After his remarks, he applauded TBBCF.

“It’s great that your Foundation funds doctors who are also researchers,” he said. MD/PhDs, working doctors who are also research scientists. An “endangered species,” Kleeman noted. “I hope it will continue.”

The audience responded, “We do, too.”