Equity in Breast Health: What Employers Need to Know
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Breast cancer disparities affect employees in profound ways, and employers can make a difference. In this fireside chat with Dr. Victoria Blinder of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), learn how promoting early detection, improving access to care, and supporting diverse populations can drive better outcomes. A must-attend for employers committed to advancing equity in health.
MSK Direct is an employer benefits solution that expands and accelerates access to the lifesaving discoveries and subspecialized expertise of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). Solely focused on cancer, our comprehensive approach ensures equitable access and supports every phase of the cancer journey—screening, diagnosis, treatment, and beyond—improving outcomes and delivering measurable value.
Connect with MSK Direct to learn more
Featured Speaker
Victoria Blinder, MD, MSc, FASCO
Dr. Blinder is a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). She has 20 years of experience caring for patients with cancer and as a researcher focused on cancer-related employment difficulties and financial hardship. At MSK, Dr. Blinder established a research program to study work outcomes, including maintenance of employment, earnings, and benefits, as well as work productivity and quality of life, during and after treatment for cancer. Dr. Blinder’s research goals include understanding and working to address adverse work outcomes, as well as their financial and psychosocial consequences, and disparities in work outcomes based on income, race/ethnicity, and immigrant status. To that end, with funding from the NIH, Dr. Blinder developed an English/Spanish intervention to increase access to work accommodations and promote job retention among women undergoing curative chemotherapy for breast cancer. She subsequently adapted that intervention for use by a broader population of patients, including those undergoing treatment with noncurative intent.
Separately, Dr. Blinder worked with colleagues to develop a financial hardship screening program for implementation in community practice. Based on promising early data that showed the program could prevent new or worsening financial difficulties in cancer patients (Blinder et al. JCO 2023), Dr. Blinder received funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to conduct a national trial of financial hardship screening.
In addition to her own work, Dr. Blinder has served the larger oncology community through committee work with the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. Dr. Blinder is originally from Argentina, and she is fluent in English and Spanish.
With
Dr. Mark Cunningham-Hill - Medical Director
Dr. Cunningham-Hill is an employee health expert known for his ability to create, identify and implement high-quality workplace health programs including prevention and screening, chronic illness interventions, and mental health and wellbeing initiatives. His broad occupational medicine and public health experience encompasses addressing chronic diseases impacting employers, employees and communities within the context of social, cultural and racial determinants of health.
Mark has served as the Medical Director for Northeast Business Group on Health since early 2018. Until 2017, he served as Senior Director, Global Solutions Center and Head of Occupational Medicine at Johnson & Johnson, Inc . At J&J, Mark led a team of experts covering occupational medicine, health and wellness, personal energy management, EAP and mental wellbeing, and work-life effectiveness, and supported regional operational groups delivering health services to 135,000 employees in 120 companies. Prior to seven years at J&J, Mark spent 17 years at GlaxoSmithKline in both London and Philadelphia, including as Head of Global Operations, Employee Health Management.
Mark received his MB ChB, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Manchester University in the UK. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, London.
Kim Thiboldeaux - CEO
Kim Thiboldeaux is a seasoned, passionate health care leader with experience in both the private and non-profit sectors, spanning multiple disease areas and health care topics including HIV and AIDS, organ transplant, oncology, caregiving, patient navigation, and health equity.
Kim served as CEO of the Cancer Support Community (CSC) for 20 years, from 2000-2020, leading a global nonprofit network that operates at 175 locations, including CSC and Gilda’s Club centers, and in multiple hospitals and cancer clinics. Combined with a toll-free Helpline, a Research Institute, and a DC-based Policy Institute, Kim grew this network of professionally-led services five-fold during her tenure. In her last year as CEO, the organization provided more than $50 million in free support and navigation services to patients and families.
Kim’s service includes appointments to the nation’s premier health care panels and boards. In 2019, Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, appointed Kim to the Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee. This panel is focused on providing advice and serving as a transparent forum for discussion of the scientific, safety, and ethical issues associated with emerging biotechnologies. In 2017, Kim was appointed to serve on the Biden Cancer Initiative’s Board of Directors.
In serving as a patient advocate on these high-profile boards and panels, Kim has brought attention to inequities in our health care system. In 2019, she joined Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, Dr. Jill Biden, and leaders of the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation in Arizona to mark the opening of the first-ever full-time cancer and support center on an American Indian Reservation. Kim helped convene key Navajo Nation leaders, private sector supporters, and other officials to establish this culturally-adapted program located in an area larger than the state of West Virginia. That work led to the opportunity to develop a full-length, feature documentary, Navajo Nation USA, about the cancer center and the triumphs and challenges of the Navajo people. Kim is Executive Producer and Writer on the film (www.NavajoNationUSA.com).
In 2020, Stand Up To Cancer appointed Kim to its Equity Breakthrough Research Review Team, focusing on cancers affecting underrepresented populations. In 2019, the International Psychosocial Oncology Society presented Kim with the President’s Community Award for Distinguished Contributions at its Global Congress in Canada.
Kim has led numerous other initiatives to help patients and families in need. Most notably, she launched an emergency fund in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that provided financial relief grants to thousands of patients affected by the economic downturn and expanded the organization’s professionally-staffed Helpline as the call volume nearly doubled. In addition, as part of a two-year collaboration she led with Airbnb, more than 3,000 patients in need were provided free housing while traveling for treatment.