Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center welcomes two professionals to the organization’s leadership team. Angela Hammett, MSN, RNC-OB, LCCE, has been named the director of navigation and support services. Mandy Shipp will serve as the organization’s director of clinical research. Both administrators will oversee teams working on behalf of all eight centers across southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi.
As director of navigation and support services, Hammett will take the helm of Mary Bird’s patient navigation system and oversee a team charged with ensuring patients and their families have the information they need to make the most informed and timely decisions regarding their cancer treatment. Navigators work one-on-one with each patient, easing their concerns, answering questions, coordinating and removing barriers to care, arranging transportation, and offering other support as needed.
Hammett has more than 20 years’ experience providing patient education and outreach in the Baton Rouge community. She most recently served as the community education manager for Woman’s Hospital. Working alongside her education team, she directed the development and implementation of educational programs, community outreach, patient and family education, patient referrals, and care coordination for women seeking care at the organization.
Hammett earned a Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Management from Western Governors University in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is a founding board member of the Louisiana Chapter of Women in Healthcare and currently serves as the organization’s board secretary.
As director of clinical research, Mandy Shipp will work to build on and strengthen Mary Bird Perkins’ ongoing commitment to leading-edge cancer care research. Shipp will apply her experience and expertise to ensuring the organization’s patients can access trials that will be an additive to the standard treatment with the goal of an enhanced outcome.
Shipp is an established and highly respected clinical trials director. She has more than 20 years of experience facilitating contracts, managing budgets, and engaging in institutional project management. Shipp most recently served as director of clinical resources-clinical trials unit at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. In her role as director, Shipp worked closely with the pharmaceutical industry to broaden study types and phases.
Shipp earned a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from Louisiana State University and completed a dietetic internship at North Oaks Medical Center in Hammond.
“We have absolutely hit a home run with the addition of these two leaders,” said Jonas Fontenot, PhD, chief operating officer and Charles M. Smith, MD, chief of physics, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. “Without a doubt, the key to Mary Bird Perkins’ success over the past 50 years has been the high-quality team we have built across our organization. As leaders in their respective fields, Angela and Mandy will work hand in hand to ensure our patients have access to the most advanced cancer care, while being treated with the utmost compassion and care that our organization is so well known for.”