Cancer and Careers is celebrating our executive director Rebecca V. Nellis’s 20th anniversary at the organization today. Over the last two decades Rebecca has helped shape CAC into the authority it is. Programs like our National Conference on Work & Cancer, In-Service Trainings for Healthcare Professionals and Resume Review Service are just a few of the many initiatives she spearheaded while working her way up from a temporary employee covering for two maternity leaves before eventually becoming executive director in 2017. To honor this huge milestone, I sat down with Rebecca to ask some questions.

Scott: Hello and thank you for sitting down with me. I know you don’t love to be the focus of attention in settings like this, or really at all, but I didn’t want a day like this to pass without some sort of acknowledgment so let’s start with an easy one: Why does this mission speak to you so strongly?

Rebecca: Because at its root this is an equity issue. No one should be diminished, discriminated against, excluded or treated differently in the workplace because of who they are or because of something that happened to them. Beyond that, it is an issue almost no one is thinking about before it happens. There is constantly a huge opportunity to push into the consciousness that when someone is diagnosed with an illness their work life should be considered as part of understanding an individual’s needs and priorities.

Who has inspired you the most in these twenty years?

I am going to answer this in three ways, which I feel like is cheating since the question sounds like just give me one, but    since it is my anniversary I am taking the liberty!

Formatively, my mom. She is still the coolest, most interesting, most defiant, most go her own way person I know. And she has been that way her whole life. I would not have turned out to be someone more focused on the journey than the destination if I hadn’t had her as an example. 

Next, the people CAC serves. There is no way to get up every day and hear people’s lived experiences and not be inspired. By them, their vulnerability, their resilience, their voice as well as inspired to act, to help, to make change for them.

Finally, all the incredible, talented, passionate people who have worked at CAC through its entire existence. You don’t keep getting up every day, especially when your longest tenure before this place was 20 months you counted out like a prison sentence, if the people you do the work with aren’t the best you could hope for.

Like I said earlier, this started off as a temporary job while you were pursuing other career aspirations. When did you know you wanted to stay at CAC longer than your initial couple months?   

It was pretty immediate. I was drawn to the small team made up of strong, smart people, where it didn’t matter who the idea came from as long as it was a worthwhile one. This is something Carlotta [Jacobson, CAC’s Founder and President] modeled every day. I also immediately connected to this underserved community, and I wanted to support them. Really there was just so much opportunity to have an impact, and I wanted to help drive that impact. The truth is, there still is and that is one of the reasons I am still here.

I am sure there have been many, and given your approach to my second question, I am really asking for only one answer here...What is a lesson you've learned that continues to impact how you approach your day-to-day work? 

Not everything requires, or even should have, an immediate reaction or response. This is a really hard one and I relearn it on the regular.

I know travel is a huge part of who you are. Where are some of the standout places that you traveled on behalf of CAC?

It is all the places I may not have ever made the effort to get to without work necessitating it. In each I learned things from being on the ground that I wouldn’t have otherwise and it reinforced that we’re all as humans more alike than we aren’t  . Places like Birmingham, AL, Bismarck, ND, Knoxville, TN (where we did an event at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, which I didn’t even know existed), a ranch in Wyoming, etc. were all places I would not likely have picked for a personal reason—largely due to the fact that I am always aiming to exercise my passport—and all left such a huge impression on me. And, Alaska was stunning.

I’ll end with maybe the hardest question of all: How do you remember so much day to day??

I am laughing at this, it is definitely a little inside baseball. To explain, I have a wildly good memory. It just is one of those things about me like that my eyes are brown. So, it is most definitely a blessing and a curse for the team—something I am sure many past staff would join the current team in echoing!  For me the danger in being living breathing institutional memory is you want to make sure the organization is equipped with you and without you.

Well luckily, we don’t have to think of that day right now and are grateful for that institutional memory (or even just knowing where to find a file on the server that no one else can remember where it ended up being saved). Thank you again Rebecca for sitting down with me, and for the astonishing achievement of 20 years. CAC may predate you by a couple years, but I think I speak on behalf of everyone who has worked here or has come to our events in saying we can’t imagine CAC without you, your vision and your hard work (and memory). I hope you all will join me in giving Rebecca a huge round of applause.