All in the Family: Building a Bright Future Together
Lead radiation oncology secretary Angela Penney and her daughters—a radiation therapist and mechanical engineer—touch many aspects of the new Edwin Barbey Patient Care Pavilion.
As Angela Penney walks around the Edwin Barbey Patient Care Pavilion construction site on a recent Monday with her daughters, Jessica and Meredith, she is beaming with pride.
“I’m really impressed with all my girls, who are so good at math and science. I love to tell people, ‘My daughter helped design the vaults,’” says Penney, referring to the place where radiation treatments will be administered.
The new building project is truly a family affair. Angela, lead radiation oncology secretary at the Davenport-Mugar Cancer Center, has been the friendly face behind the front desk for 23 years; middle daughter, Jessica Sheehan, works as a radiation therapist in the same department; and the youngest, Meredith Penney, is a mechanical engineer who contributed to the design of the heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment in the radiation-treatment vaults. Penney’s eldest daughter, Alex, also works in healthcare in the trauma/cardiac ICU as a physician assistant at the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Boston, which is affiliated with Cape Cod Healthcare. All three were born at Cape Cod Hospital.
Since the new structure is located behind their current building, Angela’s coworkers enjoy a front-row seat daily of the construction process from their windows. “We follow along, bite our tongues while we watch the workers in the buckets when they are way up high,” says Angela. “We follow along and are living the progress day by day.”
Angela and Meredith together at beam signing and topping-off ceremony in October.
Meredith: ‘Project holds special place in my heart’
As a mechanical engineer for a company based in Boston’s Seaport District, daughter Meredith designs mainly healthcare-related projects. When she heard her company at the time, the Smith Group, ultimately won the bid for the Cape Cod Hospital project, she asked her boss if she could work on it. “It was close to home, my mom and sister work there,” says Meredith. “It was really cool to see the whole process of it.”
The James Madison University graduate says she helped design the air-handling systems and the radiation-treatment vaults. The brand-new space presented a few challenges, such as meeting specific codes and requirements. “The vaults are made of concrete because of the radiation,” says Meredith. “We had to bring in the heating, cooling, the pipes, and conduits—and coordinate how small we could make everything while still hitting code.”
The new patient care pavilion (initially referred to as the Barbey Patient Care Tower) is on track to start welcoming patients in April 2025. The patient care pavilion will house a state-of-the-art cancer center, consolidate the hospital’s many cardiology programs, and add 32 more medical/surgical beds to address increasing demand.
Since Meredith had the inside track, sister Jessica shares they would ask her questions such as, “Do you know if we have a door to this room?”; “How many monitors are we going to get?”; and “Can you look at the blueprints for us?”
Meredith recalls looking at the floor plans and writing: “Meredith’s mom’s office and Meredith’s sister’s work area. I sent Mom a picture and said, “This is your desk.”
“This project holds a special place in my heart—more so than other hospitals that I have worked on,” says Meredith. “We do a lot of rehab jobs, rebalancing and putting in new duct systems. It’s really rare you get to build something from the ground up.”
Angela and Jessica: Mother-Daughter Duo in Oncology
Jessica credits her mom for inspiring her to get into the specialized field of radiation therapy. She’s been at Cape Cod Hospital for about a year and a half as a radiation therapist. Prior to joining CCH, she worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for seven years.
“Most people don’t know this field exists,” says Jessica. “I graduated with eight people in my major of radiation therapy at the University of Vermont. I just happened to know about it because of my mom.”
“It’s definitely a niche,” adds Angela.
Jessica’s busy 8 a.m.–4 p.m. schedule includes morning meetings and seeing patients about every 15 minutes. On occasion, she and her mother will have lunch together or go for a walk during their breaks. “I’m with patients, she’s out front, so we have a little bit of separation,” says Jessica, adding they will often communicate about improving procedures, and her mom will let her know if a patient is running late.
Since all three daughters excel in their respective fields, what’s the secret to their success? Angela credits her husband, Bob, for sparking their love for math and science. Every summer, he would give them math worksheets to prepare for the school year ahead. “But he would make it fun,” says Angela. “In my day, women weren’t really exposed to those fields. I’m very impressed that they can do what they do.”
It’s clear the members of this tight-knit family support one another every step of the way—and also have some fun together outside of work. Angela says they are looking forward to a family vacation this summer to Greece, including trips to Athens, Santorini and Crete. At one point, there will be 18 family members together in one place.
“There’s nothing better in life than to see your children grow up, succeed, be proud of them—and be a small part of their lives,” says Angela. It’s the best thing a parent can hope for.”
