When Nancy Phelan’s parents split, her stay-at-home mom morphed into a working mom overnight. It was a transformation that would have a life-altering impact on her four kids. “As a musician, my mom’s schedule was dictated by the weddings, concerts and events she was playing,” recalls Nancy. “I helped out a lot, more than I would have willingly signed up to do.”

Though only 9 at the time of the divorce, Nancy, the eldest child, suddenly found herself taking on many adult responsibilities while her mom worked. She prepared dinner for her siblings, Richard, Sharlene and Rachel, and helped them with their homework. “My mom did everything she could as a single mother to provide for us, but my childhood made me think about life choices,” Nancy says. “I wanted a career that was more structured than hers, with stable hours and predictability.”

Ironically, for someone who craves consistency, one of Nancy’s greatest strengths is her grace under fire. She navigates life’s unexpected challenges with agility and compassion. Whether it’s helping Rachel, who had crippling asthma as a child, supporting her mother during her two bouts with breast cancer or undergoing a difficult pregnancy, Nancy handles life’s curveballs without missing a beat. “I’m a planner,” she says, “but what you plan may not turn out to be your reality.”

Nancy always knew that getting an education would be the key to living the life she wanted, so she jumped at the chance to get a college degree, something no one in her family had yet achieved. The life she imagined for herself included becoming a professional with regular hours, getting married, raising children—and being able to afford the extras, like vacations with the kids and big family gatherings.

These visions have largely been realized. She’s reached the top of her profession and today is executive director of consumer communications and e-marketing at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. She and her husband, Robert, who works for a telecommunications company, provide their kids, Greyson, 9, and Ashlyn, 4, with the stability and support Nancy didn’t always have growing up.

A talented entertainer, Nancy throws parties that are nothing less than legendary. “As a teenager, Nancy orchestrated a surprise fortieth birthday bash for our mom,” recalls her sister Sharlene Cronin. “It even included a very special homemade pink angel food cake—the pièce de résistance. Little did we know this was the inaugural dinner in a long line of many great parties Nancy continues to host to this day.”

Finding Her Calling
Growing up, Nancy and Richard took special care of their sister, Rachel, whose asthma was debilitating. “There were no medications available to help her,” Nancy explains. “That meant no cats or dogs. We had to think about her wherever we went and whether we would be exposing her to anything that could trigger her asthma.” Rachel was hospitalized often, and the one medication she did try had terrible side effects. It wasn’t until the drug Proventil became available that things improved dramatically. “It allowed my sister, finally, to live like a normal person,” says Nancy.
So profound was the impact of Rachel’s illness on Nancy that it would later influence her choice to enter the pharmaceutical industry. But when she started school at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, she was certain she would become a lawyer. It was during her very first week there that she met Robert, who lived on the same floor in her dorm. And though Nancy is quick to point out that she was “definitely there to get a B-S, not an M-R-S,” she found Robert hard to ignore.

“He was really funny,” she says. “He has these amazing blue eyes. And as a swimmer, he had nice abs. He was
also compassionate and made me think about things differently. Once we got to talking, well, we haven’t been apart since.” For his part, Robert remembers Nancy’s beautiful smile and easygoing manner. “She impressed me with her inherent goodness,” he says. Together 21 years, they recently celebrated their fifteenth wedding anniversary.
Nancy graduated with honors in 1991, with a recession in full swing. To this day, she’s grateful that the Xerox Corporation hired her as a marketing rep, giving her six months of training. She was promoted after two years but found herself at a turning point.

Though she loved her job at Xerox, her experience with Rachel had convinced her that she wanted to go into the health-care field. She would interview with only one company, Schering-Plough, makers of Proventil, the drug that had helped her sister. Nancy was hired as a sales rep and stayed for 13 years, having both of her children while employed there.

Nancy’s pregnancies, like so much else in her life, brought unexpected challenges. With the birth of her second child, daughter Ashlyn, she had to go on medical leave for a month due to complications that included numbness in her fingers and swelling in her hands and feet. Her first child’s birth hadn’t been much easier. Working right up until the day she went into the hospital to deliver, Nancy was exhausted even before she embarked on what would be two days of labor. Once Greyson entered the world, he had difficulty eating and sleeping for the first four months, and, she says, “I didn’t know what I was doing.”
 
Her Dream Job
Nancy left Schering-Plough in 2004, shortly after having Ashlyn, to join Wyeth in what she says was “a dream job,” a global assignment handling consumer marketing and, later, consumer communications. The thing that makes it so special, she says, is that the products she represents bring tremendous benefits to patients. Her supervisor, Thomas Mangano, assistant VP for consumer communications and e-business, praises her analytical and creative mind. “What helps her overcome daily business challenges is her understanding that most people are unprepared for health-care issues,” he says, noting that she helps them get the information they need to make informed decisions.

Nancy watched the patient’s journey up close and personal when her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995. “As the oldest, I had a big role,” Nancy says, “and my world shifted.” Her mom’s aggressive treatment included radiation, surgery and chemotherapy. Nancy was working full-time, going to Villanova University in Villanova, PA, for her MBA and commuting from Philadelphia to Boston to be with her mom.

“I saw her start out with tons of optimism,” says Nancy, who put her MBA on hold during this time. “The drugs saved my mom’s life, but she didn’t have an easy experience with them.” Her mom recovered, but two years later, the family would be dismayed to learn that the cancer had returned and the battle would begin anew. Today, after ten years, Nancy is thankful that her mom is cancer-free.

Rising Before the Sun
A typical day for Nancy begins early—at 4:30 a.m., to be precise. “I love my mornings,” she says. While her family sleeps, she gets ready for work, takes care of bills, preps dinner and makes her kids’ lunch—all before 6:00 a.m., when she wakes her husband with a nudge and a cup of coffee. She has breakfast with the kids while Robert dresses. At 6:30, Greyson and Ashlyn get dressed, and they’re all out the door by 7:00 a.m. After school, a college student watches the kids. The grandparents and Nancy’s sister-in-law, Barb, often fill in.

One Saturday a month, there’s dinner out and a date night with Robert. Sundays bring Mass, brunch and a big dinner that Nancy cooks from scratch, including an appetizer and dessert.

Football plays a central role in the Phelan family. “We’re huge Philadelphia Eagles fans,” Nancy says. “We love to have friends and family over to enjoy the games.” The feeling is mutual: “We happily travel two hundred miles to her house, because we know she’s going to throw a great party and give us a wonderful chance to reconnect with one another,” says Sharlene.

Connecting with family and nurturing social and business networks have been Nancy’s key strategies for coping with life’s ups and downs. “Chances are, the people you know well or even casually have been where you are and can help when you need it or when you’re feeling a little down,” she says. “And when they reach out to me, I feel empowered—like I’ve actually got it together.”

Indeed, Nancy’s family and friends see her as a strong role model who has worked for every success. “Nancy set an early example for me about the benefits of working hard and staying focused,” says Sharlene. To husband Robert, Nancy epitomizes resilience. “She is truly a self-made woman,” he says. “She has worked for and earned everything she has. It hasn’t always been easy, but perseverance and integrity have allowed her to overcome all obstacles.”