An Interview With Martita Mestey
To me, leadership is about keeping everyone focused on the ultimate goal, why we do what we do, and using that purpose to motivate people to give their very best.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Barry Kirschner.
Founded in 1976 by Ed and Sue Goldstein in memory of their nine-year-old daughter Valerie, The Valerie Fund is dedicated to supporting the comprehensive health care of children living with cancer and blood disorders. What began as a grassroots effort in the Goldsteins’ living room has grown into one of the nation’s largest and most advanced networks of hospital-based pediatric oncology and hematology programs, with eight Valerie Fund Children’s Centers located throughout New Jersey, New York City, Long Island, and the Philadelphia metro area.
Under the leadership of Executive Director Barry Kirschner, The Valerie Fund ensures that children receive world-class medical treatment close to home, along with the psychosocial support essential for healing — services such as social work, child life, psychology, educational liaisons, and art therapy. The organization also operates Camp Happy Times, awards college scholarships to current and former patients, and provides emergency funding to families in crisis. Each year, The Valerie Fund supports more than 6,000 children and their families, staying true to its guiding belief: It’s all about the kids.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
It was 1989, and I was trading fixed income on Wall Street when a fellow trader invited me to a luncheon supporting a friend whose child had been treated at The Valerie Fund Children’s Center at Morristown Medical Center. My wife and I decided to attend.
That day, we discovered an organization doing extraordinary work for children with cancer and blood disorders. We had just moved from Brooklyn to New Jersey, and I remember thinking, Why shouldn’t we get involved? Even then, The Valerie Fund was making a significant impact — serving hundreds, maybe thousands, of kids. Today, that number is in the thousands every year.
What drew me in was the personal outreach. It started with one family whose child had been a patient and who wanted to do more to support this place that had given them so much. That introduction hooked me, and it’s kept me committed for the past 34 years.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
One of the most inspiring stories I’ve witnessed involves a patient named Richie from South Jersey. He was a standout high school baseball player, a pitcher, with plans to attend Rowan University and play on their team. But at the end of his senior year, he was diagnosed with cancer.
Richie had to defer starting college to focus on treatment, and he beat the disease. The chemotherapy and other treatments that saved his life also took a toll on his body, eroding the bones in his hips and leading to not one, but two hip replacements while he was still in college.
Despite all that, he worked his way back. By his senior year, four or five years after his diagnosis, Richie was back on the mound, pitching for Rowan. He told us about standing there one day, looking at the batter and thinking, Does this guy know he’s facing a pitcher who beat cancer and has two artificial hips? And then, when he struck him out, wondering, Does he know he just got struck out by a young cancer survivor?
Richie was also a Valerie Fund Scholarship recipient throughout college, and later, in medical school. He excelled academically, spoke on our behalf many times, and today, Dr. Richard Suarez is the chief resident at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, specializing in pediatric hematology and oncology. His goal is to become the kind of doctor who once saved his own life.
Recently, I was connecting him with a young patient and kept apologizing for still calling him “Richie” instead of “Dr. Suarez.” He laughed and told me, Barry, don’t change. I introduce myself to kids in the clinic as Dr. Richie to make them comfortable.
That, to me, is as good as it gets at The Valerie Fund.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
The “every day” is what drives all of us in the office, from me, to Bunny, to Leah, to Jill, to Diana, and everyone in between. We’re surrounded by the knowledge that what we do is helping children and families facing some of the toughest battles of their lives, whether that’s fighting cancer, living with sickle cell disease, or now, in some cases, potentially curing sickle cell disease through new advances like gene therapy.
We see firsthand the difference The Valerie Fund makes, providing scholarships that help young people pursue their dreams, offering emergency funding so families can focus on their child instead of financial stress, and delivering direct emotional and educational support that simply wouldn’t exist without us.
The heart of our impact comes from the financial support we provide to psychosocial programs at the eight Valerie Fund Children’s Centers. Hospitals rely on us to fill these critical roles: child life specialists to comfort kids during treatment; social workers to guide families through the journey; psychologists to counsel and evaluate both patients and parents; and educational liaisons to keep children on track academically during extended absences from school.
