The Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center is destined to become the preeminent breast care resource for women in the East Bay, so it’s fitting that women have also played a pivotal role in its development every step of the way. They’ve been involved in everything from the design of its new site to the care that will be provided to patients. And each woman is doing her part to ensure that the Breast Health Center’s new state-of-the-art facility will be a place that she herself would want to visit.

“This is a project that means a lot to the women in our community, and they’ve been excited and involved,” says Lisa Bailey, M.D., medical director of the Breast Health Center. Dr. Bailey helped conceive the very idea of a comprehensive breast care center at Alta Bates Summit. A former president of the American Cancer Society, California Division, Dr. Bailey is not only a breast cancer surgeon but has long been a passionate advocate for women with breast cancer. 

Meridithe Mendelsohn, founding manager of the Breast Health Center, was also instrumental in shaping the new facility. She helped write the business plan, which ensured that women would receive leading-edge care, from diagnosis through recovery. “A lot of women who are concerned about getting the latest treatments feel like they have to go to a university hospital like UCSF or Stanford,” Meredithe says. “And really, the idea was to bring that kind of expertise here, to the East Bay.” Meredithe also helped Dr. Bailey develop research programs and survivorship programs.

Another female staffer, Chief of Radiology Linda Gordon, M.D., helps to ensure that every patient gets seamless, quality care during screenings and diagnosis. “All of the radiologists—many of them women—work very closely together,” Dr. Gordon says. “The same group of people who work with the patient will present that patient’s case to the tumor board. Any follow-up recommended by the tumor board, we end up doing, so there’s tight communication between us, as well as with the surgeons.”

Meanwhile, nurse practitioners Wendy Neptun and Kathleen Colloton’s mission is to educate patients about breast cancer, guide women through their screenings, and assist with core biopsies.

When it came time to raise the funds to construct the center, women like Sylvia Carter rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Sylvia, who had been a close friend of the center’s namesake, quickly stepped up as cochair of the capital campaign for the breast center, helping to raise much of the private funding for the project.

The women of Friends of Faith, led by executive director Darlene Ayers-Johnson, were also instrumental in fundraising. The group, named for Emmy award–winning journalist Faith Fancher, has partnered with Alta Bates Summit for the past three years to host the Leap of Faith awards dinner and fundraising event, with proceeds going to the center.

On the design front, interior designer Jain Malkin was enlisted to ensure that the breast center complex will be the beautiful, welcoming space it was intended to be. “Jain has a marvelous aesthetic and has done several other breast centers,” Meredithe says. “Alta Bates Summit has designated 11,000 square feet of space, so she’s working with the team here to create a very logical, user-friendly layout. She’s focused the waiting and reception area around an existing skylight. It’s so unusual to have natural light in a hospital setting, and it’s just going to be stunning.” Jain has even found the perfect spot for photos of women of distinction from a variety of cultures that were shot and generously donated by Paola Gianturco.

Other women are making sure cancer patients at the Breast Health Center have the support they need. Kathleen, who cofounded the COMPASS peer support program along with Meredithe, will help it continue to blossom. Adds Dr. Bailey, “All of the volunteer guides in this program are women who have been treated at Alta Bates Summit, so they’re familiar with the physicians and the facilities, and they can give patients personal advice about the whole process and help them through it.”

One COMPASS guide is Karen McGee, who also founded a chapter of the Young Survival Coalition, a nonprofit network of young breast cancer survivors. She’s been throwing large parties for her birthdays and asking guests to make donations to the Breast Health Center in lieu of gifts.

That’s just the kind of enthusiasm that has made a place as unique as the Breast Health Center possible. “People feel that this is so needed in our community, and they’re really excited about it,” says Dr. Bailey. “It makes me feel really good that this is something that women were hoping for and that we’re going to be able to provide.”