Meet Joelle Fathi, DNP, and Lori Millner, two women poised to help GO2 for Lung Cancer and the lung cancer community as we expand our activities and work together to double survivorship rates by 2025.
Meet Joelle Fathi, Powerlifter Turned Oncology Nurse Practitioner
As GO2 for Lung Cancer’s new Chief Healthcare Delivery Officer, Joelle Fathi’s role will include enhancing the Centers of Excellence (COE) program, a network of 860+ primarily community-based medical facilities providing excellence in lung cancer early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. It’s a role Fathi’s professional path has been arcing towards.
Joelle with her husband and two sons
“In 2010, I started working with a large thoracic surgery group in Seattle that was an International Early Cancer Action Program study site. We looked for early detection of lung cancer by low-dose CT,” said Fathi. That seminal study helped to understand the value of early screening. From there, she designed one of the first screening programs in the country: a comprehensive program that incorporated counseling about screening, follow-up on screening results (including reviewing “incidental” findings, such as coronary disease), and tobacco cessation services for people who smoked.
Fathi was also an early proponent of telehealth, informed by her childhood in Montana and years living in Seattle. “I developed tele-lung, tele-tobacco clinics serving the Olympic Peninsula,” she said. “As the crow flies, these people are about 60 miles away from me, but they’re about an eight-hour trip on single-lane highways and ferry lines. The people who live there don’t have the health, resources, social support and time to travel for a routine appointment.”
Now Fathi brings that same passion and purpose to her work with GO2 for Lung Cancer. And, yes, she used to be a card-carrying professional powerlifter.
Meet Lori Millner, GO2 for Lung Cancer’s New Brand Champion
Lori Millner’s dream was to run away with the band. Fortunately for the lung cancer community, her life took a different path.
Lori enjoying time outdoors in Colorado
As GO2 for Lung Cancer’s new Chief Marketing Officer, Millner will oversee global and national marketing efforts to advance GO2 for Lung Cancer’s mission of transforming survivorship by saving, extending and improving the lives of those vulnerable, at-risk and diagnosed with lung cancer. She comes to GO2 for Lung Cancer from The National Children’s Cancer Society (NCCS).
“My grandmother died of lung cancer at 62 and she never smoked a day in her life. So, when this opportunity came up, it resonated with me,” Millner said. She added that she wanted to go somewhere “where I could make a meaningful contribution.”
One of Millner’s key priorities in building the GO2 for Lung Cancer brand is to ensure that its messages are heard far and wide—starting with awareness and education about lung cancer screening.
“If people don’t think of you, they can’t choose you. Raising awareness will help our patient community and those at risk. It will also help generate more financial support, which is always a priority when it comes to a nonprofit,” she said.
When Millner’s not building the GO2 for Lung Cancer brand, you can often find her walking all around her St. Louis community. She’s a former road cyclist who loves the outdoors, as well as yoga and movies, and points out that she “can eat an impressive amount of popcorn.” We think she still secretly wants to run away with the band, just not today.
[…] up with Fathi to talk to her about her work at GO2 for Lung Cancer and learn more about what this powerlifter turned oncology nurse practitioner does when she’s not re-envisioning her profession. She jumped right into the conversation with a […]