Local Leader Paves the Way While Championing Diversity and Leadership for Women of Color
Celebrating Black Women’s History Month with Cathy Grant, Moffitt Cancer Center’s Senior Director of Diversity
TAMPA, Fla. – April 28, 2020 – Cathy Grant serves as Senior Director of Moffitt Cancer Center’s Diversity team and has led the diversity and inclusion efforts for the nationally recognized institute since 2006.
Cathy’s characteristic open mind is one of her greatest strengths and a hallmark of her approach to cultivating her team at Moffitt. “It’s important not to simply look at the person as they appear before you,” she said. “Look at the whole person. Are their skills transferrable? I’ve transformed myself many times.”
In her role leading Moffitt Diversity, Cathy said she prefers to hire people with varied skills that can be applied for personal and team success. “It’s important to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, to know that they are smarter and be okay with that.”
While Cathy’s had no shortage of strong women to look up to throughout her life, she said most “were not people you’d view as professionally successful. Their strengths were a depth of common sense and wise decisions, what they needed to survive.
“In business, you need a woman of color in that leadership role; someone who shares and understands your background. It lets others know that professional advancement is possible for them as well.”
Cathy’s ethos and diversity efforts extend to Moffitt team members, patients, hospital suppliers and the surrounding Tampa Bay area community. Diversity and inclusion focus on educating team members about health disparities and strategies to foster a respectful work environment. Her community outreach team, M-POWER provides education on cancer prevention to under-served and low-income Tampa Bay area communities, particularly those impacted by health disparities.
Her current role allows her to draw on a culmination of her experiences and variety of work settings through the years. “It’s all been part of a path.”
Cathy earned a Master of Public Administration from City of New York University’s Bernard M. Baruch College Marxe School of Public & International Affairs. She also holds a Certificate in Diversity Management in Health Care (CDM) from Georgetown University and the Institute for Diversity in Health Management.
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About Moffitt Cancer Center
Moffitt is dedicated to one lifesaving mission: to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer. The Tampa-based facility is one of only 51 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt’s scientific excellence, multidisciplinary research, and robust training and education. Moffitt is a Top 10 cancer hospital and has been nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report since 1999. Moffitt’s expert nursing staff is recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center with Magnet® status, its highest distinction. With more than 6,500 team members, Moffitt has an economic impact in the state of $2.4 billion.
For more information, call 1-888-MOFFITT (1-888-663-3488), visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the momentum on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.