Clare Cameron - Executive Director

Clare Cameron

Clare Cameron joined The Pacific Meso Center (PMC) at Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (PHLBI) as their new executive director on January 3rd, 2011. Clare comes to this position from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), after nearly 11 years as Senior Campaign Director, where she raised millions of dollars for childhood leukemia. Clare ran The Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the National Pennies for Patients® Program which recruited K-12th grade students from over 900 LA area schools each year, to raise research money from spare change and instilling in them an early philanthropic spirit. Clare’s LA program was the first to raise over $1 million annually. She was honored with an “Outstanding Achievement” Award in 2008 for a new prioritization initiative that she introduced and was as the Top Fundraiser nationally out of all 68 LLS chapters for 5 consecutive years. Additionally, Clare staged the first LA Black Tie LLS Gala for Man & Woman of the Year and developed a new event called “Rockin’ Against Leukemia” (RAL), a video game, which organizes students into an “American Idol” style competition based on the video game, Guitar Hero World Tour. Clare’s tremendous success at LLS prompted the Society to utilize her to instruct other chapters in her techniques and “tips” for philanthropic fundraising.

Clare was born in Harare, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and is a third generation Zimbabwean, whose great grandmother traveled by wagon train from Cape Town, South Africa, to Rhodesia with Rhodesia’s founder, Sir Cecil John Rhodes. Their journey took over four and a half years and was filled with amazing experiences not unlike early American settlers. Of note is that later Cecil Rhodes’ will established perhaps the oldest and most prestigious international scholarship program in the world, which bears his name. Following this academic model, Clare graduated from The University of Rhodesia with a BA in Journalism.

Following her University studies, Clare moved to London, England, forming her own television production company, Shearer McCormick. Her company contracted with ITV (then the 3rd largest network in the UK with 16 channels) to organize, produce and present and sell their quarterly television show schedule to clients and advertisers. Her company also helped launch and promote Channel 4, which is the 4th largest television network in the UK. Subsequently, she went on to co-produce BBC2’s Award Winning Documentary for the program “Eve Strikes Back” based on a book of the same name that she co-wrote.

Clare went on to become an owner and general manager of The London Lancers, a franchised bicycle team, which participated in the National Cycling League of America. Clare traveled extensively with the team in Europe and the USA while it competed with 13 other teams.

Clare came to America with her American husband, Bill, at the end of 1998 and is now an American citizen. She and her husband live in West Los Angeles with their toy poodle, Chipper. Clare loves walking, reading, water aerobics, swimming and Pilates, and is a member of the Professional Business Women of California.

Clare has an emotional, dedicated, and very personal reason to make this move to the Pacific Meso Center and PHLBI in that she lived through the horror of both her parents dying from lung cancer and amazingly is a lung cancer survivor herself. Clare is pleased to be leading The PMC at PHLBI and to be working with the many professionals involved with the center, particularly Dr. Robert Cameron, who she initially met as her very own lung cancer surgeon. She strongly believes in Dr. Cameron’s innovative approach to those afflicted with mesothelioma. Her primary goals are to raise awareness and to create the financial success necessary to find better treatments and a cure for this dreaded disease.

To contact Clare: Tel: (310) 478-4678 Email: ccameron@phlbi.org