Former WebMD Editor Kristy Hammam Dies
3 min readDec. 24, 2021 — Kristy Hammam, WebMD’s previous editor-in-main and senior vice president, has died of breast cancer. She was 50 a long time old.
Kristy resigned from a 22-12 months vocation at WebMD in June 2021, soon after losing a lot of her eyesight as a result of remedies in her fight against triple-negative breast cancer. She recounted her diagnosis and her working experience as a patient in a latest feature story for WebMD.
In the story, she talked about the problems of navigating the U.S. overall health care program though working with cancer, and it was her dream to start off a nonprofit to help other patients who experienced fewer assistance than she did.
Kristy commenced her occupation as a author and duplicate editor at CNN prior to becoming a member of the health-related information services Greenberg News Networks, wherever she developed a every day broadcast for Medcast. She was finally promoted to head of programming. Greenberg was obtained by Healtheon and WebMD, and she ongoing to increase with the organization to come to be its editorial director, in cost of most of the functions of WebMD’s Atlanta business office.
Kristy was identified by her colleagues for the expertise she introduced to her operate duties and for many personalized traits that had been very valued. She was admired for her grace, kindness, compassion and the way she manufactured absolutely everyone truly feel crucial, such as listening respectfully and looking for out views that may well have been diverse from her possess for the duration of conferences. She would usually really encourage people today to get risks and was frequently the initial to rejoice her colleagues’ specialist accomplishments and personal joys.
“Her doorway was always open up,’’ explained Kristy’s previous government assistant Mary Cooper. “She always experienced time for anyone else.”
Mary remembers that Kristy questioned her to speak in a enterprise assembly, and she demurred, telling her boss she was shy.
“You are not shy!” Kristy explained to her. “You may perhaps be uncomfortable addressing a group, but I come to feel that you do it perfectly, so you will be talking.”
Beloved by her co-personnel at WebMd, Kristy encouraged the firm to have interaction additional with its communities and structured paid volunteer days for workers.
“No one particular had a even bigger impression on my career at WebMD than Kristy,” claimed Michael Smith, MD, a former main healthcare editor at WebMD. “She helped form who I am nowadays both equally personally and professionally. Her impact will normally be felt.”Kristy was instrumental in creating the yearly Health Heroes Awards to assistance WebMD identify standouts in overall health and medication.Kristy championed the strategy of an functions committee and helped arrange events that became firm traditions, such as a Halloween social gathering and a potluck Thanksgiving supper that produced lots of of our household feasts pale by comparison.
Kristy was instrumental in encouraging to form WebMd by the decades. For example, she performed a crucial purpose in building out medical reference for people to incorporate award-profitable health information, attributes and video clips. One of the proudest moments for Kristy and her colleagues was when a online video about schizophrenia was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival.
“Right from the start out, Kristy did an awesome work,” said Steve Zatz, MD, previous chief executive officer at WebMD. “She was in a position to juggle all these disparate duties that she experienced and do them superbly. She could wrangle superstars and spreadsheets with equal ability.”
Even immediately after she was diagnosed with most cancers and began chemotherapy, Kristy actively guided the editorial crew by means of a merger with Internet Brand names.
Kristy earned degrees in English and artwork Record from Emory College. She is survived by her spouse Nabil, and her sons Milo and Evan, alongside with their extended relatives.
“We are pondering that she nonetheless has so substantially extra to do, just in a distinctive area,” reported Kristy’s mom, Marilyn Lawson.
