Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamil Rivers

Hi Jamil, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?

At age 39, I experienced a cough that would not go away. Working unsuccessfully with my doctors, I eventually insisted on undergoing a chest x-ray. The radiographs revealed a shadow on my lung. After additional imaging, my doctors diagnosed me with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer — denovo, meaning that the cancer had already spread through my body, in my case to liver, lungs, and other locations, at the time my doctors finally detected it.

I was devastated. But I was, and still am, the primary earner in my household, which includes my three school-age sons and a husband who had already undergone cancer treatment and a liver transplant. Having just started a new job, I kept quiet about my diagnosis, as I underwent chemotherapy and hurried to learn all I could about standards of care for this disease. I saw that, as a Black woman, I had special need to advocate for myself and my care — due to established and well-documented bias in care for Black women with breast cancer. Soon, other women of color like me who had breast cancer began coming to me saying that I seemed to be finding my way and asking for guidance. My personal experience coaching these women and helping them to manage their care launched the patient-support strategies that are at the core of the organization I launched.

Established in 2019, The Chrysalis Initiative (TCI) is now the only organization nationally that focuses exclusively on care disparities and patient assistance for primarily Black women with breast cancer. TCI has guided and assisted thousands of women under care in cancer programs, extending its reach beyond the Delaware Valley to cancer centers and their served populations around the country. Its pioneering interventions of enhanced patient navigation, counseling, and education; clinical cancer program evaluation and barrier resolution; and direct wrap-around assistance for practical challenges during treatment have established a new model for improving the journey and outcomes of women of color with breast cancer who may otherwise be subject to disadvantage from inequity in care.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

Support for our work has been phenomenal, but starting a small nonprofit and growing it into a larger organization takes tenacity. Funding successes come in spurts mixed with dry spells. Achieving success in awareness and in partnerships with renowned cancer centers requires persistence. I serve a full-time professional day job as finance officer for another nonprofit while pouring my passion into maintaining a team that counsels and guides Black women with breast cancer. Finding the energy for this while taking care of my own health as a metastatic breast cancer survivor requires a balance. And of course, my kids and my husband are always the first priority. I’m proud that the team that I formed and oversee at TCI has been able to help a growing number of women of color to better experiences and outcomes from breast cancer. That’s what gratifies me the most.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

With an MBA in finance, I’ve been able to guide nonprofits with worthy causes to fiscal soundness. But the one-to-one guidance of Black women looking for answers in their breast cancer journey gets me even more motivated. The organization I founded is the leading organization working to remove care disparities for Black women diagnosed with breast cancer. It now serves medical service areas across the country.

Evidence has thoroughly documented the race-based disparities in breast cancer care in our health system. As an advocate and activist for equity in breast cancer treatment, I’ve helped to improve the course of care for many of my sisters. Building a roster of experienced coach-navigators for patients has allowed me to make a difference in the course of care of many of these women. I’m glad too when we can offer disenfranchised Black women financial support and other aid when the challenges and activities of daily living during cancer treatment would otherwise present obstacles to their care. Plus, our patient-services staff gets to consult with cancer-care providers and their teams at cancer centers, helping them to see gaps in care for women of color and alerting them to shortcomings in care pathways for these women. We accomplish this one patient at a time or across a cancer program’s served population.

In breast cancer care, racial bias, especially of the unconscious kind, is traumatic and dangerous for Black women. I’m in my zone when I’m carrying the banner for overcoming that line between the quality of breast cancer treatment for Black and that received by others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thechrysalisinitiative.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrysalisinitiative/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrysalisinitiative/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrysalisinit
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chrysalisinitiative6251

Image Credits

All TCI images