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This talk with Dr. Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society, is a part of a monthly series of discussions with prominent CEOs. This series is meant to inspire others to see how the path to the CEO can be varied, how CEOs come from a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences, and that CEOs carry a range of leadership styles and personalities. There will be a balance of CEOs highlighted from a variety of backgrounds, both in terms of career and societal demographics.
Karen E. Knudsen, MBA PhD, is the CEO of both the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). As an internationally recognized oncology leader, healthcare executive, and advocate, Dr. Knudsen guides both organizations toward the goal of improving the lives of cancer patients and their families.
Under Dr. Knudsen, ACS adopted a tripartite strategy to improve lives, resting on the pillars of discovery, advocacy, and patient support. In the discovery (research) pillar, ACS is the largest non-profit funder of cancer research outside the US government, generating breakthroughs in cancer prevention, detection, and treatment that helped to reduce cancer mortality by 33% since 1991. The advocacy arm functions at the state and national level to provide access to these breakthroughs and end cancer disparities through legislation and policy change. Finally, ACS patient support teams work in 5,000 communities across the country to provide patient education, navigation, transportation, and lodging near cancer care. Combined, ACS touches more than 50 million lives each year, and leads the way in ending cancer as we know it, for everyone.
Prior to joining ACS, Dr. Knudsen was the EVP of Oncology Services for Jefferson Health and director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, one of the elite National Cancer Institute’s NCI-Designated Cancer Centers in the US. Dr. Knudsen is well known for her practice-changing discoveries in prostate cancer, contributing to new, effective cancer treatments. In addition to leading ACS, Dr. Knudsen currently holds a number of thought leadership roles across the nation, serving on the board of advisors for the National Cancer Institute, and on 12 external advisory boards for NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. She is an active member of several committees with the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in addition to serving on other academic and for-profit advisory boards.
Suja Chandrasekaran served as Senior EVP, Chief Information and Digital Officer at CommonSpirit Health.
She is an industry-recognized Digital Transformation leader. Previously, she has been chief of digital and tech at large companies including Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Walmart, Inc., Nestle S.A. and The Timberland Company.
Suja serves as a non-executive director and also as a board member on the boards of public companies such as American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), digital supply chain tech platform company Blume Global Technologies, and Agendia, the only molecular diagnostics company focused on breast cancer research, diagnosis and treatment.
She is an industry expert in digital marketing, customer experience, eCommerce, omnichannel, artificial intelligence, and scaled enterprise digital transformations. Suja brings significant business
Coco Brown is founder and CEO of Athena Alliance. Prior to her current roles, Coco served as President, COO, and Board Director of Taos, a market leader in IT Services serving hundreds of F1000 companies, including Apple, Cisco, ebay, Facebook, and Silicon Valley Bank. Coco brings rich experience across F1000 companies, start-ups, and nonprofits in the roles of CEO, COO, advisor, and Board member to Athena. She possesses a unique understanding of the breadth of challenges and opportunities of leadership. She empowers leaders to execute successfully, working with them to develop the relationship between a company’s strategy and its organizational design and environment. Coco’s expertise in developing and strengthening these important linkages makes her a powerful C-level advisor and Board member. In addition to serving on the Board of Taos from 2004 to 2014, Coco served as a Board Director for MentorNet during its rebranding, product transformation, and subsequent acquisition by Great Minds in STEM. Coco was on the finance committee supporting the Board of Directors of Samasource and established the Operating Committee for the Silicon Valley arm of Golden Seeds, a New York-based early-stage investment firm. She also currently serves as Chair of the Nominating Committee for the Anita Borg Technology Leadership Award, one of the most prestigious awards honoring women in technology.
Join us for a Salon or Meetup to get a peek inside our community! Peer Groups and Learning Circles are exclusively for members - log in here
A Look Inside Athena is held monthly for prospect members to come and understand how Athena works. They will learn more about the backstory of Athena, see a tour of our platform, and have the opportunity to discuss more of what they are interested in and ask questions about joining our community.
Learn about the most pressing topics facing executives today in an intimate, yet casual, virtual setting. Hosted by board directors and leaders from the world's top brands.
Gather with Athena members in your area for a casual, in-person Meetup. These are planned by request and hosted by Athena members in various cities. If you're interested in hosting and/or joining a meetup in the future, reach out to the Member Success Team and let them know.
We have an incredible community of female leaders at Athena and we want to bring you closer together! Join a Peer Group and build a network of peers you can engage with for guidance, lessons learned and insights around a shared interest. Choose a topic that most interests you or drop in and out of multiple peer groups as it suits you best. You’ll find at least one peer group available to join every week. Each live session goes for one hour, no preparation is needed, just show up as you are. We look forward to seeing you there!
A Learning Circle is an opportunity to connect with a small group of other Athena members in a focused yet casual setting, creating accountability around targeted learning to assist you in achieving your goals. Over the course of 6 sessions, club members will meet every 2 weeks to participate in an organic, peer-led discussion of the session's "chapters" consisting of 1-2 Athena salons which are to be reviewed on your own prior to the group session. When joining, members are committing to completing all 6 sessions.
Typically led by one of Athena's coaches, networking events provide members an opportunity to meet one another in a smaller intimate and virtual setting.
These are typically in-person events led by Coco and our partnering companies on topics that are relevant to the industry and audience of our business partners.
A workshop is an interactive session for members to actively practice something, such as their pitch. These sessions typically involve breakout rooms, member to member feedback and are not recorded.
For members new to Athena looking for ways to engage, these bi-weekly orientations led by an Athena Member Success Manager, provide a live tour of Athena, member success insights, and a chance to get questions answered.
Athena customizes virtual learning events with expert business leaders tailored to a unique company’s needs. These events cultivate cross-functional community, development, and learning across the partner organization.
Athena listens and we're always adding new event types and opportunities for members to engage. See what new events we are currently offering members.
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Athena Alliance is the premier executive development platform for senior-level women, offering a powerful networking community, resources, executive education, and coaching to help women advance and excel in their careers.
Invest in your senior leadership career and join our global, virtual community of the most influential women in business.
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