After 28 years at St. Tammany Health System, during which time she was central to the founding and subsequent growth of the health system’s cancer care program, Chryl Corizzo is retiring.
Her last day will be May 17, although STHS colleagues and administrators surprised her Thursday afternoon (May 12) with a retirement celebration featuring cake, lots of hugs and expressions of sincere appreciation for her decades of work to evolve and elevate cancer care on the Northshore.
“I just can’t tell you how much we appreciate it,” Chief Nursing Officer Kerry Milton said at Thursday’s celebration, in reference to the health system’s cancer program, which was launched in 1984. “It’s so nice to think how far we’ve come in all that time. It has just grown and grown and grown.”
Jack Khashou, administrator of St. Tammany Cancer Center, a campus of Ochsner Medical Center, singled out the vital part Corizzo has played in earning the raft of accreditations attesting to the quality of the health system’s cancer program.
“We wouldn’t have been able to build the building down the street if not for you and those accreditations,” he said, referencing the new three-story building at I-12 and Louisiana 21 housing the center since last year. “That’ll always be your legacy.”
For her part, Corizzo – who thought she was attending a meeting to discuss a radiology document – was agog upon seeing those gathered to surprise her, which, in addition to varied STHS colleagues, included her husband, her mother and her daughter.
In addition to traveling and spending more time with her grandchildren, she intends to spend more time on her artistic passions: painting and teaching others to paint.
Scroll down to find more images from Thursday’s event – and congratulations to Chryl!