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Sally West Brooks
BSN 1963, Chair, American Cancer Society

In the fall of 2005, UIC College of Nursing Alum Sally West Brooks accepted the role of Chair of the American Cancer Society (ACS), beginning a one-year term of national leadership for the largest private not-for-profit cancer funding organization in the country.

“Our goals for 2015 are the reduction of mortality by 50%, the reduction of the number of people who get cancer by 25%, and measurably improving the quality of life for people with cancer – something that has not been measured.”

Her work with the ACS began more than three decades ago, inspired by her mother’s illness during Sally’s adolescence. “You do what you do at the local level,” she explains, “and then you’re asked to do something at another level, and it keeps going. Thirty-three years ago I started volunteering locally – and I still do.”

It is a lifetime of work that uniquely qualifies her to lead a national organization of three million volunteers.

“This is what I feel strongly about,” Sally describes. “I have spent my life in volunteer work. I didn’t earn a salary for terribly long,” – she worked for five years while her husband completed his specialized medical training – “but I put in a full career. I feel it is important to give back. The education we received at UIC was an excellent one. I don’t believe I could do what I’m doing without the background I received at UIC.

“Being a nurse is a vocation. It’s in your heart and soul. And if you have this special and unique and wonderful education, there has to be some component of it that you can give back in some way. We have an obligation to our fellow man.”

As an undergraduate student, Sally spent her first year at Urbana, and then transferred to the Chicago campus. “It was sort of a shock to give up the campus life and the football games and go up to Chicago. But I had a vocation and I couldn’t get there fast enough.”

She recently returned to Urbana for an ACS “Relay for Life,” event, where a group of students came up to her and announced they were nursing students – and that they had a team for the relay. “I loved it,” Sally says proudly, “I just loved it.” She also adds proudly, “The nursing team was first in the Relay for Life.”

Sally West Brooks was awarded the prestigious UIC Alumni Humanitarian Award in 2005. Read more about Sally and this award.