As a Triple Negative Breast Cancer Survivor/Thriver, Ricki’s personal purpose, passion, mission, ministry, and blessing is to bring focus, attention, research, science, and action to eradicating Black Breast Cancer, and supporting and coaching what she calls her “Blessties” through their breast cancer experience.

Ricki is an award-winning seasoned marketing veteran that has transformed her strategic acumen into breast cancer advocacy. Ricki co-founded and serves as CEO of TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance to address Black Breast Cancer as a unique and special disease state, with the overall goal of reducing the mortality rate for Black women. Ricki founded and serves as co-host for “The Doctor Is In,” a weekly live breast cancer advocacy web series on the BlackDoctor.org Facebook page that reaches over 3 million viewers. She is a founding member of #BlackDataMatters, in partnership with Ciitizen, The Center for Health Care Innovation and Morehouse School of Medicine to encourage and elevate the importance of Black Women participating in clinical trial research. In January 2022, she started the When We Tri(al) Movement to change the game on Black women participating in clinical trials to improve outcomes for Black women with breast cancer. The Movement has resulted in over 17,000 Black women in clinical trial portals in the past year. In January 2023, she founded the For The Love of My Gurls Campaign to drive awareness and action, now having reached over 375,000 young Black women. In 2023, she launched the first ever advocacy led nurse navigator outreach program for pharmaceutical company clinical trials to elevate the inclusion and participation of Black women. In 2024, Ricki expanded TOUCH BBCA globally to the UK and Africa by serving as the Co-Investigator, leading the Patient Advocacy Work Package for the Cancer Grand Challenge Team SAMBAI.

Ricki is a board member for Xeris Biopharma. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation, and a board member for the Center for Healthcare Innovation. Ricki serves on the President’s Cancer Panel: Innovative Navigation Models Workgroup, and the American Cancer Society National Breast Cancer Roundtable Steering Committee where she serves as co-leader for the Clinical Trials Work Group and the Roundtable Membership Committee. She serves on the National Minority Quality Forum Cancer Stage Shifting Initiative Scientific Advisory Board, Cancer X Workgroups, is a Consumer Reviewer for the Breast Cancer Research Program, and a member of the FDA Patient Engagement Collaborative. Ricki is in the Executive Group of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance. Ricki serves on the Daichii Sankyo Global Advocacy Leaders Think Tank Steering Committee, the Pfizer Breast Cancer Advocacy Steering Committee, and the Astrazeneca Global Breast Cancer Council. She is an Ambassador for the Novartis More Than Just Words Campaign and serves on the Novartis US Breast Patient Insight Panel. Ricki is on the leadership team of the BOW Collective and member of The Links, Inc. She speaks avidly as a Patient Advocate.

Ricki has a published manuscript: Increasing Clinical Trial Participation of Black Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Published 14 June 2023.

Ricki has been featured on The Today Show with Hoda and Jenna, ABC News, in Essence, FiercePharma, Healthline, Oprah Daily, Shondaland, Platform Q Health and Salud and Ebony Magazine to name a few. She is one of 50 of the 800 applicants to receive the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Impact Grant funding Black women-led and Black women-serving nonprofits.

Ricki has received honors including the Living Beyond Breast Cancer 2022 Donna Noce Colaco Going Beyond Honoree, Unite for HER Community Partner of the Year 2023, the 2023 Pink Awards Warrior Award, the 2023 Sister to Sister Alliance Appreciation Award, the Women at Real Risk 2018 Award of Courage, to name a few.

Ricki has two daughters, Amanda Brown Lierman and Hayley Brown, and 3 granddaughters, Belle, Leia, and Hart, who remind her of her purpose every day. Ricki is a graduate of Dartmouth College and holds an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.