LUNGevity Foundation creates senior-level health equity and diversity position to ensure all lung cancer patients have optimal care

WASHINGTON, March 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LUNGevity Foundation, the nation's leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization, announced today that Jeanne Regnante, a long-time healthcare and global patient engagement professional, has joined the Foundation as Chief Health Equity and Diversity Officer.

LUNGevity has long been committed to ensuring all people diagnosed with lung cancer—irrespective of their geographic location, socioeconomic status, race, or ethnicity—have optimal cancer care and access to resources that can help them navigate their disease. Jeanne's extensive experience in healthcare advocacy and past work in healthcare inclusiveness and diversity make her uniquely qualified to elevate and expand the Foundation's current work in health equity and ensure inclusiveness in all Foundation programs and services.

"We are thrilled that Jeanne Regnante will be joining the LUNGevity team," Andrea Ferris, President and CEO of the Foundation, says. "Jeanne's addition to the staff is an investment that will amplify the Foundation's efforts to address important disparities and other issues of health equity. We recognize there is a lot of work to do, but we are excited to see the great advances we can make under Jeanne's leadership."

As Chief Health Equity and Diversity Officer, Jeanne will oversee the strategic design, development, management, and communication of key diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI)-related policies, programs, and partnerships, as well as lead initiatives focusing on the social determinants of health. She will be involved across the organization's many initiatives and programs to ensure that the Foundation is addressing health equity and access issues. Finally, Jeanne will work to expand the Foundation's programs and services to better serve minority populations and ensure that socially and economically underserved populations benefit from optimal care.

Jeanne has worked in healthcare advocacy for more than 35 years. Prior to joining LUNGevity, Jeanne served as the Senior Vice President of Community Engagement for National Minority Quality Forum's Center for Sustainable Health Care and Equity and Chair of the Diverse Cancer Community Working Group (CWG), which has 25 active public and private partner organizational members who work together to optimize cancer care, treatment, and inclusion in clinical trials for racial and ethnic minorities and medically underserved populations. She is a founding member of Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD) and co-leader for two EU Innovative Medicines Initiatives (IMI) focused on standards for patient engagement in medicines and development. Jeanne recently co-founded and launched Patient Insights Inspire Innovation (Patient3i), which is positioned to transform the global patient engagement framework by focusing on the patient as expert with an innovative business model.

About LUNGevity Foundation

LUNGevity is the nation's leading lung cancer organization investing in lifesaving, translational research and providing support services and education for patients and caregivers. LUNGevity's goals are three-fold: (1) accelerate research to patients, (2) empower patients to be active participants in their treatment decisions, and (3) remove barriers that patients face in accessing the right treatments.

LUNGevity Foundation is firmly committed to making an immediate impact on increasing quality of life and survivorship of people with lung cancer by accelerating research into early detection and more effective treatments, as well as by providing community, support, and education for all those affected by the disease. LUNGevity's comprehensive resources include a medically vetted website, a toll-free HELPLine in partnership with CancerCare®, a unique Lung Cancer Navigator app, peer-to-peer mentoring for patients and caregivers (LUNGevity LifeLine), and survivorship conferences. LUNGevity also helps patients find and navigate clinical trials through our Clinical Trial Finder tool, a Clinical Trial Ambassador program, and participation with EmergingMed.

Our vision is a world where no one dies of lung cancer. For more information about LUNGevity Foundation, a four-star Charity Navigator organization, please visit www.LUNGevity.org.

About Lung Cancer in the U.S.

• About 1 in 16 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime
• More than 228,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year
• About 60%-65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers
• Lung cancer takes more lives than the next three leading cancers (colorectal, breast, and prostate) combined
• Only 19% of all people diagnosed with lung cancer will survive 5 years or more, BUT if it's caught before it spreads, the chance of 5-year survival improves dramatically

SOURCE LUNGevity Foundation

Related Links

http://www.lungevity.org