At MSK since 2007, Senior Community Programs Manager Shakima Grant's mission is to forge strong relationships between MSK and its communities and to improve access to world-class cancer care.
From the day Shakima Grant was hired as a care coordinator at MSK, in 2007, she says she knew she had found her purpose.
“It always felt like I was meant to be here,” says Shakima, whose grandmother passed away from stage 4 ovarian cancer that very same year. Her grandmother lived in Harlem and yet had never heard of MSK, nor had she voiced any symptoms that might have sent her to the doctor sooner to get diagnosed at an earlier and potentially curable stage.
“Awareness is crucial, and it’s the reason I went back to school to earn my master’s degree in health education and promotion,” Shakima says.
Today, Shakima is Senior Community Programs Manager, and her mission is forging a strong relationship between MSK and the people in its community to improve access to world-class cancer care. She has become a beacon of information, raising awareness and connecting people with MSK’s cancer screening and prevention services in their own neighborhood.
The goal of improving cancer care for everyone took a leap forward in 2024, as MSK moved ahead with plans to build a new state-of-the-art building on its main campus in Manhattan.
Known as The Kenneth C. Griffin Pavilion at MSK, the facility will meet the significant surge in the number of cancer cases expected in the coming years. It will offer more patients advanced technology, cutting-edge robotics, and the latest in surgical suites.
“Being part of the community team at this time in MSK’s history is an incredible honor and responsibility,” says Shakima. “We are spreading the word and opening the doors for more patients than ever before to receive the best cancer care in the world, right in their backyard.”
MSK has made it a priority to explain how the visionary Kenneth C. Griffin Pavilion at MSK project will proceed and the life-saving difference it will make to the community near MSK.
People in the neighborhood know that Shakima is the person at MSK they can call to stay informed. “I’m proud to be that friendly face in the community,” she says. “I’m doing this in memory of my grandma and to make it easy for anyone to receive care at MSK.”