Ellen Hermanson Foundation Cofounder Dr. Julie Ratner: Improving Women’s Lives for 30 Years

Dr. Julie Ratner is the cofounder and chair of The Ellen Hermanson Foundation and a full-time East Hampton resident. She has dedicated the last three decades to improving breast healthcare for all women on the East End and leaving a legacy for women’s health. As the foundation approaches its 30th anniversary, she shares with Dan’s Papers how it all started.

Can you take us back to 1996 and the beginning of the Ellen Hermanson Foundation?

In August of ‘96, alongside my late sister Emily Levin, we hosted the very first Ellen’s Run. This was the beginning of our foundation and our mission to change women’s lives for the better. We had no idea in 1996 that Ellen’s Run would become The Ellen Hermanson Foundation, allowing us to not only honor Ellen, my sister, and her important legacy, but to fund a breast center at the Stony Brook Southampton Hospital to serve all women in our community regardless of their ability to pay.

Everything we have done and achieved has been inspired by Ellen, my younger sister, a vibrant, compassionate soul who, despite being too young to fully experience the 1960s, embraced its ideals.

She was passionate about social justice, immersed in folk music, and committed to civil rights. After earning her BA from Connecticut College, she studied at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute and NYU’s School of Journalism, where she met her husband, Hugo Sanchez Moreno. In 1988, their daughter Leora was born, bringing them incredible joy. A joy that was short lived.

Ellen struggled with breastfeeding. She sought help repeatedly but was assured her difficulty was typical for new mothers. Six months later, after insisting on further examination, a biopsy was performed and she received a shocking diagnosis that would change her life and our family’s life: it was breast cancer. A partial mastectomy was performed – these were the days before lumpectomies – and the pathology report brought more devastating news: stage four breast cancer.

This was the beginning of Ellen’s journey — one she faced with extraordinary courage, grit, and resilience. As a talented journalist, Ellen observed the world around her with a keen eye. She noticed many women facing cancer without the support network she was fortunate to have, and she felt driven to use her skills to reach out to others. Ellen’s mission became clear: she would foster awareness about breast cancer, educate women on early detection, advocate for cancer survivors, and shine a light on the little discussed and understood, at the time, area of pain management. Five months before she died, Ellen traveled to Washington and gave a keynote speech at a cancer conference entitled One Patient’s Pain, about her journey with pain.  Ellen often said, people in my position, don’t have time to have their lives compromised by pain.

Ellen was deeply involved with several organizations, including The Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, where she edited The Networker newsletter, and she was one of four founders of The Jewish Healing Center, where she served as editor for The Outstretched Arm. She was also the founding director of Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert. Her dedication to supporting women’s health left an indelible mark, and though she passed away in 1995, her mission continues to this day through The Ellen Hermanson Foundation.

What impact has the foundation made over these last 30 years on women and families living on the East End?

Over the past three decades, the foundation has literally changed the medical landscape of the East End. We have done this in a methodical and strategic way, always adhering to the mission of the foundation “to ensure access to state-of-the-art breast health care and empower people affected by breast cancer.” Firstly, the foundation forged a partnership with the then Southampton Hospital, now Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, funding critical pieces of technology resulting in the hospital being designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology.

In 2008, the foundation was invited to fund a new, self-contained breast center, which opened in 2009 as the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center. The foundation board had only two caveats: no one is turned away for lack of insurance and the breast center needs to marry the warmth of a community hospital with the rigor of an academic, teaching hospital.

Secondly, the foundation established Ellen’s Well to provide psychosocial support free of charge to breast cancer survivors and their families. Recognizing that the head and body are inextricably linked, we knew that it would be important to mitigate the deleterious effects of living with a life-threatening disease would have on the patient as well as on her family and support system.

Thirdly, during COVID, the foundation took the time to assess our work and ask ourselves if we were fulfilling our mission to the best of our ability – and we decided we could do more. In 2021, The Ellen Hermanson Foundation Community Partnerships were established to reach four groups of women whom we knew did not have enough access to the breast health care pipeline.  These groups are the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, OLA (Organizatión Latino Americano), The Retreat – All Against Abuse, and Shinnecock Indian Health Services.

Since its inception, the foundation has donated more than $6 million in grants. All the money we raise stays right here in our community, with the exception of $5,000 that is donated to Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert for The Ellen Hermanson Foundation Memorial Symposium.

