Biography of Clifton Leaf

Cliff has also written a number of articles for Fortune, including his 2004 cover story, entitled “Why We’re Losing the War on Cancer (And How to Win It),” which won the Henry R. Luce Award for public interest, the NIHCM’s journalism award, and which was named a finalist for the 2005 National Magazine Award. Reprinted in Spanish and Japanese and cited in several prominent scientific journals, that story continues to spark a vigorous global debate about whether efforts against this disease are properly focused.

Last summer, Cliff presented testimony to the President’s Cancer Panel and, this past April, he addressed the opening plenary session of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, a gathering of some 15,000 cancer researchers, in Anaheim. He has also been a keynote speaker at several major medical and scientific conferences, including the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Scientific Retreat, C-Change’s 2004 meeting, and the annual meeting of the American Radium Society. Recently honored by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship at their Ribbon of Hope Gala, Cliff also received a 2004 Leadership Award from Friends of Cancer Research and serves on advisory boards for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the University of California, San Francisco’s prostate cancer (SPORE) grant program. In November, he will deliver the prestigious “Grand Rounds” at the National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland, one of the few “non-doctors” to be so honored. He is currently writing a book on the war on cancer for Alfred A. Knopf.

Prior to joining Fortune in February 2000, he was Executive Editor of SmartMoney, where a feature he wrote also shared in a nomination for the National Magazine Award. Before coming to SmartMoney as a senior editor in 1996, Cliff held editorial positions at Fitness Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar. He has also written for The New York Times and many other national publications, and has been a guest on Charlie Rose, the Today Show, CNN, other television news programs, and National Public Radio. A graduate of Williams College (1985), Cliff later received a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Sarah Lawrence College (1993). He is married to the writer and filmmaker Lee Slimmer and is father to their beautiful baby daughter, Sofia.