Announcing Two New Additions to the NCCS Leadership Team: An Introduction from Our CEO

Dear Friends,

I am thrilled to announce two new additions to the NCCS leadership team, Elena Jeannotte and Christin Engelhardt. They both bring unique skills and experiences that will support our mission as we work towards making cancer care better for survivors and their loved ones.

Elena Jeannotte joined NCCS as the Director of Philanthropy this summer. She is responsible for developing partnerships between NCCS and local and national corporations, organizations, foundations, and individuals. Elena has nearly 15 years of experience in constituent engagement in the healthcare field.  Prior to joining NCCS she worked for Georgetown University Medical Center in roles of increasing responsibility.  Most recently, she served as Senior Director of Constituent Relations and Events and was responsible for a fundraising and engagement program for Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.  Elena also founded and served as president of a small non-profit organization focused on supporting esophageal cancer research at Johns Hopkins.

Elena’s passion for working in the field of cancer research and advocacy stems from serving as a caregiver to her parents, both of whom battled cancer.  Their experiences as patients inspired Elena to start her career in the cancer field.  She considers her role at NCCS, and her drive to support cancer survivors, as a way to keep the memory of her parents alive each and every day.

We are also pleased to welcome Christin Engelhardt, the Director of Policy and Advocacy.  Although her career began in political campaigns, Christin, while working on a Congressional commission on sleep, quickly came to find healthcare extremely rewarding and policy work particularly so.  She is committed to advancing policy that helps patients be diagnosed and treated in accordance with medical evidence and individual needs, that fosters patients’ access to care and that advances research into knowledge gaps.  Christin strongly believes in the NCCS mission, especially after having helped very close relatives and friends on the difficult and complicated cancer journey.

An advocate for more than twenty years, Christin has worked for non-profit patient organizations in the cancer field as well as in the fields of sleep and neurology.  In addition, soon after Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act, she joined a nonprofit focused on health-insurance coverage where she became immersed in the Medicare drug benefit (as well as other aspects of Medicare), Medicaid, and private insurance.  In these roles, Christin has spoken on access to care and appealing health care denials; testified before the Food and Drug Administration from the perspective of patients; led the successful fight for Medicare coverage of a drug at the national level; created numerous educational materials for patients and health care professionals; managed an organization’s first Advocacy Day which resulted in research funding through a Congressional program; served on a professional society’s invited-expert panel examining a treatment for bone-marrow failure; and collaborated with the National Institutes of Health as the representative of an NIH-funded disease consortium.  She has also co-authored several scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals.

As we represent the interests of cancer survivors, promote cancer care planning, and advocate for policies that improve the way our country delivers, regulates, and finances cancer care, we are grateful to have the guidance of two exceptional leaders. Welcome to the team, Elena and Christin!

With warm regards,

Shelley Fuld Nasso, MPP
Chief Executive Officer
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship