I am a registered nurse with over 25 years of healthcare experience. Since joining Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), I have focused my career on health equity. During my years as a critical care nurse, I cared for many people who had difficulty understanding health information. As a caregiver of loved ones with cancer, I came to understand how emotions like stress and fear impact a person’s ability to process health information, even when the fundamental knowledge is there. These experiences have led me to focus on health literacy, both at the individual and organizational levels. In my role as VP, Chief Health Literacy Officer, I advocate for the use of plain language to be sure health information is as easy as possible to understand, while also increasing the health literacy of those in our care.
My commitment to equity extends to other areas, including access for those who do not read or speak English, those with social and financial barriers to health, and those who have experienced a variety of issues accessing healthcare, such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) community. A longstanding advocate for LGBTQI+ health, I am the Co-founder and Executive Sponsor of MSK’s LGBTQI Clinical Advisory Committee and a leader in LGBTQI+ Pride, MSK’s Employee Resource Network. I am also heavily engaged in advancing the science of LGBTQI+ health with collaborators across academic and healthcare centers across the United States.
I am privileged to have the opportunity to conduct research, speak to professional and public audiences, and collaborate with and mentor colleagues around these issues of equity within and beyond MSK.
Publications on PubMed
Visit PubMed for a full listing of Chasity’s journal articles. Pubmed is an online index of research papers and other articles from the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.