Kammi Fox-Kay, MSN, RN, AOCNS, ONN-CG(T)

With nearly 34 years of oncology nursing experience, Kammi has worked in both the academic and community settings, delivering nursing care to surgical oncology, medical oncology, and hospice patients. During her graduate studies, an interest in cancer prevention developed as she worked with college-age students on healthy habits such as healthy eating, exercise, stress reduction, and lifestyle choices.

Kammi spent the past 10 years working as an oncology nurse navigator. Since the financial toxicity of cancer care came to light in the early 2010s, Kammi has been a strong advocate in assisting patients in obtaining financial assistance and healthcare coverage so they can get the recommended treatments they need.

As lung cancer patients live longer, their needs and comorbidities are ever increasing. Kammi finds navigating lung cancer patients very rewarding and currently does so at a large university healthcare system on the Southside of Chicago.

Kammi believes that social determinants of health—such as health literacy and socioeconomic status—are the main barriers for patients with cancer to receive the screenings and treatments they need. Kammi and her colleagues have been working to assess such barriers and develop necessary intervention plans.