Honoring Rick Sontag, MS, MBA

Rick Sontag, MS, MBA, is an accomplished business and nonprofit leader and persuasive advocate for patients and biomedical research. In 1994, his wife, Susan Sontag, suffered a stroke and seizures, and, shortly thereafter, was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. She was given three years to live. Faced with little information and few treatment options, Rick Sontag eventually got her enrolled in a clinical trial. In light of his frustration with attempting to learn about the disease and find a course of treatment, he pledged that if given the opportunity, he would help other patients and their families facing a brain tumor diagnosis. In 2002, after selling his airplane parts manufacturing business, Rick and Susan Sontag established the Sontag Foundation to advance brain cancer research. Since then, the foundation has offered career development grants to early career scientists at nearly every major medical institution in the U.S. and Canada. In 2014 they expanded their advocacy efforts by establishing the Brain Tumor Network, which provides free, individualized support to help brain cancer patients access high quality care, overcome treatment obstacles and navigate clinical trials. Miraculously, Susan Sontag survived the disease and lived another 28 years, but her quality of life slowly degraded from the effects of the disease and the aggressive treatment to destroy it. She died in 2022. Her bravery in facing a terminal diagnosis serves as a lasting inspiration for the Sontag Foundation and the Brain Tumor Network.