She charges ahead with her work for the DC Public Charter School Association. She promotes education reform as the volunteer "Chief of Stuff" for the "Fenty for Mayor" campaign. And she fits chemotherapy in her schedule as if it were just another task on the list.

"I have my days... but keeping me focused on my work helps me get through," she says.

Emily DeCicco has a track record helping schools build a culture of success - Richard Caliguiri, the former mayor of Pittsburgh, nicknamed her "The Mobilizer" for an award-winning pro bono project she did in Pittsburgh - and now she is building another type of success: making a difference while battling gastric cancer.

President of an executive search firm, DeCicco discovered she had carcinoma on April 27. She took the call in stride, finished her busy week, and went in for surgery the following Monday.

When she got the news that the cancer had spread, "I said to the doctor, 'Let someone else plan my funeral. I'm throwing a party.' And I did. I told people, 'If you have something good to say about me, say it now.'" Two hundred fifty people attended, wearing special "Emily" T-shirts.

Since then she has been alternating treatments with community service and political work, using her expertise with past campaigns to help ensure success for advocates for education reform such as Fenty, Vince Gray and Mary Cheh – all victorious candidates in early September.

"Chemotherapy wipes you out," she says. But she still works for education on both political and grassroots fronts, drawing on her background as a teacher with a Ph.D. in Education and a lawyer who taught and practiced school law.

"Charter schools like Kipp Academy and DC Prep have proven our students can excel at a very high level. We see kids who are going to college - and they live across the street from kids who are failing," she says. "The only difference is the leadership and the expectation that children will do well."

 

Chemotherapy "Bag of Tricks"

DeCicco already has plans for the charitable donation she'll make with her Nice Guys Awards prize: compile a library of tips for coping with chemotherapy, to be available online at Georgetown Hospital's site. "Lots of people have given me lots of ideas - things they've experimented with on their own, but nobody has collected them. I say, 'Let's pass it on.'"

She explains that each type of chemotherapy has its own side effects. Using plastic utensils to combat a metallic taste, drinking Pedialyte® to prevent dehydration and wearing gloves indoors to combat cold hands are a few ideas she has collected.

Emily has a tip of her own: "I have a five-minute timer that has orange sand. When I get a case of the grumps or feel really down in the dumps, I set my timer and then I become an extra grouch for five minutes. When the timer goes off, it's over. Believe me, it really works. I've told others - some people I know use it for their marriages!"

She explains that an upbeat attitude is essential: "People tell me chemotherapy treatment is too horrible to think about. I say, 'Yes, I agree... so I don't think about it.' There is so much about cancer that is so horrible, you just have to see the humor in it."

What else does she have planned? She'd like to give a bald-headed tea for other women battling cancer at Georgetown Hospital. "I'll say, 'Take your wigs off, ladies. Wear your bald head like a badge of honor.'" She has the same outlook on living with cancer that she has for DC Charter Schools: "I'm all in favor of models that prove it can be done."

For more information about the D.C. Public Charter School Association, visit dcpcsa.org.

Check out the nominees from this year's Nice Guys Awards Individual Category.

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