"I see ThinkCure as an extension of the idealism that attracted me to journalism," Clayton said. "ThinkCure will help a cause — raising funds for cancer research with the goal of eradicating the disease — which everyone can support. At the same time, the common cause has the potential to bring together many different kinds of people in this community."
ThinkCure is supported by KCAL 9, USC Athletics and Major League Baseball, and benefits the City of Hope and Childrens Hospital.
“Ideally, like the Dodgers, ThinkCure will become the property and concern, not of its founding sponsors alone, but rather the entire Los Angeles community,” McCourt said. “We are seeking to create a civic entity. I can’t think of anyone better to lead the effort than Janet.”
Clayton began her career with the Los Angeles Times in 1977 in the Washington, D.C. bureau and was most recently assistant managing editor since 2004 (she retired late in 2007). She was in charge of California and local news coverage and the largest staff at the paper, with reporters based in greater Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Diego. Clayton's work has been recognized throughout her career. She was the editor of three Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times series: a series of groundbreaking Times editorials on homeless people with mentally illness in 2002; a series of editorials on the dysfunction of California government in 2004; and was a key editor of the paper's investigative series on the serious problems leading to needless deaths at King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles. That series also won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service, as well as the Sigma Delta Chi and Kennedy Awards.
Clayton was Phi Beta Kappa at USC. She was selected to participate in the Cambridge University study program after graduation. In addition, she was a fellow at the British-American Conference sponsored by Johns Hopkins and the Royal Institute and a fellow at the Williamsburg Conference in Hong Kong. She also serves on the USC Annenberg Board of Councilors.
Fundraising efforts for ThinkCure will kick into high gear with a Dodgers-Boston Red Sox exhibition game on March 29, as the Dodgers celebrate 50 years in Los Angeles. The game will be played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the current home of the USC Trojan football team and site of the Dodgers’ early games before Dodger Stadium was completed in 1962.
Net proceeds of the game will go to ThinkCure. Jamie and Frank McCourt said they will match donations up to $1 million.
