Pandemic Burnout: Caring for the Cancer Care Professionals

Kelly Hendershot, LGSW, LMSW works across CSC to ensure that everyone's interactions with our network partners go smoothly. This includes helping drive innovation and increasing the reach of the network.

She joined the CSC headquarters team in August 2020. As the lead liaison for patient and family programming across CSC's growing network, Kelly ensures that programming is effectively implemented and meets the quality standards.

Prior to joining CSC, Kelly was the Program Director for Gilda's Club Quad Cities. Kelly was integral to the success of her affiliate and wore many different hats during her tenure there. From Associate Board President to intern, facilitator, manager, and then director, Kelly applied her skills and expertise - which include journalism, web design, marketing, and project management - throughout the organization.

“What began as a need for support through my husband's cancer diagnosis and death, grew into a strong passion for ensuring that others never have to face cancer alone,” Kelly said.

Kelly holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary's University, a Master's in Social Work from the University of Iowa, and certification in web design. She is also a Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga (LVCY) certified instructor and a yoga4cancer (y4c) trained instructor.

Valarie Lucas earned her Bachelor Degree of Science in Nursing from The University of Scranton in 2015 and her Master of Science in Nursing in Operational Leadership from Quinnipiac University in 2022. She is currently working towards receiving her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nursing Leadership at Quinnipiac University with plans to graduate in 2024.

Valarie began her nursing career at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in 2015 as a new graduate on the Thoracic Surgery and Surgical and Medical Stepdown unit where she remained for six years. Valarie currently works at MSK in the Koch building in Perianesthesia for both Interventional Radiology and Endoscopy departments.

Valarie has collaborated on many organization committees at MSK to unite her passions of evidence-based practice, nursing burnout, as well as nursing and patient policy and advocacy. In 2019, Valarie continued to grow as a leader when she proposed and implemented a new nursing role that she developed called the Outreach RN (ORN). After approval to pilot this role, she received tremendous feedback from patients, nursing colleagues, and multidisciplinary teams about the numerous benefits the ORN provides. Valarie has published an article about the ORN in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing titled The Outreach RN: A Nurse Driven Initiative to Improve Transitions in Care for Critically Ill Patients with Cancer in 2020.

Valarie is a member of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and actively participates in the New York City chapter since 2019. The ONS NYC chapter of nearly 1,000 members elected Valarie to serve as the President-Elect in 2020, the chapter President in 2021, as well as the Director at Large and Past President throughout 2022. Valarie is a strong advocate for nursing and patient care and has lobbied with U.S. legislators for these issues with ONS. Valarie remains committed to philanthropy. She has attended and led several nursing medical missions trips to Port Au Prince, Haiti where she established an ongoing scholarship for nursing students in 2015.