She Followed the Question Until It Became a Career Suzanne Price grew up as the kind of kid who liked math, loved science and knew from early on that whatever she did in life had to matter. She thought she might be a math teacher one day, just like her mom was an English teacher who still hears from her 4th grade students decades later. But life had something different in mind. Suzanne ended up at Columbia with a dual degree in international relations and an MBA, then followed love out to San Francisco and landed in investment banking, focused on one of the fastest growing trends of the mid-2000s: the organic and natural products industry. That research led her straight to founders who were building cleaner, safer brands. And the more she learned, the harder it became to look away. The science was clear. What Americans were allowed to put on and around their bodies was starkly different from what the research supported. In April 2009, in the middle of a financial collapse, Suzanne opened Sprout San Francisco on Union Street, a beautiful store that sold safer products for families and educated every person who walked through the door. She grew it to multiple locations across the country, often opening new stores while pregnant or with a newborn in tow. One in Eight Is Not a Statistic. It Is Someone You Love. From the very beginning of Sprout San Francisco, Suzanne was tracking the science and getting involved with the organizations actually doing something about it. That led her to what was then called the Breast Cancer Fund, now Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, founded 35 years ago in San Francisco by Andrea Martin, a young woman diagnosed with breast cancer who had no family history and no good answer for why. Andrea spent her life connecting the dots between environmental toxins and disease and building an organization that did not just educate people but changed laws. After years of volunteering, sponsoring events and sitting on the board, Suzanne became CEO in January 2024. In this conversation, she shares the statistics that keeps her moving: 1 in 8 women in the US is expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime, and rates among women in their 20s, 30s and 40s have increased 2 percent every year for the past two decades. She is honest about what that means and clear about why. The explosion of chemical use in the 1970s and 80s, the years when many of us were in utero, growing up, going through puberty, is now showing up in our bodies. The only real answer is a safer world, not a better product. You Cannot Buy Your Way Out. But You Can Start There. The conversation turns to something Suzanne and her team have been building for years: the Yes List. Coming soon, it is a comprehensive, AI-powered review of cosmetics and personal care brands, every ingredient cross-referenced against BCPP's red list of chemicals they would never want to see in a product. No ambiguous rating to decode, no number between 1 and 6 to guess at. The Yes List is a transparent, thoroughly vetted list of brands people can trust. Joanne and Suzanne also talk about Climb Against the Odds, BCPP's 27-year tradition of climbing Mount Shasta at 14,000 feet every June. It is a 3-day guided experience open to beginners. Joanne shares her own experience on that mountain, including the moment around 12,000 feet where she had to turn back and what that decision taught her. Suzanne shares about watching her husband and 16-year-old daughter summit together after months of training side by side. Because at the heart of it all, whether you’re climbing a mountain, changing a law or choosing a safer shampoo, is one simple question: What if we could prevent this? And sometimes, having the courage to ask that question is where meaningful change begins.Show note links Connect with Suzanne Price on LinkedIn About Breast Cancer Prevention Partners Suzanne Price — Protecting Families from Toxics Led Me to BCPP Climb Against the Odds 2026 Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Get Involved with BCPP Ways to Give to BCPP Volunteer with BCPP How Toxic Ingredients Became A Blessing In My Life by Joanne Starkman, Guest Blog on BCPP.org Chapters 03:33 Growing Up: Math, Science, and Wanting to Help 06:19 From Finance to the Organic Industry: Following the Thread 10:37 Opening Sprout in the Middle of a Financial Crisis 13:58 Finding BCPP and What Set It Apart from Everything Else 17:39 The Mission of Breast Cancer Prevention Partners 22:18 Climbing Mount Shasta: Personal Reflections on the Journey 25:34 The Yes List: A Vetted Guide to Safer Beauty Let’s chat! podcasts@innersensebeauty.com Join the Innersense™ Community https://innersensebeauty.com/pages/newsletter-sign-up Let’s Stay Connected https://www.instagram.com/joannestarkman https://www.instagram.com/innersenseorganicbeauty/ https://www.instagram.com/innersensepro/ https://www.facebook.com/InnersenseOrganic/ https://www.youtube.com/c/InnersenseOrganicBeauty Clean hair care & body products Use code JOANNE15 to save 15% on first purchases at https://innersensebeauty.com/ Want to elevate your salon? (New Pro Clean Color Line) https://innersensebeauty.com/pages/salons https://innersensebeauty.com/pages/education
