Newton's Ellen Parker to Be Honored for Breast Cancer Prevention Work

Ellen Parker of Newton, co-founder and former board chair of Silent Spring Institute and former president and founding board member of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, will be honored at Silent Spring’s 20th Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge.

The gala event celebrates the Institute’s two decades of path-breaking breast cancer prevention research.

Parker, a social worker and former director of social work services at Tufts Medial Center, will receive Silent Spring’s Rachel Carson Award in recognition of her “visionary leadership that helped make Silent Spring Institute what it is today.”

The keynote address will be given by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and author Nicholas Kristof, who written extensively on the adverse health effects of certain chemicals and has covered major news developments around the world. He has co-authored five books, including the just-published book “A Path Appears.”

The dinner program will also include remarks by Florence Williams, author of “Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History,” who will discuss the personal discoveries she made as a breast cancer survivor in collaboration with Silent Spring scientists.

“While advances in genetic science have enhanced our understanding of how genes affect a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, we have little understanding of how genes interact with the environment to alter that risk,” said Silent Spring Institute Chair Cynthia Barakatt. “Developing this knowledge is the next frontier in breast cancer research. We are in the forefront of this research thanks to visionaries like Ellen Parker.”