DALLAS — As her sister was dying from breast cancer, Nancy G. Brinker made a promise: She would do everything she could to end the disease.
Brinker fulfilled that solemn commitment by founding a breast cancer charity in 1982 that grew into the world’s largest — a national fundraising powerhouse that has invested $780 million in research and $1.3 billion in services such as screening and education over the past three decades.
Now Brinker, the public face of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is stepping down as chief executive, about six months after the organization’s hotly debated decision to end funding for breast screenings through Planned Parenthood. The move was reversed after an onslaught of criticism but ended up stirring anger on both sides of the abortion debate.
Brinker, 65, will move to a new role focusing on fundraising and strategic planning.
“She’s wanting now to kind of get away from the day-to-day operation as CEO,” said Komen spokeswoman Andrea Rader. She said Brinker will concentrate on “growing the global work, working on the strategy and, of course, raising the funds,” and she will still have “a major role in the organization.”
The Komen organization started as a small gathering in Brinker’s living room. Brinker herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 and helped change breast cancer from a taboo subject to a public cause that drew women into the streets to raise money, many of them dressed in the group’s signature pink.
