Lee Geiger

Trust God.

Ann Galligan Kelley

I’ll never forget the first time I met Ann Kelley. We were standing outside of Gaslight, a lively South Boston bistro chosen by my son Ross to introduce his parental units to those of his then-girlfriend-and-now-wife, Caroline. Tall and striking and bearing a regal air of sophistication belying the nervousness of the moment, Ann bulls-eyed me and confidently shook my hand with an unmistakable vigor that said, “we got this.”

Throughout the passage of that unforgettable First Meal of the Parents, I found myself hypnotized by Ann’s lilting southern Rhode Island accent, a soft yet subtle Boston-meets-Brooklyn cadence that drops Rs but then adds them back in at the end of a word. She stole her husband Charlie’s heart on their first date when she purred “Chawlie, pawk the caw,” instead of “Cha-lie, pahk the cah.” And no one on the planet says “Raw-awes” with more charm than Ann, who pronounces her son-in-law’s name with two syllables instead of one and, no matter the setting, says it in a prideful tone that somehow manages to elevate his social status.

Ann spent over three decades as a Professor of Accounting at Providence College, which also happens to be her alma mater. Her RateMyProfessor.com profile says an overwhelming majority of her students who sat through one of her tough-but-fair and excruciatingly detailed classes (it’s accounting, folks, not philosophy…you don’t get partial credit for putting the decimal point in the wrong place) would happily take them again, and her first page features such comments as:

• She cares about who you are at PC, your career, and as a person.
• She gives a lot of homework and expects a lot but if you do the work the course will be easy.
• Teaches real world examples of what we need to know and why.
• Not an easy teacher but it paid off in Intermediate and Managerial Finance (a comment most likely NOT penned by a PC basketball player).

Then, of course, there’s this comment. My money says this one makes Professor Kelley smile the most;

• Kelley will get on your nerves at times, but it’s only because she really wants her students to succeed.

Ann also served as director of Providence College’s Business Studies Program, through which more than 200 students a year minor in business. She spent two hours each day answering student emails, handing out her cell phone number and hosting students at her home to hone their interviewing skills. It’s a good bet she’s better at revising a résuméthan any LinkedIn algorithm.

Husband Charles Kelley is a man to be reckoned with in his own right. Executive Director of the Rhode Island Student Loan Authority (RISLA) since 1993, Charlie leads an organization that during the 2018/2019 academic year offered over $56 million in loans to Rhode Island students and students attending college in the Ocean State. A handsome redhead who has audiences eating out of his hand during many of his off-the-cuff speeches, Charlie will admit that at times even the love of his life can scare the wits out of him. And because he’s an extremely smart man who knows when he’s been dealt a winning hand, Charlie is more than proud to call himself Mr. Ann Kelley.

And while we’re on the topic of Ann AND Charlie, one can’t talk about them without mentioning their off-the-charts offspring. I’m obviously biased because their soon-to-be Ph.D. daughter Caroline is my daughter-in-law, but I’m also biased toward their son Andrew because he’s a tireless, hard-working entrepreneur who has red hair just like Ross and may be the politest human being walking the face of the earth. Honestly, if the Sicilian Mafia ever kidnapped Andrew and wanted to cut off his ear to offer as proof-of-life, Andrew would probably thank them for leaving him with the other ear while asking permission to bleed all over their Persian rugs.

But two words have come to encapsulate the latest version of Ann Galligan Kelley, two words that have added an acute filter to enlighten her views on life and what she’s done to make the world a better place for all those lucky enough to call her a friend, mentor, confidant or family member: breast cancer.

Ann was first diagnosed with the invasive disease in the summer of 2013. She discovered the tumor herself, yet despite its large size—5.5 centimeters—it did not show up on a digital mammogram taken just months prior, nor on a test ordered by her doctor two days after she felt the tumor during a routine self-examination. Zip. Nothing. Nada.

The doctor then ordered an ultrasound, and only then did Ann discover she had Stage 3B breast cancer. “I exercise, I eat organic foods. I had no history of breast cancer in my family,” she would later say. “It was like waking up and realizing I was on Mars.”

For years, Ann had regular mammograms and OB/GYN appointments, yet her cancer went undetected. She later learned that, like an estimated 40 percent of women, she has “dense” breast tissue – made up primarily of glandular and connective tissue – rather than “fatty’ breast tissue. On a mammogram, dense breast tissue is white and so are tumors, making them more difficult to detect. “It’s like looking for a polar bear in a snowstorm,” says Ann who, as any of her former students would tell you, has a terrific knack for getting straight to the point. Did I mention that her former students also said she assigned a lot of homework?