The reality is that hospital systems and insurance plans don’t cover these services. Without philanthropy, and without The Valerie Fund, most of these hospitals wouldn’t have the full spectrum of support their patients receive today: social work, child life, psychology, neuropsych testing, educational services, art therapy, late effects programs, and more.
We step in to make sure those programs exist, and we keep them going. We are the vital link that ensures families receive not just exceptional medical care, but the emotional, educational, and practical support they need to heal as a whole.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
One of my favorite recent stories is about an eight-year-old boy named Anderson, who was treated at one of our centers and now attends Camp Happy Times. Anderson is wise beyond his years, he’s the kind of kid who seems to understand the value of helping others, even at such a young age.
Last year was his first time at camp. He was nervous, he’d never been away from home before, and he had only finished treatment about six months to a year earlier. Like many parents in that situation, his mom and dad were understandably protective. But one of the reasons he decided to go was because, for the first time, The Valerie Fund had expanded camp to include siblings. Anderson’s older sister was able to join him, and that made all the difference.
Once he arrived, he jumped in with both feet. He loved the dance, the bus ride to camp, and meeting new friends along the way. He climbed the rock wall, participated in the annual boys-versus-girls fishing contest (and proudly caught a fish), and tried activities he’d never experienced before. But the real magic was something less visible: the connections he made with other campers.
At Camp Happy Times, there are no barriers, no divisions by age, background, or diagnosis. Younger kids look up to older ones, and older kids take younger ones under their wing. An eight-year-old like Anderson might meet a 15-year-old who’s thriving after treatment, and that interaction quietly tells him, I’m going to be okay. It’s a kind of reassurance you can’t get from a doctor; it comes from peers who’ve lived it.
Just a few nights ago, Anderson was the featured speaker on a call with our Young Professionals Board, sharing every detail of what he loved about camp. The way he described it, his friends, the activities, the bonds formed in the cabins at night, was remarkable for someone his age. And perhaps the best part? Even at eight, Anderson is already thinking about how he can give back and help other kids.
I’m not one to make big predictions, but I’ll say this: I wouldn’t be surprised if we all end up voting for him someday.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
1. Increase government funding for pediatric cancer support and research.
Pediatric cancer is dramatically underfunded compared to other diseases. If policymakers understood the gap, and the long-term impact on children and their families, they could direct more resources where they’re needed most. When a child is diagnosed, the entire family is affected for years, and adequate funding could help us address not just the medical needs, but the emotional, educational, and financial challenges that come with it.
2. Raise awareness about the role organizations like The Valerie Fund play.
Hospitals typically don’t cover the full range of psychosocial services that make a huge difference in outcomes, child life specialists, social workers, psychologists, educational liaisons, neuropsych testing, art therapy, survivorship programs, and more. These programs exist because of philanthropy. The public needs to understand that without community support, many children would go without these essential services.
3. Encourage individuals, corporations, and local communities to invest directly in impact.
Eighty to ninety cents of every dollar we raise goes straight to hospital programs, Camp Happy Times, our scholarship fund, or our emergency fund. Our overhead is minimal, and we’re far more efficient than any government social service program. When people give to The Valerie Fund, they can see their dollars at work, helping cure and support children who have done nothing to cause their illness. The more we can get that message out, the greater the impact we can have.
At the end of the day, we’re all about impact, getting the money directly to the programs that change lives.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
To me, leadership is about keeping everyone focused on the ultimate goal, why we do what we do, and using that purpose to motivate people to give their very best. At The Valerie Fund, that means ensuring every decision, every program, and every conversation is centered on having the greatest possible impact on the children and families we serve at our eight Valerie Fund Centers.
Leadership also means respecting everyone involved in the mission, from our Board of Trustees, to our staff, to the volunteers who give their time at Camp Happy Times, and creating open forums for communication. It’s about encouraging people to share their ideas, because no single person has all the answers. The best outcomes come from listening, engaging, and recognizing that others will see opportunities and solutions you might miss yourself.
