Marian Greenblatt Education Fund

The Marian Greenblatt Fund is currently supporting two programs that address breast cancer.  The Fund supports a Patient Navigator Program at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda MD, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins Medicine. The program assigns a skilled nurse to explain to new breast cancer patients the different treatment options and the resources available to patients, and then follows the patient through the treatment process, being a source of information, comfort, and support.  About 300 patients a year are helped by this program.  Read more about the Funds' work with Suburban Hospital in their 2023 impact report.

 

The Fund also supports a screening program at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, VA.  The program is led by Dr Rebecca Kaltman, director of the Saville Center for Screening and Prevention. At the first screening event, an Arts and Healing program held in conjunction with the Nueva Vida community organization, women enjoyed art projects, music, and a warm breakfast while receiving cancer screenings and other health and wellness screenings.  

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On Monday May 13, 2024, the Inova Fairfax Hospital's Schar Cancer Center dedicated the Marian Greenblatt Fund Examination Room in the Inova Saville Cancer Screening and Prevention Center.  Dr. Rebecca Kaltman, Executive Director of the Inova Saville Cancer Screening and Prevention Center and a board-certified oncologist specializing in breast cancer, spoke at the dedication attended by Greenblatt family members.  Dr. Kaltman said: "We greatly appreciate the Marian Greenblatt Fund's generous gift that enables us to more easily examine patients both at the Saville Center in Northern Virginia and in the community. Research has shown that the earlier we can detect cancer in peoples' lives, the greater the chances of successfully treating cancers. The Greenblatt donation also is a first step in enabling us to initiate a new, fully-equipped mobile unit to extend our screening outreach to those who have work or have family obligations that make it difficult to come to the hospital."  Dr. Marshal Greenblatt, President of the Greenblatt Fund, added, "The Greenblatt Fund is happy to honor the memory of Marian in such a meaningful way--by increasing the number of people screened to prevent the scourge of cancer."

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​In 2022, the Fund provided support to breast cancer research led by Karen L. Smith, M.D., M.P.H., a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital and assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  Dr. Smith's research primarily focuses on patient-reported outcomes and reducing toxicities of cancer therapy.  She is interested in improving the lives of all patients facing breast cancer but has a special focus on those living with metastatic disease, those diagnosed at a young age, and those at risk for recurrence of hormone-receptor positive disease.