A Combat Veteran’s Mission to Help Families Survive Breast Cancer
Anisa Palmer’s path to leading one of Atlanta’s most impactful breast cancer nonprofits began with loss, service, and a vision in a tiny apartment.
A decorated U.S. Army combat veteran, Palmer served two tours in Iraq as a logistics manager and paratrooper, earning the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Action Badge, and Iron Warrior Award. After separating from the military, she founded I Will Survive, Inc. in 2010—an organization born from the memory of her mother, who died of stage four breast cancer when Palmer was just a child.
Palmer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech from Georgia State University, where she was honored as a 40 Under 40 recipient in 2024. She is a Certified Nonprofit Professional, published author of Purpose: The Ultimate Climax and Nonprofit Success Blueprint, Forbes Nonprofit Council contributor, and in-demand speaker on health advocacy and leadership.
In 2014, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed presented Palmer with the city’s highest honor—the Phoenix Award—for her positive community impact. The following year, Doraville Mayor Donna Pittman proclaimed April 18 as “I Will Survive Day.” Palmer was also named a finalist for Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Small Business Person of the Year in the Veteran Entrepreneur category.
Originally from St. Croix, Virgin Islands, Palmer now leads I Will Survive, Inc. from its headquarters in downtown Atlanta, where she lives with her young son and continues building on sixteen years of service to families fighting cancer.
Seeds Planted by a Dancing Mother
When Anisa Palmer talks about why she does this work, she starts in 1990.
“I’m five years old, and the doctors are telling my mother she has six months to live with a diagnosis of stage four invasive breast cancer,” Palmer recalls. “Five children, one husband, and she immediately gets her plan together.”
Her mother traveled from the Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico and the National Institutes of Health for treatment. But what Palmer remembers most vividly isn’t the medical appointments it’s what her mother did for others while fighting her own battle.
“I still hear stories when I go back home of how my mom used to dance and sing for others who were sick while she was fighting her own journey,” she says. “I am grateful for the seeds that planted.”
Those seeds took root years later, during Palmer’s second deployment to Iraq.
“I saw a mirage of my mom, and I knew at that moment that God was telling me to serve in another way.”
From Combat Veteran to Community Servant
Three months after separating from the Army, Palmer sat in her tiny apartment with a legal pad and a calling.
“I’m 25 years old, writing down ‘helping women with cancer,'” she remembers. “I don’t know anything about nonprofits. I don’t know anything about a lot of things.”
She started jotting down names for the organization. I can do this. I’m going to make it.
“You know what? I survived two tours in Iraq. What if it’s just ‘I will survive’? What if that’s something we can use as an affirmation?”
The name stuck… and so did the mission.
Palmer chose Georgia deliberately. Research showed that Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama had the highest breast cancer mortality rates in the nation. She partnered with Good Samaritan Health Center, helping uninsured women pay the $50 entry fee for mammography services in the years before the Affordable Care Act expanded coverage.
“And then it was sitting with survivors and patients in hospitals, sitting with them in their homes—sometimes with empty refrigerators and empty tables and the need for childcare,” she says. “Our programs began to expand from being a listening ear to paying rent and mortgages.”
Financial Freedom for Fighters
Today, I Will Survive, Inc. operates three core programs: Financial Freedom for Fighters, EmpowerHER Wellness Workshops, and the Beyond the Diagnosis Mentoring Program. But the financial assistance program remains the organization’s most requested service.
“We don’t just pay $300 toward a rent. We pay the whole rent,” Palmer explains. “Because we believe that if we can help that person fighting cancer not have the stress of ‘roof over my head,’ then they can actually beat the cancer.”
One story stays with her. A single mother applied for help with a double mortgage—she had pulled equity from her home to pay for treatments.
“Her mortgage was $2,500, so we had to pay $5,000 to make sure she wasn’t going to lose her home,” Palmer recalls. “We had some great donors who pitched in to help us do that for one family.”
The thank-you card from that mother and daughter now sits by Palmer’s desk.
“Sometimes I get teared up because I’m like, ‘Lord, thank you for allowing us to serve and show up for the families who need us.'”
Serving the Whole Family
Palmer expanded the organization’s mission at year five to reflect what she was seeing on the ground: breast cancer doesn’t just affect the patient.
“I’ve had a youngest caregiver be seven years old,” she says. “This young lady was 31 when she was diagnosed. Mom and dad passed away, no family around, escaped a domestic violence marriage and when she was diagnosed, her son was the only one there.”
The organization now serves spouses, children, and caregivers alongside patients, recognizing that the entire family fights the disease together.
“We had a donor who donated a weekend escape at Chateau Élan for a couple struggling through her third bout with breast cancer,” Palmer shares. “I say ‘their third bout’ because it was his too fighting for his wife. When she came back and shared the pictures, they’re thriving. Their marriage is doing great.”
Veterans Helping Veterans and Survivors
Palmer’s military background shapes everything about how she leads and she’s found ways to connect veteran service with cancer support.
Through a partnership with The Mission Continues, a veteran service organization, she welcomed a retired captain who had lost his sense of purpose after leaving the military.
“He said, ‘Since I’ve taken off the uniform, I haven’t found my purpose. You built this organization, you’re smiling every day you look like you found your purpose.'”
Palmer connected him with the fellowship program. His first mission: helping a 74-year-old breast cancer survivor who lived alone and couldn’t maintain her home after having 13 lymph nodes removed.
“He goes to her house and he’s cutting her grass, cleaning her gutters, cutting the limbs,” Palmer says. “This gentleman now owns a landscaping company—and cuts my grass.”
She sees the connection clearly: “When veterans are able to find their purpose, they just do so much better.”
Building the Future: Mobile Wellness Clinics
Palmer’s current focus is ambitious: building I Will Survive’s first mobile wellness clinic with AI integration, a project she’s developing through the Bush Leadership Institute.
“Success for us would be having enough mobile clinics to meet the people where they are, to ensure we’re finding cancer even earlier,” she says. “If we can have more stage zeros and fewer stage threes and fours, that would be incredible. If we can reduce mortality rates to zero in Georgia and then scale that nationally, globally that’s what I’d really like to see.”
The organization also recently launched Veterans Business Life magazine, breaking barriers around health education and resources within the veteran community.
Leadership Rooted in Military Values
Palmer credits her Army training with preparing her to lead a nonprofit though she admits she had to learn emotional intelligence on her own.
“The military doesn’t teach us that,” she says. When an incident arose between a senior staff member and a young intern, she drew on resources from her volunteer work with the Junior League of Atlanta, bringing in Deloitte consultants for a business chemistry session.
“I’m grateful for the time I served and the leadership skills I gained to bring back into the nonprofit sector.”
She maintains an open-door policy and monthly mental wellness check-ins with staff. After an intern shared suicidal thoughts during the pandemic, Palmer partnered with Marketplace Chaplains to provide 24/7 support for team members.
“We can’t take care of anyone else unless we’re taking care of ourselves.”
Calm as a Discipline
Ask Palmer what brings her joy outside of work, and she’s honest about the struggle.
“My word of the year is ‘calm,'” she says. “I’m trying to make sure I’m being more calm and not anxious. I’ve struggled with a little anxiety since the military.”
She meditates, seeks quiet spaces to listen, and spends time outdoors with her son who turns five this week.
“He’s meditating with me now and starting to do yoga. He loves the outdoors as much as I do. He helps me stay focused.”
A Good Person, No Matter What
When asked what message she wants readers to remember, Palmer returns to her mother’s words.
“No matter what you choose in life, be a good person. There’s several ways to serve or show up in the community, and it all starts with taking one step.”
Sixteen years after founding I Will Survive, Inc. in a tiny apartment, Palmer has helped thousands of families navigate the financial and emotional devastation of breast cancer. But she measures success simply.
“My mom used to always say, ‘No matter what you are, be a good person.’ I carry that same attitude in everything I do.”
Anisa Palmer is the Founder and CEO of I Will Survive, Inc., an Atlanta-based nonprofit providing economic support, prevention education, and health services to families affected by breast cancer. Learn more at www.iwillsurviveinc.org.
