Having lost a dear friend to breast cancer, Vera Bradley founders Barbara B. Baekgaard and Patricia R. Miller created a community-based fundraising event – the Vera Bradley Classic –in 1993, gathering friends, family, colleagues, customers and business associates from all over the country to raise support for breast cancer research.
Six years later, they found the perfect partnership at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Their shared passion and dedication for curing breast cancer is the force driving creative and energetic fundraising initiatives to fuel bold and visionary research and results.
An elite Indiana University team of breast cancer researchers now compose the cancer center’s Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research. They are grateful for the generosity of so many who share their commitment to improve treatments for patients here in Indiana and far beyond.
To date, the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer has committed $50 million for research at IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.
In April 2022, the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer announced a $12.5 million commitment to IU School of Medicine supporting new research to harness immunotherapy for breast cancer treatment.
This funding commitment will help launch immunotherapy research efforts to develop better therapies for triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of breast cancer that is often not responsive to hormone therapies and is resistant to chemotherapy.
Support from the Vera Bradley Foundation has aided the IU School of Medicine in amassing talent, technology, and resources to become a national leader in targeted breast cancer therapies, specifically for triple negative breast cancer.
We are making a difference by thinking of bold ideas, out of the blue ideas. Because of the Foundation, we can move out of our comfort zone and try new things.
Hari Nakshatri, PhD — Marian J. Morrison Professor of Breast Cancer Research
