LYNN — Magnolia Contreras has been a massive part of Lynn’s community. She’s also continued her impact through her work as Vice President of Community Health at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
According to Contreras, Dana-Farber focuses equally on cancer research and patient care. However, these are just pieces of the institute’s bigger mission.
“Part of our mission is also ensuring that historically marginalized populations understand cancer and know that they have access to this organization,” Contreras said.
She said part of her job and her team’s job is to educate communities on cancer and try to create a welcoming environment for everyone.
Before Dana-Farber, Contreras started her journey in social service work at the Lynn Community Health Center.
“I started out helping families who needed support with our pediatric department and then became a liaison with what was then the Department of Social Services, and is now known as the Department of Children and Families,” she said.
Her work helping families in Lynn figure out what healthcare they were receiving and what social support they needed was just the start before it gradually evolved into a career in public health, Contreras said.
She has done HIV AIDS work in Lynn, and she felt it naturally led down the road to cancer research, but she realized after getting the job it was more than just a simple decision she made.
“I had gone through my own cancer experience before coming here, but to me, it was like, ‘OK, I had my own cancer,’…And it didn’t dawn on me until one of our colleagues interviewed me after I got hired for the job. As I’m talking to her, I can see the light bulbs going. I was like, ‘OK, there is such a thing as divine intervention,’” she said.
Since that moment, Contreras has been working at Dana-Farber for almost 17 years.
When asked what she feels is the most essential part of the community outreach the institute does, Contreras believes it is the mission of what they do that holds everything together.
“Our mission is to educate historically marginalized populations, new immigrants, and people who need this information. We want to reach out to them with the best cancer information possible and teach them how to prevent cancers where there are real opportunities for prevention,” she said.
One example of this is the mammography van. According to Contreras, their goal with the van is to get it to women as early as possible to help educate them and then provide mammograms for them in a way where they don’t have to worry about losing time at work.
“We bring the van, have the woman step inside, and it is 20 minutes in and out. We take the results… and if there are concerns, our navigator reaches out to the woman and works with her to handle anything she might need… and bring whatever concern there might be to a resolution,” she said.
A major goal of the institute is to simplify healthcare so everyone, no matter their background, can understand what they need, navigate the system, and connect with someone as quickly as possible.
When asked what inspired her to be involved in community work, Contreras said she found inspiration through the stories her parents would tell her about her grandmother.
“When there was some catastrophe in the Dominican Republic, she would be the house that people would go to eat, to get a meal. She would cook a lot of food just to make sure that if somebody walked in the door, she had something to feed them,” she said.
Contreras said those are the stories that come back to her through her career in giving back and service work. She found she enjoyed working with a family, sometimes when they were most broken, and helping them as much as possible.
“We here at Dana-Farber know that we can’t fix the diagnosis, that the diagnosis sometimes leads people to die from cancer… even in Lynn. We can’t take somebody out of poverty in that sort of imaginative way, but we can make it better,” she said.
Contreras said the stories coming out of Dana-Farber inspire her to continue her work, especially since one of the institute’s goals is to empower patients while they receive treatment.
“I’ve had so many of those stories over the course of my career, so many people I’ve worked with who later in life have found me and sent me letters and said, ‘Do you remember me? I was so and so.’ Or people who have become nurses who have excelled after they go through a difficult time… I was in that space with them, and that stuff has fueled me,” she said.
Contreras said she also finds inspiration in the stories that don’t have happy endings and they are just as impactful.
One exciting upcoming project for Dana-Farber is the new inpatient hospital that is being built.
“We have a small hospital, 30 beds, and we work with Brigham for the rest of the cancer care we provide. Now we are going to build our own cancer hospital for people who need to be in the hospital for extended periods of time,” Contreras said. “It’s going to be 14 stories, 300 beds, and we are partnering with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.”
The new hospital will help prevent patients from going to emergency rooms, which, according to Contreras, is not a good place to go if you are undergoing cancer treatments. The building will also help them implement new innovative treatments and provide a place for those patients to stay longer in the appropriate environment.
Contreras said she came to Dana-Farber with a five-year plan, and every five years, she asks herself, “Are you here for another five years.”
“The answer has always been yes because there’s always been something new that I’m interested in seeing to fruition,” she said. “Today, I can say that by choice and design, this is where I’m supposed to be.”
