BoardWalk Consulting Leading CEO Search for the National Breast Cancer Coalition
September 3, 2026 – BoardWalk Consulting was recently retained by the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) to lead in its search for a new CEO. The search is being led by Crystal Stephens and Terri Kohan. This is a rare opportunity: to lead one of the most respected and independent voices in breast cancer advocacy, building on three decades of momentum.
Reporting to the c3 board of trustees, the CEO will provide vision, strategy, and day-to-day leadership for NBCC, working in partnership with the c4 board of directors and a deeply committed staff, and will be responsible and responsive to grassroots leadership. The CEO will also have the benefit of ongoing counsel and collaboration with the organization’s president Fran Visco for up to two years to help ensure a smooth transition.
The CEO will bring a track record of leadership that engages both major donors and grassroots advocates with equal authenticity, and that understands strategic advocacy and systems change. The CEO will believe strongly in centering and amplifying the voices of those directly affected by breast cancer and will know how to challenge the status quo while working within system constraints. The CEO must possess an understanding of the process required to stimulate creativity, collaboration, risk-taking, and a sense of urgency with often risk-averse, hierarchical systems and institutions.
NBCC’s board is looking for an executive who can be trusted with an extraordinary legacy and who has the vision, discipline, and personal presence to build on it. NBCC is open to candidates from a range of backgrounds; deep experience in advocacy, public policy, non-profit leadership, or a mission-driven field with complex, multistakeholder dynamics will be more important than any single credential. The CEO must be a breast cancer survivor.
Candidates must have a demonstrated ability to challenge the status quo, drive strategic advocacy and systems change, and inspire others toward an ambitious, shared goal. They should have a genuine track record of cultivating significant philanthropic support for complex or controversial work, and a willingness to partner with the chief development officer to grow and diversify a donor base.
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For more than three decades, the National Breast Cancer Coalition has been one of the most disciplined, successful, evidence-driven forces in American health advocacy, a coalition of survivors and grassroots organizations, unwilling to settle for incremental progress against a disease that still takes far too many lives. In 1991 a small group of women decided that breast cancer needed a powerful advocacy arm with a focused mission to eradicate the disease. They formed a coalition of organizations who came together as NBCC, launching the breast cancer movement. The organization is based in Washington, D.C.
Serving Mission-Driven Non-Profit Organizations
BoardWalk Consulting, based in Atlanta, is a national executive search firm that recruits CEOs and senior leadership for mission-driven non-profit organizations. Founded in 2002, the firm leads executive searches for clients from across the non-profit sector with global, national, regional, and local missions. Many of the firm’s team members have previously served as non-profit executives, grant makers, and board leaders. BoardWalk Consulting is also an active partner in Panorama, the global network of independent executive search firms.
BoardWalk Consulting Leading CEO Search for Downtown Atlanta Inc.
BoardWalk Consulting has been tapped by Downtown Atlanta Inc. (DAI) to lead in its search for a CEO. The organization is seeking a leader who can help define what the next generation of Downtown Atlanta will become. This is a leadership opportunity of unusual scale and significance. Downtown is experiencing real momentum and catalytic investment. It is also confronting the realities facing many major urban centers: changing office patterns, public safety and quality-of-life concerns, visible homelessness, aging infrastructure, inactive ground floors, fragmented street life and the need to make downtown feel safe, active, livable and welcoming every day.
Ms. Stephens is managing director and CEO. Over the past 13 years, Ms. Stephens has led many of the firm’s most complex and high-profile searches, earning the trust of such national organizations as Earthjustice, ACLU, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Trust for Public Land, and Year Up United. Her impact in Atlanta is evidenced in the leadership of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Gateway Center, and the Betty & Davis Fitzgerald Foundation. Ms. Stephens joined BoardWalk in 2012, bringing extensive sales, marketing, and recruiting experience with top-tier organizations such as IBM.
Ms. Kohan, senior associate, collaborates closely with internal teams and client stakeholders to execute C-suite and leadership searches for non-profit and mission-driven organizations. She is an accomplished executive search professional with over 30 years of experience in retained executive recruitment across domestic and international markets. Her expertise spans all facets of senior-level talent acquisition for both non-profit organizations and corporate entities across diverse industries.
Related: BoardWalk Consulting Assists the Lumpkin Family Foundation with Executive Director Search
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