When you bring together motivated, respected, and engaged people around a shared mission, you create something more effective and comprehensive than any one person could achieve alone. That’s the kind of leadership that drives our work every day at The Valerie Fund.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
I don’t know if these are the traditional “five things” people expect, because for me, the work has never felt heavy. When you’re surrounded by people who are all focused on the impact we can make, it’s easy to stay motivated.
I remember a conversation with one of our doctors. A friend had asked him, How do you do this work, knowing you’re going to lose one out of every 11 or 12 kids? And the doctor said, I don’t focus on the one or two I might lose. I focus on the 80 to 90 percent we’re going to save, and how we can make their lives better. That perspective has stayed with me.
So if I had to frame five lessons I’ve learned, or wish someone had told me, they’d be these:
- The mission will keep you motivated for decades. I’ve been here 22 years, and I’m still driven every day to raise more money and create more impact for our kids and families.
- The joy outweighs the challenges. The work can be emotional, but the victories and the progress you see make it deeply rewarding.
- You’ll form lifelong connections. Relationships with patients, families, staff, and supporters become part of your own story.
- The ripple effect is bigger than you think. Helping a child doesn’t just change their life — it impacts siblings, parents, grandparents, and entire communities.
- You don’t have to have planned this path for it to be the right one. Back in 2003, I never imagined this would become my life’s work. But life circumstances, and a desire to make things better, led me here — and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
At the end of the day, I can honestly say there’s nothing I wish I had known to make the work easier. The motivation has always been built into the mission.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would launch a movement to more effectively spread the message that organizations like The Valerie Fund have an extraordinary impact on families from every walk of life, from downtown Newark to Upper Saddle River. When a child gets sick, they need far more than medical treatment alone. Through close collaboration with the medical community, we’ve identified programs, psychosocial support, counseling, educational assistance, that are just as critical to a child’s recovery as the chemotherapy or surgery they receive.
The movement I envision would get that message out to a much larger audience, inspiring people to support and partner with us so we can expand our reach, from eight hospitals today, to 25 or more across the country. Beyond New Jersey, New York, and the Philadelphia metro area, there are hospitals in places like Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts — outside of the major cancer institutes, where children could benefit enormously from these services if the funding existed.
I want The Valerie Fund to be able to say “yes” when a hospital comes to us asking for help funding a psychologist, a child life specialist, or a pain and palliative care program, just as we recently did for the pediatric pain and palliative care program at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center.. That kind of expansion is only possible with increased financial support.
Think about how ESPN has helped the Jimmy Fund raise awareness and funding for cancer research. I want to create that same kind of national platform for The Valerie Fund, generating $10, $20, even $30 million so we can say yes to more hospitals, more programs, and more kids who need us.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
We like to say, “It’s all about the kids.” I often sign my notes and appeals with that phrase: We need your support because it’s all about the kids.
That simple idea drives me, and I think it drives everyone here. We all have our own motivators, both good and bad, but when we keep the focus squarely on the kids, we make the right decisions. It keeps us aligned, it guides our storytelling, and it helps us engage others in our mission. If we remember that it’s all about the kids, everything else falls into place. That catchphrase is what drives us especially.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I’d choose Warren Buffett. He’s the ultimate businessman and philanthropist, someone who understands how to maximize both financial efficiency and social impact.
If I had the opportunity to sit down with him, I’d want to share exactly what The Valerie Fund is doing on a regional level, how effective we are, how lean our operation is, and how focused we are on making every dollar count for the kids and families we serve. My hope would be that, by understanding our model and our results, he’d see the potential to help us expand our reach exponentially.
When you can make the case to someone who thinks as strategically as Warren Buffett, the possibilities for growth, and for helping more children, are endless.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Our website, our facebook, our instagram, our linkedin
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: How Barry Kirschner Of The Valerie Fund Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.