Susan Bulkeley Butler Award presented at International Breast Cancer Prevention Symposium

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Susan Bulkeley Butler Leadership Excellence Award was presented to the president of Uruguay and an oncologist at Indiana University during the International Breast Cancer Prevention Symposium, co-organized by the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research in partnership with the International Breast Cancer and Nutrition collaboration, in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Tabaré Vázquez, the president of Uruguay, has been leading major health reforms in his country for the last two decades. As a radiation oncologist, he has taught oncology at the University of the Republic since 1987 and served as chief of the radiotherapy service of the National Institute of Oncology of the Ministry of Public Health since 1981. He was instrumental in making Uruguay the first country in Latin America to ban smoking in indoor public spaces. In recognition of his efforts, Uruguay was chosen for this year’s World Health Organization Summit on Noncommunicable Diseases. Vázquez met with a group of IBCN leaders from Purdue University (Sophie Lelièvre of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences), the French National School of Public Health, the American University of Beirut and Taiwan Academia Sinica to receive the Susan Bulkeley Butler Leadership Excellence Award.

Anna Maria Storniolo is an oncologist at Indiana University Simon Cancer Center. She founded Indiana’s first Breast Cancer Prevention Program, which provides individualized counseling and surveillance to hundreds of women at high risk for breast cancer. Storniolo also is the founder and executive director of the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank at IU Simon Cancer Center, a unique resource of annotated breast samples from healthy volunteers.

The Susan Bulkeley Butler Leadership Excellence Award was established in 2011 by the International Breast Cancer and Nutrition collaboration at Purdue University with the support Purdue alumna Susan Bulkeley Butler. The award recognizes individuals who distinguish themselves by providing exceptional mentorship to women students and scientists in the field of breast cancer. Nominees have an outstanding track record of mentorship in supporting, encouraging, and promoting women students and scientists in their research, education, professional and personal development.

Butler is a former Purdue trustee and CEO of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Institute for the Development of Women Leaders. She also is a visionary delegate for Vision 2020, a national project focused on advancing gender equality, and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council in Purdue’s Krannert School of Management.

Writer: Kayla Zacharias, 765-494-9318, kzachar@purdue.edu

Source: Sophie A. Lelièvre, 765.496.7793, lelievre@purdue.edu

Courtesy http://www.purdue.edu

Image: President Tabaré Vázquez and Professor Sophie Lelièvre with the Susan Bulkeley Butler Leadership Excellence Award. (Photo courtesy of República Oriental del Uruguay)