In Memoriam: Elissa Chandler, a Passionate Advocate for Science & Care
The MBC Alliance celebrates the life and work of our advocate member Elissa Chandler, who passed away on August 31, 2026 at age 72.
Throughout her life, Elissa was passionate about supporting and advocating for people facing challenges, trauma and illness. Her compassion, drive and knowledge of the medical field made her a valuable member of the metastatic breast cancer community and the MBC Alliance.
From her youth, Elissa was devoted to caring for others while living her life to the fullest. Encouraged by her father, a neurologist, her first job was as a scan technician at a hospital. A political advocate in Berkeley in the 1970s, Elissa later attended nursing school and, in 1983, began working in Ward 5B at San Francisco General Hospital, the first AIDS ward in the United States. At a time when many were afraid to touch people diagnosed with AIDS, the unit centered care and love for patients facing a terminal diagnosis. Its work helped influence the medical field, and inspired Elissa to become a hospice nurse.
Elissa went on to earn a Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins and a half-Masters program in health informatics. Across these experiences, she developed an understanding of health care that encompassed not only medicine, but also the systems patients must navigate and the importance of being heard within them.
In 2016, a year after marrying the love of her life, Ralph Jaffe, Elissa was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. Even as her disease progressed, she continued living with purpose and putting her energy and expertise to work for others living with metastatic breast cancer.
She trained through Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s Hear My Voice program and the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s Project LEAD program to build her skills as a patient advocate. In this role, she focused on supporting others navigating diagnosis, treatment, health care systems and treatment options; while also engaging in cancer policy advocacy, staying abreast of the latest science, and working with researchers on grant development.
Elissa joined the MBC Alliance in 2023, becoming a member of the subcommittee supporting the Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis Initiative: the Marina Kaplan Project. This positioned her to share patient insights with researchers and work to increase access to clinical trials for patients with CNS metastases.
With support from the Alliance’s travel grant program for advocates, Elissa also attended the 2024 Society for Integrative Oncology Conference in Costa Mesa, California. She shared what she learned with the MBC community, exploring how complementary therapies and a whole-person approach can support conventional medical care.
In addition to supporting numerous research projects, working with the MBC Alliance, and serving on the SIO Integrative Patient Advocacy Committee, Elissa was a member of the GRASP Cancer network, a patient-led program that connects patients, clinicians and researchers to exchange ideas and learn from each other. This was another avenue for her to continue working with researchers to advance the science and treatment of triple-negative breast cancer and brain metastases.
Elissa had a zest for life that extended far beyond advocacy and medicine. A talented watercolor artist, she enjoyed music and dancing, fashion and interior design, and—most of all—spending time with her beloved husband, family, and many dear friends.
After accompanying so many people through the end of their lives throughout her career, Elissa faced her own death with courage and intention, choosing to use the Medical Aid in Dying program after pursuing the most advanced medical treatments available to her.
We are grateful for the knowledge, energy and spirit Elissa brought to the MBC Alliance and to the broader metastatic breast cancer community. As a collective, we are committed to carrying forward the work she cared so deeply about, and pushing for advances in treating triple-negative breast cancer and brain metastases. Elissa’s contributions to research and advocacy, and her spirit for serving others, will be deeply missed.
