2011 Award Recipients
Each year the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance recognizes all survivors with honor and applause.
Cindy Melancon Spirit Award
The Cindy Melancon Spirit of Survivorship Award commends and honors an individual for his or her commitment to the
ovarian cancer community. The award is named after Cindy Melancon, a founder of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance
and creator of the CONVERSATIONS! newsletter. Any person directly affected by ovarian cancer, including a survivor,
family member or caregiver, who has influenced others in raising awareness of ovarian cancer is eligible to receive the
award.
Past award winners include:
2010 – Susan Butler
2009 – Kolleen Stacey
2008 – Carolyn Benivegna
2007 – Betty Reiser
2006 – Joan Summer
2005 – Gayle McKenna
2004 – Sandi Pniauskas
2003 – Christina Carr
The Carolyn Pultz Brown Leadership Award
The Carolyn Pultz Brown Leadership Award is bestowed upon an outstanding community leader who has the capacity to
influence others and has made a great impact on the ovarian cancer community. The award honors Carolyn Pultz Brown,
the mother of our President-Elect Terri McKnight, who died of ovarian cancer in 2007.
Past award winners include:
2010 –Patricia Modrow, PhD
2009 – Diane Paul
2008 – Karen Mason
2007 – The Entire Ovarian Cancer Community
2006 – Senator Olympia Snow (R-ME)
2005 – Grassroots Champion Sheryl Silver
2004 – Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
2003 – California State Representative Deborah Ortiz
The Rosalind Franklin Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research Award
The Rosalind Franklin Research Award is named for molecular biologist Dr. Rosalind Elsie Franklin, who played a vital
role in discovering the structure of DNA. Her career was cut short when she died of ovarian cancer in 1958, at age 37.
Throughout her life, she was a committed researcher; this award honors her legacy of excellence. The award is presented
to someone who continues Rosalind Franklin’s legacy of excellence.
Past award winners include:
2010 – George Coukos, MD, PhD
2009 – Nicole Urban, ScD
2008 – Robert Bast, MD
2007 – Deborah Armstrong, MD
2006 – Elise Kohn, MD
2005 – Barbara Goff, MD
Award Recipients
Cindy Melancon Spirit Award
Diane O’Connor
An ovarian cancer survivor since 2002, Ms. O’Connor is president and co-founder of the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of
Oregon and SW Washington, a Partner Member of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. She has served on the board of
directors for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance since 2006, where she currently chairs the Governance and Service
Programs Committees. She has been an integral part of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance’s Survivor’s Teaching
Students: Saving Women’s Lives® program since 2004 and has recruited and prepared survivors to speak at the Oregon
Health and Science University as well as local nursing schools.
Ms. O’Connor has served as a Consumer Reviewer for the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Project.
Diane also helped create the SW Washington Cancer Center’s gynecologic cancer support group in 2003. In 2000,
Diane retired from a 32-year career as a counselor and educator in the Vancouver, WA, public school system. She has
been married for 40 years and has two adult sons and two granddaughters.
Carolyn Pultz Brown Leadership Award
Senator Robert Menendez
Senator Menendez’s story is quintessentially American. He grew up the son of immigrants in a tenement building in Union
City, and has risen to become a United States senator.
A product of New Jersey’s public schools and a graduate of the state’s universities, Sen. Menendez first entered public
service as a 19-year-old college student when he witnessed shortcomings in the public education system and launched a
successful petition drive to reform his local school board. He stood up to corruption in Union City as a witness against the
political machine in a Federal trial.
Sen. Menendez has served as a school board member, a mayor and a state legislator. He was elected to the House of
Representatives in 1993, where he rose to become the third-highest ranking Democrat. After being elected to the U.S.
Senate, he was appointed to be a member of the Senate leadership during his first term, serving as the Chairman of the
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
He currently serves on the Senate Committees on Finance; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Foreign Relations.
Sen. Menendez is also the Chairman of the Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community
Development and the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Global Narcotics
Affairs.
Sen. Menendez has been widely recognized for his leadership on promoting safe and healthy families. He has championed
legislation to support mothers suffering from postpartum depression, help families overcome the challenges of autism,
and educate kids about Internet safety. He has introduced legislation to make it easier for families to care for their aging
loved ones and was a leader in the fight to stop the privatization of Social Security and Medicare.
Sen. Menendez was born on New Year’s Day, 1954. He received his B.A. from St. Peter's College in Jersey City and his law
degree from Rutgers University. He currently lives in Hoboken and has two children, Alicia and Robert.
The Rosalind Franklin Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Leadership Award
Robert Allen Burger, MD
Dr. Robert A. Burger is Professor of Surgical Oncology—Section of Gynecologic Oncology and Director of the Women’s
Cancer Center at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. He earned his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at
Harvard University, received his MD at New York University, completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the
University of Pennsylvania and finished a four-year fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the University of California,
Irvine. Dr. Burger’s principal research interest is in ovarian cancer therapy, reflected in many of his 73 peer-reviewed
publications and seven book chapters. His current research program involves studies of molecular targeted therapeutics
and novel primary prevention strategies. He is principal investigator for phase II and phase III trials of anti-angiogenic
therapy in patients with ovarian cancer. Dr. Burger serves on three committees of the National Cancer Institute’s
Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) and is co-chair for the GOG Developmental Therapeutics Committee.