ABCD Executive Director Ellen Friebert Schupper Named 2025 Standout Sister Betty Award Winner

November 4, 2025

We’re proud to share that ABCD Executive Director Ellen Friebert Schupper has been named Milwaukee Magazine‘s 2025 Standout Sister Betty Award Winner!

Milwaukee Magazine presents the annual Betty Awards to celebrate women leaders who embody their late publisher Betty Ewens Quadracci’s most notable traits in their work to make the Milwaukee community better.

👉 Read Ellen’s feature in Milwaukee Magazine.

The Standout Sister award is given to a woman in Milwaukee known for her support of other women, and Ellen lives this every day. Since becoming Executive Director in 2017, she has guided ABCD through transformational growth while staying true to the heart of our mission and the vision of our late founder, Melodie Wilson Oldenburg: “No one should go through breast cancer alone.” 

Under Ellen’s direction, the number of people served in Milwaukee and across the United States has increased dramatically as more people than ever are reaching out ABCD for emotional support. During her tenure, ABCD has responded to nearly 7,400 calls for support, trained more than 300 volunteer Mentors, tripled the number of one-to-one Mentor matches, and increased our operating budget by more than 20%. This momentum is no accident. Over time, Ellen and her team have strategically nurtured a network of patient advocates, partner organizations, collaborators, resources, and donors to ensure ABCD grows with purpose and that people impacted by breast cancer receive the support they need, when they need it most. 

“Ellen’s leadership at ABCD has been nothing short of extraordinary,” says Billie Jean Smith, ABCD Board President. “For more than eight years, she has ensured that thousands of people—locally, nationally, and internationally—receive free, customized emotional support exactly when they need it most. Her impactful legacy is one of deep compassion, strategic growth, and unwavering commitment to everyone impacted by a breast cancer diagnosis

Amanda Garry Aliperta, Ellen’s nominator and Founder & Principal of Momentum Nonprofit Strategies, shares, “Working alongside Ellen as a strategic partner has been a master class in purpose-driven female leadership. Her dedication has transformed countless lives. She is a tireless advocate for anyone impacted by breast cancer, pouring her whole heart into empowering women not only through support, but by showing what strong, values-led leadership looks like. Milwaukee is incredibly fortunate to have an international breast cancer organization rooted in our hometown—and even more fortunate to have Ellen leading the charge.”

Past ABCD Board President Elizabeth “Betsy” Brenner adds, “Ellen’s a dynamo! Thousands of women and families living with breast cancer benefit from her tireless creativity and search for new partners and support.”

Dr. Magda Peck, Founder/Principal of MP3 Health Group, notes, “In 2012, in my first months as Founding Dean of UWM’s Joseph J Zilber School of Public Health, when Ellen was the Director of Marketing at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts, she was in my office, asking how we could work together to lift up public health science, education and practice at UWM and in Milwaukee. That’s how Ellen works best: seeing greater possibilities when we work together to support healthier women and their families, at every age and stage. As her mentor for over 10 years, I’ve had a front row seat to ABCD’s growing impact—successes made possible in large part because of Ellen’s creative leadership, indefatigable imagination, and purposeful perseverance.”

Ellen will be honored at the Betty Awards Luncheon on December 4, alongside other remarkable Milwaukee women who are lifting up their communities and one another. 

Please join us in celebrating Ellen and her compassionate leadership that continues to grow ABCD’s reach and impact — one connection at a time.