Karen Jackson
VICC luncheon to honor Sisters Network founder
The Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center will honor Karen Eubanks Jackson, founder and president of Sisters Network Inc., for her pioneering work to mobilize African-American women in the fight against breast cancer.
Jackson will receive the Frances Williams Preston Award for Breast Cancer Awareness during Vanderbilt-Ingram's annual Women's Health Forum Luncheon and Fashion Show on Oct. 28 at the Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel in Nashville.
After her own experience with breast cancer, Jackson established Sisters Network in 1994 as the nation's first African-American breast cancer survivorship organization. Under her leadership, Sisters Network has grown to include 3,000 members and 39 affiliate chapters across the United States.
In addition to fostering change on a grassroots level, Jackson also has targeted her efforts to policy-makers, including developing minority breast health advocacy initiatives on the state and federal levels.
The award is named for Frances Williams Preston, president and CEO of performing rights organization BMI for 18 years, and now president emeritus. She is also a member of the Vanderbilt-Ingram's Board of Overseers and president of the T.J. Martell Foundation for Cancer, AIDS and Leukemia Research. The foundation funds laboratories named for Preston at Vanderbilt-Ingram.
The Women's Health Forum will begin at noon with the opening of information booths. The program will begin at 12:30 p.m. and will feature fashions by Talbots and Talbots Woman modeled by breast cancer survivors.
A shuttle will run from the MCN Round Wing from 11:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m. Tickets for the event are $25. Deadline for reservations is Oct. 21.
For more information or to make reservations, call 936-5860 or visit www.vicc.org.