Are there any milestones along the way you are particularly proud of?

I am always proud of what we have accomplished. I was over-the-top proud the first time Ellen’s Run was named The Best Sporting Event by Dan’s Papers and we have been honored to receive this designation many times over since then. The reason this is especially important is because many people come to the run and it is our opportunity to share our mission, have a joyous event that honors survivorship and memory, and acquaint more people with The Ellen Hermanson Foundation.

I am probably most proud about the many firsts the Foundation has had through our partnership with the hospital. Stony Brook Southampton Hospital was the first on the East End to have Tomosynthesis 3-D mammography, Stereo-tactic breast biopsy and Computer Aided Detection. The Foundation was also able to donate 10 chemotherapy chairs to the Phillips Family Cancer Center, a state-of-the-art treatment facility right here in our community when it opened in 2019.

With hard work and a lot of begging, the Foundation has had a huge impact, and I think this is because we are woman/patient centered.  Breast cancer is not only a physical disease, but also a disease that affects every area of life. It is hugely expensive to have a life-threatening disease – especially for many of the hard-working, single mothers, and marginalized women in our community.  There are bills to pay, transportation to treatment, procedures not covered by insurance, childcare, and general coping with life challenges. In addition to funding technology, our community partners and an oncological social worker, the foundation established an emergency fund specifically to address the challenges I just listed.

Given how much you have achieved already, what do you see in the Foundation’s future?  

The 30th Anniversary is the perfect time to think about the future.  We have accomplished a lot and there is still so much to do. 

Going forward we want to:

1. Bolster our infrastructure with adequate staffing for our growing programs, services and fundraising efforts. This would allow us to augment our current staff, now consisting of part-time and hourly people devoted to the cause
2. Launch an informational public relations campaign in Spanish and English to enhance our visibility and bring awareness to our programs
3. Increase grants to current community partners
4. Explore expanding community partnerships
5. Increase the size and numbers of emergency grants for women whose cancer has progressed, necessitating advanced care
6. Create a referral system for ongoing care and support

How do you make this all possible?

What I do is possible only because I have a wonderful group of people who believe in the mission as much as I do, and work as hard as they can to help achieve it. We are a team led by the Board of The Ellen Hermanson Foundation. Each board member is passionate about the mission and takes her or his role as an ambassador and fundraiser very seriously. Our board is small and mighty led by Ann Ciardullo, vice chair; Cathy Tweedy, secretary; Melissa Cohn, treasurer; Constance Chen, MD, Sarah DeFlorio, Amanda Star Frazer, Esq., Scott Kaufman, James Levin, Hugo Moreno, Dee Rivera, and Andrea Seiden. Mady Schuman, our executive director is skilled and gifted in nonprofit work and brings a wealth of experience and energy to the foundation.  Sara Blue, our event organizer is impeccable and makes sure every “I” is dotted and “T” is crossed, both figuratively and literally. And our posse of volunteers. They are the backbone. We could not have a successful event without them or our wonderful community. Our community is very special and we feel loved and embraced by all who turn up to support us.

The foundation and fundraising is event driven. Our two main events are the annual Summer Gala, which will take place Saturday, July 26 at the Bridgehampton Tennis & Surf Club and Ellen’s Run, which will take place Sunday, August 17 at the Southampton Intermediate School. In addition, we have a year-end campaign and smaller fundraising campaigns throughout the year. Our gala limit is 240 people, so get your tickets early before there are none to buy and our run attracts 900+ runners every year.

I think we have been successful because way back in the beginning, we realized there was a need in the community for comprehensive breast health care and we’d stepped in to fill that need. The Hamptons are magical and beautiful and part of the fantasy is that this is the land of the rich and famous.  But it is not. The backbone of the Hamptons is made up of hard-working people who often work more than one job to make ends meet. These people make life in the Hamptons work for so many of us and they deserve to have access to first-rate, affordable breast health care right here. When I started Ellen’s Run, I cannot tell you how many people asked why I felt the need to raise money in a community as rich as this and I would say, “Look around.  Who’s bagging your groceries, waiting on your table, cleaning your house, mowing your lawn?” You get the picture?  Our local community is made up of real people with real needs. If Ellen were alive, she would reach out to them and that is what we do.