“Ron Klain has been asked by the President to coordinate the U.S. ebola response, so he will be taking a leave of absence.  We applaud the President’s selection, as Ron is a talented manager and a wise counselor who understands government, business, and the non-profit sectors.  We wish him the best as he takes on the important task, and we look forward to welcoming him back soon.”

There’s a lot that I’m proud of from the Case Foundation’s seventeen years of work: helping to generate billions in new funding for hundreds of nonprofits to elevate their programs; developing public-private partnerships that have brought significant attention to and traction/scale to issues ranging from national service to growing entrepreneurship and job creation at home and abroad; and putting citizens at the center of innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. But more than anything, I’m proud of the team we have that leads us through these challenges and inspires us to have impact in all that we do.

Through the years, we’ve chosen to maintain a lean organization comprised of some of the best and the brightest in the field. Together we bring passion, an entrepreneurial spirit and fun to all we do and we genuinely enjoy the privilege of working together to change the world. When our Senior Vice President of Social Innovation, Michael Smith, left last year to head the Social Innovation Fund for the White House, we began a search for a very special talent to fill this important role at the Case Foundation. After many months, hours and rounds of interviewing, we have tapped an outstanding executive to join us — today we are announcing that on September 22, Sheila Herrling will join our team as our new Senior Vice President of Social Innovation.

Sheila comes to us with more than twenty years of experience in international development and U.S. foreign policy. She joins us from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) – an independent U.S. foreign aid agency that uses an evidence-based approach to invest in economic growth and poverty reduction in well-governed poor countries—where she served as the Vice President for Policy and Evaluation for the last four and a half years.

Throughout Sheila’s career—including at the Center for Global Development, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as a U.S. representative to the African Development Bank, and as part of President Obama’s Transition Team—she has consistently found ways to build coalitions for action to put fresh thinking into practice. She has the ideal combination of smarts on substance and savvy on strategy to come up with and move big ideas. I couldn’t be more excited that she will bring her talents to our work at the Foundation. And she’s no stranger to taking big bets. At MCC she staked her career on insisting that the $3 billion in investments made on her watch yield a rate of return in terms of increased income for the poor, on raising the bar on how the impact of those investments were measured, and on putting the agency’s results data into the public domain in order to maximize global learning on what was — and, perhaps more importantly — what was not working in the field.

When I asked Sheila what she was most proud of at MCC, she said, “I’m so glad that our team at MCC pushed the envelope on learning from evidence-based evaluations and on being named the most transparent donor organization in the world. And I was most excited when U.S. taxpayer dollars leveraged real impact – like the doubling of incomes of dairy farmers in El Salvador or the $4 billion in private investment in Ghana, or inspired governments like Cote d’Ivoire to change laws to give women the same rights as men to participate fully in the economy. But, like you, I am most proud of the amazingly smart, mission-driven, fun team I had the honor of leading. And I can’t wait to work with and learn from the equally amazing team at Case Foundation.”

So if it isn’t obvious, today’s announcement is a celebration for our team here at the Case Foundation. As Senior Vice President she will lead the Foundation’s Social Innovation team, which works collaboratively to develop and implement mission-driven domestic and international initiatives, partnerships and a robust portfolio of social and impact investments. Specifically, she’ll focus on continuing and growing the great momentum our team has already established around moving the impact investing field from niche to mainstream; look for new opportunities to bring the Be Fearless principles from inspiration to action in the philanthropic sector; re-energize our efforts in supporting entrepreneurs who create jobs and healthy communities at home and abroad; and explore new opportunities and issue areas in need of urgent, innovative solutions.

Our team is excited about the future and the potential, working closely with partners here at home and around the world, to enact fearless change in communities both near and far. We warmly welcome Sheila to the Case Foundation and we have no doubt she will be a driving force on this journey. Please join us in welcoming her to the team.

When friends, loved ones and colleagues greet one another, the customary greeting is to ask, “How are you?” I’ve always found it a beautiful symbol — before we get to the business at hand in any conversation, we’re taking a moment to acknowledge that we care for one another. But lately for me this casual reference can stop me in my tracks.

