Claudia Weicker, Breast Cancer Survivor, to Keynote Connecticut Breast Health Initiative Event

It will be a night that promises heart, sparkle, and purpose on Thursday, October 16 from 6 to 8 PM at the Hartford Golf Club as Connecticut Breast Health Initiative (CTBHI) celebrates the “bold thinkers, passionate doers, and unstoppable believers” behind the organization’s statewide effort in support of breast cancer research in Connecticut.

CTBHI will be honoring the 2025 HOPE IN ACTION Breast Cancer Research Award recipients along with the inspiring individuals receiving the CTBHI Awards of Distinction. These are the researchers, donors, volunteers, and survivors who are changing the story of breast cancer in Connecticut, one act of courage at a time. October is recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness Month across the country.

“This is so much more than just an event,” said Joyce Bray, President of CTBHI. “It's a celebration of what happens when hope meets action. It is a very special evening, reflecting the commitment, expertise, and passion of researchers and those who unwaveringly support their work and the families impacted by breast cancer.”

Through the years since 2006, CTBHI has awarded 121 grants to Connecticut researchers across the state, totaling $4.7 million. The organization’s annual RACE IN THE PARK, held on Mother’s Day weekend annually, has become a popular gathering place for renewed commitment, and additional events through the year add to the legacy of the state’s leading breast cancer research advocacy and fundraising organization. 100% of the money raised stays in Connecticut. Registration for the Smarty Party 2 on October 16 is now available at https://www.ctbhi.org/events/the-smarty-party-of-2025/register

Claudia Weicker, a lifelong Connecticut resident and former first lady of Connecticut (1991-1995), will be the keynote speaker at Smarty Party 2, sharing her personal perspective on breast cancer research, and the difference it makes in the lives of women and their families across the nation.

A native of West Hartford, she has spent much of her adult life shuttling between Washington, D.C. and Connecticut. After graduating from Marymount College, she held positions in the Department of the Treasury’s Office of International Trade, worked as an economic analyst with a Wall Street investment firm, and then went to Capitol Hill to work in the United States Senate.

In the Senate, she first worked on the professional staff the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and then the Appropriations Committee where she became the first woman in either house of Congress to head the staff of an Appropriations Subcommittee. As staff director of the Subcommittee on Labor, Education, Health and Human Services she oversaw the budgets of key executive departments and agencies including the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services which includes the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control.

In 1984 she married Lowell Weicker and devoted her time to raising her children and blending a large family. As First Lady of Connecticut, she advocated for the rights of women to make personal health care choices, and for expanding health and education opportunities for Connecticut’s children, including early vaccination and reading skills.

She was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee Assessing Genetic Risk, chaired a state-wide symposium on breast cancer for the Susan B Komen Foundation, served as a trustee of the University of Hartford and on the national boards of NARAL Pro-Choice, and the National Mental Health Association.

In an op-ed published earlier this year in The Hartford Courant, Weicker explained “it is exactly 28 years since I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. At the time, I had a 50-50 probability of living five years. My oncologist was a veteran breast cancer researcher who had come from the National Cancer Institute at the NIH. After several surgeries (unavailable to my mother’s generation), chemotherapy, medication, and a clinical trial, I number among the 4 million survivors of breast cancer who live normal, productive lives and who must credit their survival to a national commitment to cure cancer.”

CT BHI leaders note recent statistics that highlight the imperative for continued research, including research conducted in Connecticut:

• The rate of female breast cancer in Connecticut’s population is the second highest in the United States. It is estimated that more than 3,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in Connecticut women this year.
• Breast cancer incidence trends in U.S. women under 40 vary by geography, according to a study released earlier this year by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Connecticut is one of five states with the highest early-onset incidence from 2001 to 2020, according to the data.
• Breast cancer rates rose by 1 percent per year from 2012-2021 for all U.S. women combined, with steeper increases for women under 50, according to the American Cancer Society, in a report release last fall.

CTBHI grants in previous years have been provided to support breast cancer research and education initiatives across the state, including to researchers and healthcare organizations in Bridgeport, Danbury, Farmington, Hartford, Middletown, New Britain, New Haven, Norwalk, and Stamford.

Today, Claudia Weicker resides in Essex and is Chair of the Connecticut Audubon Society’s Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center whose mission is the conservation of our internationally recognized Connecticut River Estuary and its habitats. Founded in 2014, the Center’s environmental education programs have reached 50,000 residents of southeastern Connecticut, most of whom are children. A mother of two and grandmother to 4, her family also includes 5 stepsons, their numerous children and grandchildren.

For additional information about CTBHI and Smarty Party 2, go to www.ctbhi.org.