The 2024–2025 Game Changer Award

It’s our honor to present the 2024–2025 Game Changer Award to the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, a tremendous partner to Cycle for Survival for more than a decade and counting.

Established in 2018, the annual Game Changer Award celebrates members of our community for their extraordinary leadership, generosity, and dedication to advancing rare cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).
 

Over the years, the Clark Foundation has had a profound impact on Cycle for Survival through its participation in our signature team fundraising events and generous philanthropy, including funding programmatic grants for pediatric cancer research, as well as pediatric and adult brain tumors.

Most recently, together with the Nussdorf Family Foundation, the Clark Foundation made a $12.6 million investment to establish The Lawrence C. Nussdorf Initiative in Glioblastoma Research at MSK. This investment — the largest in Cycle for Survival history — has the potential to transform the lives of people with glioblastoma all over the world.

We are so grateful to the Clark Foundation and the Nussdorf Family Foundation for this unprecedented support, which will allow MSK to continue driving progress in rare cancer innovations and improve lives for generations to come.

From classmates to partners in impact

The Clark Foundation’s long-standing support is led by Joe Del Guercio, the Foundation’s President and CEO, whose personal connection to Cycle for Survival goes back to his time at Harvard Business School. There, he was classmates and became good friends with Jennifer Goodman Linn, who co-founded Cycle for Survival with her husband, Dave Linn. Jen passed away in 2011, but her memory and legacy live on through the incredible community she started in Cycle for Survival.

Since Cycle for Survival’s earliest days, the Clark Foundation has been committed to advancing our mission of beating rare cancers. As Cycle for Survival began expanding to locations outside of New York City, the team at the Clark Foundation played a crucial role in bringing the bikes to the Washington, D.C., area, where the Foundation is based.

In 2012, Cycle for Survival held its first D.C.–area ride in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Clark Foundation has been instrumental in building a community in the region ever since. Teams of Clark Foundation employees ride and fundraise every year, and the Foundation sponsors an annual match exclusively for D.C. ride participants, amplifying the community’s fundraising efforts.

A historic investment to honor a legacy

In June 2020, Lawrence “Larry” Nussdorf, who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clark Enterprises, a private investment firm, and Director of the Clark Foundation, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. After several months of treatment, Larry died that November. His wife, Melanie Franco Nussdorf, vividly recalls the lack of hope she felt when Larry’s cancer progressed, and doctors told them there were no more options.

Larry’s passing was a monumental loss for everyone, and the Clark Foundation wanted to honor Larry and his legacy of entrepreneurship and philanthropy in an impactful way. Because of the Clark Foundation’s involvement in Cycle for Survival, the Nussdorf family knew about MSK’s leadership in developing new treatments for rare cancers.

The opportunity to support glioblastoma research at MSK and invest in science that could lead to new cures brought the Nussdorfs and their loved ones the hope that they had been missing. In March 2024, the Clark Foundation, together with the Nussdorf Family Foundation, established The Lawrence C. Nussdorf Initiative in Glioblastoma Research at MSK with their historic $12.6 million investment.

The Nussdorf Initiative is overseen by MSK neuro-oncologist Ingo Mellinghoff, MD, Chair of the Department of Neurology, Chief of the Brain Tumor Service, and Evnin Family Chair in Neuro-Oncology. Dr. Mellinghoff recently led a clinical trial that resulted in the FDA approval of the first new treatment option in over 20 years for people with low-grade diffuse gliomas with a specific gene mutation. Gliomas include various subtypes, with glioblastoma being a high-grade form of glioma. The Nussdorf Initiative will capitalize on recent advances in diagnostics and clinical drug discovery to improve survival and quality of life for people facing glioblastoma.

On behalf of all of us at Cycle for Survival, thank you, Clark Foundation, for everything you do to advance game-changing rare cancer research. Your commitment to Cycle for Survival brings hope for brighter futures to countless people and their families.

We extend our continued gratitude to all Game Changer Award recipients. 

2023–2024
The Weber Family (Eliza, John, and Luke) and the Srebnick Families (Jessica and Scott, Sharon and Howard), Team Luke 
RBC Capital Markets, Team RBC  

2022–2023 
Colleen Fisher, Team Rockstar 
Blackstone, Team Blackstone  

2021–2022 
Kelly Leach, Pedaling Sunshine and Sunshine Striders 
JPMorganChase & Co., Team JPMorganChase

2020–2021 
Mike and Kass Lazerow, Team Dream Big

2019–2020 
The Zimmerman Family, Team Perry  

2018–2019 
The Lavine Families (Marc and Lori, Jeannie and Jonathan), Team MUFG and Team Nathan