Peg O'Grady '84
Life would be so different for Peg O'Grady '84 BSN, MSN, and the thousands of patients and colleagues who have been impacted by her, if she had said "no." The current Administrative Director of the Asplundh Cancer Pavilion - Sidney Cancer Center, Jefferson Health System based in Willow Grove, PA, O'Grady never imagined that she would be overseeing the ambulatory care teams in this now five-year-old free-standing oncology facility. She assumed this incredible role because, when approached with the challenge, she said "yes."
"There was never a time at Holy Family University when someone at that institution said, 'You can't do that'," O'Grady said. "At Holy Family, I learned how to learn. I learned to articulate and to write, and those are arts. I had public speaking, which I was not a fan of. I found that if I really loved the topic, and I got really knowledgeable about the topic, my ease of being able to speak to it just flowed. The background and expertise that I received from Holy Family gave me so much confidence."
Because of this, O'Grady has made it her mission for more than three decades to mirror the mission of Holy Family University.
"Holy Family teaches you how to take care of a community by giving the community experts who are well-trained and who do well for others. I learned resilience there. It is truly the nursing team who is there with the patient in their true hour of need. You have to either decide that this is your mission, or you need to step aside and let somebody do it who can do it. This is not a job. This is really a career."
That career satisfaction is why O'Grady is ever eager to share advice with people who aspire to take on life-changing roles through nursing.
"I can't tell you how important it was in my personal career to write, to do research, to mentor," she said. "If you are starting out new, if somebody texts you from an institution and asks you to be on a committee, to write a policy, even if you have never done that before in your life, say yes. Absolutely, say yes, because you never know when that opportunity will lead to something incredible. I never thought, in a million years, I would be running a cancer center. I thought I would be a surgical nurse, working 3-11 p.m., have my kids, be happy, life is good."
Instead, O'Grady spent 1983-2014 at Fox Chase Cancer Center, rising in July of 2008 to the Senior Director for the Fox Chase Cancer Center Partners where she was responsible for the clinical planning and research program development for 25 community hospital cancer centers linked to Fox Chase. From there, she accepted a role as the Director of Nursing at Thomas Jefferson University where she managed 100 nursing and support staff members in four locations.
When she got the call in September 2016 seeking her interest in building a cancer center in Willow Grove, PA, alongside Dr. Steven Cohen, she answered, "Absolutely, yes!" The all-inclusive center now treats 400 patients a day, providing wellcoordinated access to surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, palliative care and survivorship.
"Cancer used to be a disease of the old," she said. "It's not. We are getting far younger patients coming through. During COVID, patents didn't get screened, so we are finding far later stages of the disease."
Cancer has taken a lot from so many. Mostly, says O'Grady, it takes "every bit of control out of everybody."
Which is why she relishes the success stories and draws strength from the fighters and the survivors.
"The most gratifying thing is the look on people's faces when they are done their treatments," she said. "We have chimes. We have bells. Some patients have full choirs who come in to sing to them. When patients are done their therapy, and they have all their family and their loved ones with them with balloons and flowers, and they are ringing that bell like it is nobody's business, the look on their faces is just sheer joy. That's the stuff that keeps everybody here.
It is not an easy job, but it is job that is incredibly fulfilling. And, absolutely yes, I am crying along with them. There is not one of us who doesn't get choked up. It you don't, you have lost your ability to emote."
O'Grady knows that these moments are worth relishing because so many cancer patients never live to see that day.
"Working in oncology, you have to know that you have done everything you can to get your patients comfortable and to give them some sense of control back, not matter the outcome," she said. "I was fresh out of school when I met the mother of a high school classmate who had cancer. Thirty-five years later to this day, on the anniversary of her mother's passing, that classmate will send me a note, and she is just crystal clear. 'You eased my burden.' You can't get better than that. That is what gives you a sense that you are doing the right thing and living the mission."