Nancy Brinker

The Promise Fund of Florida was created by Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, Julie Fisher Cummings and Laurie Silvers in 2018. It was set up to address a lack of preventative diagnosis of breast cancer among women in South Florida.

Brinker served as founding chairman of the organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure, supervising all aspects of initial growth. On December 2, 2009, Brinker was appointed CEO, a position which she held until June 17, 2013, when Judith A. Salerno succeeded her.

Brinker is currently serving as the World Health Organization's Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control. She was appointed by WHO Director-General Margaret Chan on May 26, 2009. She advocated for strengthening global action for cancer prevention and control in the context of the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2008. Her message emphasized the need for low and middle-income countries to strengthen comprehensive and evidence-based cancer control policies and programs.

On October 7, 2008, Brinker hosted a symposium on "Breast Cancer Global Awareness" at the Blair House. First Lady Laura Bush joined the participants and the White House was illuminated in pink for the occasion.

Brinker was a bundler for George W. Bush when he was running for office, helping to organize and collect campaign contributions from other donors. In 2000, she became a Pioneer, a member of his $100,000 Club. And on December 24, 2008, President Bush appointed her to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a six-year term.

Brinker served as United States Ambassador to Hungary from September 2001 to 2003. For the first time, she held a conference on the trafficking and exploitation of workers that health ministers from the neighboring Balkan States attended. She also raised awareness about breast cancer among Hungarian women by leading a march over the Chain Bridge in Budapest. The bridge was illuminated in pink for the occasion.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed her to the National Cancer Advisory Board and in 1990, President George H.W. Bush appointed her to chair the President's Cancer Panel and monitor the progress of the National Cancer Program. In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle invited her to chair a subcommittee monitoring research, progress and development in the fight against breast cancer.

On February 13, 1981, Nancy Goodman married Norman E. Brinker, founder of Brinker International, which provided access to capital and influence and enabled her role in public service. Norman Brinker provided funds and methodology for building the Komen foundation. The couple were major contributors to George W. Bush's first presidential campaign. They divorced shortly after the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, but Norman Brinker remained a board member of Komen for the Cure, having served on its board since its founding in 1982 until his death in 2009.

Nancy Goodman's first husband was Robert M. Leitstein, an executive at Neiman Marcus. They had one son together but divorced in 1978.

Brinker (née Goodman) was born to a Jewish family in Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of Marvin L. and Eleanor (née Newman) Goodman. Her father was a commercial real-estate developer and her mother a housewife. In 1968, she received a B.A. from the University of Illinois. After school, she moved to Dallas, Texas and worked at Neiman Marcus as an assistant couture buyer. Thereafter she took various positions at other public relation firms before marrying Norman Brinker, the founder of the Steak and Ale, Bennigan's, and Chili's restaurant chains.

Nancy Goodman Brinker (born December 6, 1946) is the founder of The Promise Fund and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an organization named after her only sister, who died from breast cancer. Brinker was also United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2001 to 2003 and Chief of Protocol of the United States from 2007 to the end of the George W. Bush administration. Brinker, a breast cancer survivor, uses her experience to increase awareness and understanding of the disease. In 2011, she was appointed to be a Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control by the World Health Organization.For her work on breast cancer research, Time magazine named Brinker to its 2008 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. President Barack Obama honored Brinker with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, on August 12, 2009.