Komen for the Cure management shaken up

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DALLAS, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Officials of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure in Dallas announced Wednesday it is looking for a president, chief executive and chief operating officer.

Nancy G. Brinker, founder and current chief executive officer, said the management shakeup is not cleaning house following the controversy this year concerning Planned Parenthood, but an evolution, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Brinker, who founded the organization in 1982 after her sister, Susan G. Komen, died of breast cancer, said she would move into her new management role focusing on increasing revenue, long-term strategy and global growth, when the top leadership positions were filled.

Elizabeth Thompson, the current president, is scheduled to leave Sept. 7, while board members Brenda Lauderback and Linda Law said they would also be leaving.

Brinker and Thompson were heavily criticized earlier in the year after the Komen Foundation said its new grant criteria grant would exclude Planned Parenthood from participating.

The non-profit Planned Parenthood Federation of America had received grants from Komen to fund 170,000 clinical breast exams and 6,400 mammogram referrals a year.

This partnership was criticized from pro-life advocates because some Planned Parenthood health centers perform abortions, while ending the funding was criticized by women's health advocacy groups because they said abortion funding was not co-mingled with breast cancer prevention funds and the end of the funding would put poor women with few healthcare options at risk.

Four days later, the Komen's board of directors reversed the decision and several top-level staff members resigned from Komen.

"I apologized to everyone. I think we all made mistakes and we addressed them and we're through that and we're moving on," Brinker told the Journal.