You see, in December I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. I had found a small lump myself after a clean mammogram just 5 months earlier. Blessed with good healthcare, surgery was scheduled and the plan was to remove the small tumor. It was my expectation that radiation would follow for 30 days and then we’d move on with the hope and prayer of leaving cancer behind. Upon learning of my diagnosis, I sent a note to close friends and colleagues to share the news and to let them know the circumstances and to inform them that this could possibly mean some interruption in things planned. It was an honest attempt to be transparent but I didn’t go so far as to blog, tweet or update my Facebook status. I wanted to get the news out to those who are an active part of my life but I didn’t see the point in trumpeting the news further. I was in a good place emotionally and spiritually, and the love and support that followed was truly touching. I was quite amazed at the response I received and the number of people who thanked me for sharing the news. It was emotional for many who received the update and for me as I responded to the beautiful expressions of loving care.

Then I had the surgery which went remarkably well. No lymph node involvement and no signs of spread of the cancer beyond the tumor site.. An easy recovery followed. But following surgery we learned the news that my tumor tested positive for a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes the growth of cancer cells. It sounds complicated but really the important thing about HER2 is that it represents a more aggressive cancer and increases the likelihood of cancer returning in my lifetime. So although it was a Stage I cancer and although the chances are pretty good that I am completely cancer-free following the surgery, because of HER2’s presence, chemotherapy is recommended to significantly reduce the odds that the cancer will return. Indeed, with chemotherapy, plus Herceptin (a drug targeted at HER2) the likelihood that it will return can be reduced to about 5%.

So here’s where the script would come in handy. I started chemotherapy in January that will include a total of 8 rounds, each taken every two weeks. I chose to be treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, so every two weeks Steve and I head up to the city and I get infused with massive doses of toxins that are designed to kill any cells that multiply in my body — the hallmark of cancer cells is that they rapidly divide and multiply when they shouldn’t. The idea is that if there is even one “floater” left somewhere it could rear its ugly head down the road and cause problems — so chemotherapy’s goal is to find any floaters and kill them. In the process, healthy cells are killed as well because everyone has cells that regularly multiply and regenerate such as in the stomach lining, the mouth and other places. Hair falls in the category of cell types that multiply and regenerate and it is the for this reason that patients lose their hair during chemotherapy. While this is a tough reality of the process, I have chosen to embrace it as a sign that the chemotherapy is doing its job of finding multiplying cells and killing them. And, yes, I am now bald. I’m grateful for good wigs and loving friends and family members who accept me just the way I am right now.

So how I am doing, you might ask. I’m actually doing great. For whatever reason, to date I’ve tolerated the chemotherapy well and have been able to keep my routines in tact thus far, including going to work everyday, keeping up with fitness and being active in family and kid activities on the homefront. I know this can change at any moment but I have been enormously grateful for the energy and good spirits that I’ve been able to keep, and days I’ve been able to enjoy when I didn’t expect to. I am aware that others may be more negatively affected by the side effects of chemotherapy and for so many patients this period of time can be very rough. It may become so for me.

But for now, when I greet people, most don’t know of my diagnosis and nearly all are not aware that I am undergoing chemotherapy. So when they ask, “how are you?” my genuine and truthful statement is that I’m doing great — all is well and I’m happy. But when I leave them I feel a little disingenuous – if they later learn of my diagnosis or of the fact that I’m going through chemo, will they think I wasn’t being truthful? Will they be hurt that I didn’t share? Do they know I’m not trying to keep this a secret, I just sometimes don’t want to “drop the bomb” in meetings in the office, at cocktail parties or at public appearances. You can’t bring up the cancer word without people getting a little panicky or overly concerned, and understandably so. But the true fact of the matter is that I am feeling great — on my worst days it’s great against my expectations and on my best days it’s just plain old great. I’m happy. I feel good. I’m counting the days until chemotherapy ends but want every day and every cycle to be productive in seeking out any errant cells and eliminating them. I’m grateful to have the blessing of chemotherapy – side effects and all.

As I faced the decision to go forward with chemotherapy (in consultation with my family), I had a lot of fears. But as I broke down the decision I realized I had to reset my own definitions of beauty, strength and love. My family and friends have lifted me through this process and I have felt the power of collective thoughts and prayers throughout this period of my life. I have no doubt they have played a role in how good I feel in my body and my soul.

So I’m partway down a path whose road may include some bumps or some difficult days. But if you see me along that path and ask, “how are you?” please know I don’t have a script for this time. I’m loving life — work and play and all parts in between. I likely won’t mention that I am in therapy for cancer and I hope you’ll understand. Truthfully, I’d really rather talk about all of the blessings in my life, but I’m also still looking for the script that makes talking about cancer in a casual conversation something I can figure out how to do.

Here are a few resources I’ve found to be particularly helpful in learning more about breast cancer, and breast cancer prevention:

• Top 10 Breast Cancer Tips
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure