Theresa Hastert, PhD, MPP is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology and the Population Studies and Disparities Research Program at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on cancer survivorship, the financial impact of cancer, and cancer health disparities. Through this work, cancer survivors commonly reported that there were things they wished they would have known sooner about the costs of cancer and how to address them. The experience of those survivors, and the community members involved in the CACs, motivated her to develop MI-COST.