Dense breasts require a full breast ultrasound to detect any abnormalities. However, Ann’s regular OB/GYN never disclosed that women with dense breast might need different screenings to detect tumors. Rather, when Ann first brought up her concerns about a lump on her breasts and a mammogram was “clear,” the doctor wrote off her worries. “She laughed,” said Ann. “She literally laughed. She joked that I had dense breasts and it was normal. I just had lumpy breasts. She laughed when there was a real concern. I had been going to her for years and she never told me dense breasts could hide a tumor. Looking back, I can see just how negligent that was.”

Once Ann received her diagnosis, she invested herself into hours upon hours of research. She found out that Connecticut approved legislation in 2009 requiring doctors to notify women if they have the condition and let them know that other pathways of screening may be necessary.

Ann said to a local newspaper at the time, “What is wrong with Rhode Island that we haven’t done anything about this? Why haven’t we worked to change legislation?”

“We” soon became “I.” Ann recruited renown medical radiologists and experts from out of state to testify along with her at House and Senate subcommittee meetings determined to pass a law protecting women with dense breasts so the proposed bill would not “die in committee”.  Local medical personnel and cancer agencies were not willing to help since they “did not want to legislate medicine.” The following is from a July 29, 2014 article in the Warwick Beacon;

Speaking with other patients who had also been victims of late detection because of dense breasts, Kelley found that women were too tired from chemo or were in the middle of a malpractice lawsuit with their doctors. Kelley vowed to do something about it.

“I decided right then and there that no matter how tired I was, no matter how bad chemo was, I was going to get this legislation passed,” Kelley said. “No one was going to die from lack of knowledge again. No one was ever going to go through what I and so many other women had to. Every woman has the right to early detection, and I was going to try and secure that.”

She began drafting legislation with the help of her husband, Charles Kelley, and Representative Joseph McNamara, Senator James Doyle and his chief of staff as well as Dr. Nancy Cappello, who runs the “Are you Dense?” website for women with dense breasts.”

You know what else happened on July 29, 2014? Here are portions of a press release issued by the State of Rhode Island General Assembly:

Signed by Governor Chafee at a ceremony held today at the State House was Senate bill 2014-S 2522Aaa, by Senator Doyle (D-Dist. 8, Pawtucket), and House bill, 2014-H 7341, by Representative Coderre (D-Dist. 60, Pawtucket).

The new law requires health care facilities that perform mammograms to notify their patient of any finding of dense breast tissue and basic information about breast density. Under the “Dense Breast Notification and Education Act,” beginning October 1 of this year, mammogram exam summaries provided to patients would include information that identifies the patient’s individual Breast Tissue Classification based on the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System established by the American College of Radiology.

The legislation provides that, if the testing facility determines that a patient has heterogeneously or extremely dense breast tissue, the summary to be provided will include a notice that says, in part, “… The presence of dense tissue can make it more difficult to detect cancers in the breast by mammography, because it can hide small abnormalities and may be associated with an increased risk. Hence, you may benefit from supplementary screening tests,” and “We are providing this information to raise your awareness of this important factor.”

In addition to Senator Doyle and Representative Coderre, others in attendance at the signing ceremony were Nancy M. Cappello, Ph.D., Executive Director and founder of Are You Dense Advocacy, Inc., and Ann Galligan Kelley, professor of accountancy at Providence College and recent invasive breast cancer survivor.

Ann Kelly got cancer, and Rhode Island got real. It wasn’t easy, but something tells me Ann took a look at the numerous obstacles in front of her and said, “we got this.” And she did.

I wish I could say that after the bill was signed everyone lived happily ever after. But whoever said life was fair never endured a session of chemotherapy. Cancer can be like that obnoxious relative who just can’t get the hint that they’re not invited to Thanksgiving dinner.

Time has become very precious to Ann. Too busy to feel sorry for herself, she views every sunrise as a blessing to behold, an amazing gift from God that should be shaken as well as stirred. Her spiritual faith carries her through the rough days, though she’s happy to admit that a bowl of peanut butter fudge ice cream with a chardonnay chaser does the trick as well.

The Pretty Blonde and I are lucky to know Ann Kelley. So are her friends. And she has passed on her extraordinary courage and irresistible strength of conviction to her two wonderful children. Because she gave a damn, the entire state of Rhode Island owes Ann Kelley an ocean of gratitude. A tough broad with a sharp mind and great legs who believed in the power of self, Ann Kelley spent her life in the honorable pursuit of shaping minds and saving lives.

And boy, did she assign a lot of homework.