On this episode, we are speaking with Ricki Fairley, the CEO and Co-Founder of TOUCH. She is also a Triple Negative Breast Cancer Survivor and Thriver.

Ricki’s personal purpose, passion, mission, ministry, and blessing is to bring focus, attention, research, science, and action to eradicating Breast Cancer, and supporting and coaching what she calls her “Breasties” through their breast cancer experience.

Ricki is an award-winning seasoned marketing veteran that has transformed her strategic acumen into breast cancer advocacy. Ricki co-founded and serves as CEO of TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance to address Breast Cancer as a unique and special disease state, with the overall goal of reducing the mortality rate for Black women.

Ricki founded and serves as co-host for “The Doctor Is In,” a weekly live breast cancer advocacy web series on the "BlackDoctor.org" Facebook page that reaches over 3 million viewers. She is a founding member of #BlackDataMatters, in partnership with Citizen, The Center for Health Care Innovation, and Morehouse School of Medicine to encourage and elevate the importance of Black Women participating in clinical trial research. 

In January 2022, she started the When We Tri(al) Movement to change the game on Black women participating in clinical trials to improve outcomes for Black women with breast cancer.

Ricki serves on the Board of Trustees for the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation where she chairs the marketing committee. She is a board member for the Center for Healthcare Innovation, a non-profit research and educational institute making healthcare more equitable. She avidly works with pharmaceutical companies to provide the patient voice for breast cancer awareness, action, therapy/drug development and advocacy.

Ricki has two daughters, Amanda Brown Lierman and Hayley Brown (both also graduates of Dartmouth College - like their mom), and 3 granddaughters, Belle, Leia, and Hart, who remind her of her purpose every day.

This is the Believe in Progress podcast hosted by the AACR Foundation and featuring Ricki Fairley.

Join us on this journey of hope and progress. Subscribe to Believe in Progress, the AACR Foundation's podcast, today, and be inspired by the incredible stories of those who have faced cancer with strength and resilience, and the medical professionals who are working to find new treatments and ultimately a cure.

Please do not forget to visit www.aacr.org to make a donation or to find helpful information and resources. Together we can make progress in the fight against cancer and bring hope to those who need it most. 

Please don't forget, cancer research saves lives.

For more information visit the AACR and our podcast here: https://www.aacr.org/get-involved/believe-in-progress-an-aacr-foundation-podcast/

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