As Director of Grants for Episcopal Health Services, Inc. (EHS) over the last five years, Nancy Fox oversees funding through grants. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee for the St. John’s ICARE Foundation established in 2021, to benefit and support the charitable and educational activities of EHS. As part of the Committee, she works closely with Nancy Leghart, Executive Director for the Foundation, and aside from assisting with Committee initiatives, Nancy works collaboratively with the ICARE Foundation to secure funding for programs.

Nancy, who resides in Huntington, was a New York City resident for over 25 years and says, “My heart resides in the City. A lot of the issues around health equity resonated with me throughout my life and most of my career has been spent working on these issues, whether in a grants role, or in government relations. This all comes together for me today, which means looking for funding to support the important work of EHS and ICARE.”

In joining the Advisory Committee about five months ago, Nancy says she is honored to be on board supporting the impressive mission of the Foundation. “The Committee is made up of talented, diverse professionals, and I think that really helps with finding solutions because solutions don’t always lie in finding commonalities; they lie in diversity. The Committee that Nancy Leghart has put together has a broad range of people and talents.” Nancy believes this is part of what will make the Foundation thrive—the collaboration of people with different skill sets to support the Foundation’s work for the Rockaway community.

“There are great needs in this community and what ICARE has done to date is just really incredible,” Nancy says. As one example, she cites the Foundation’s Doula Care program, which is of particular interest to her, explaining how the Foundation laid the groundwork for the program by raising private funding that enabled the program’s initiation. In turn, Nancy was able to build upon what was implemented to secure grants from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation and the Elevance Health Foundation to expand the program. “So, everything we’re doing is compatible and in sync. These two approaches support one another, where being able to demonstrate support from private donors helps the Hospital secure related grants by showing funders that we have the support of the community for this program,” Nancy says.

She explains that maternal health is particularly interesting for her, especially with the disparities across the country, and she believes supporting new parents is more important than ever. “I’m just amazed at the work the Foundation is doing in this area, from the baby bags [Each new mother delivering at St. John's receives a custom St. John's Baby Bag filled with newborn essentials], to supporting mothers during their first days out of the hospital."