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ARLINGTON, Va. — Cathy Polley, vice president of health and wellness at the Food Marketing Institute and executive director of the FMI Foundation, died earlier this week after a long battle with cancer.
Cathy Polley, vice president of health and wellness at the Food Marketing Institute and executive director of the FMI Foundation, died earlier this week after a long battle with cancer.
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| Cathy Polley |
A registered pharmacist, Polley during the course of her career emerged as a leading advocate for the profession.
In overseeing FMI’s health and wellness initiatives, Polley emphasized the grocery store format’s unique combination of assets — food, pharmacy and nutrition experts — and the trade class’ ability to help customers lead healthy lives. She spearheaded the association’s advocacy on federal pharmacy policy issues. As executive director of the FMI Foundation, she helped support research and education in the areas of food safety, nutrition and health.
Prior to joining FMI, Polley was chief policy officer and senior vice president of government and professional affairs at the American Pharmacists Association. She also served as vice president of state government affairs at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, where she was responsible for leading the development and implementation of the association’s state legislative, regulatory and political agenda.
Before joining NACDS, Polley spent over 19 years at Kmart Corp. in numerous positions within the pharmacy division. She began her career as a graduate intern at Kmart and, upon licensure, was a frontline pharmacist there for eight years. She was then promoted to various positions, including pharmacy district manager, director of pharmacy operations, director of pharmacy health services and third party, and director of government and trade relations.
In addition to her work at FMI, Polley was actively involved with the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.
Funeral services for Polley will be held on Monday, Nov. 9, at 11 a.m. at the St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church in Fairfax, Va. A visitation with the family will be held from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m.
Her family has indicated that for those wishing to provide a memorial in her name, in lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance at ovariancancer.org. Sympathy cards and notes of condolence can be sent to Bill Polley and family, c/o Food Marketing Institute, 2345 Crystal Dr., Suite 800, Arlington, Va. 22202.
