CURE Magazine Names 2019 Extraordinary Healer Award Finalists

CURE Media Group’s flagship product, CURE® magazine, which services over a million patients, survivors and caregivers dedicated to providing cancer updates, proudly announces Barbara Bittner, RN, OCN; Caitlin Cohen, M.S.N., RN, CPNP-AC, CPHON; and Angela Hammack, B.S.N., RN, OCN, as the three finalists for the 2019 Extraordinary Healer^® Award for Oncology Nursing.

“All three of these finalists have demonstrated an incredible passion for caring for cancer patients. They have gone above and beyond what is asked of them, and we are honored to recognize them for their contributions,” said Michael J. Hennessy Jr., president of MJH Associates, parent company of CURE Media Group.

The finalists for the 2019 Extraordinary Healer® Award for Oncology Nursing — all registered nurses — are:

• Bittner has 34 years of nursing experience and works as a navigator for AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach, where she the evaluates the physical and mental health of patients with cancer and shares advice with them. She helped create Charlene’s Dream, a cancer resource center where women can get information, wigs, and mastectomy bras. Named in memory of Charlene Brady, a friend of Bittner’s and a former AdventHealth Daytona Beach colleague who passed away in 2016 after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer, Bittner facilitates support groups and teaches art classes at Charlene’s Dream.
• Cohen, a nurse practitioner for children facing bone marrow transplants at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital, goes above and beyond in support of patients and their families. She encourages her patients and their family members to call her with any questions or concerns.
• Hammack is a practicing nurse of 22 years with 14 years in oncology at Jackson Oncology Associates in Mississippi. She is the Program Chair for the Central Mississippi chapter of ONS. She educates oncology nurses and all clinical support staff and periodically works weekends at the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center in Memphis TN. For many years, she has been a hired speaker for many oncolytic Drug Manufacturers such as Pfizer, Novartis, Eisai, Celgene, Merck, Abbvie, and Taiho. In her spare time, Hammack volunteers for the Cancer League of Jackson and as well as many fund-raising events. Amazingly, her fund-raising efforts have raised more than $100,000 for various cancer charities. As a former high school sprinter, she now runs for a purpose and has completed many long-distance fund-raising events including a 100-mile run in 2017 where she raised $2000 in donations and completed it on her 50th birthday.

The Extraordinary Healer® Award reception will take place April 11 in conjunction with the Oncology Nursing Society’s 44th Annual Congress in Anaheim, California. For more information, click here.

This event is supported by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen and Janssen.