Leadership, Planning and Evaluation

Rutgers Biomedical And Health Sciences, Newark NJ

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

LEADERSHIP, PLANNING AND EVALUATION (LPE) PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Responsibility for planning and evaluation activities at Rutgers Cancer Institute rests with Center Director, Steven K. Libutti, MD, FACS, who sets the vision for and leads Strategic Planning, participates in evaluation activities, and directs and supports Strategic Plan enhancements. The reporting period for this application spans our previous and current Strategic Plan. These Strategic Plans drove Cancer Center evolution and accelerated progress toward achieving our research vision, stability through tremendous growth and change, increased research collaborations, impact on catchment area, and improvements in training and education. Our Senior Leaders (Center Director – Steven Libutti, Deputy Director – Eileen White, and Associate Directors for Basic Research – Zhiyuan Shen; Clinical Research – Howard Hochster; Population Science and Community Outreach – Anita Kinney; Translational Research – Shridar Ganesan; Consortium Research – Yibin Kang; Education and Training – Edmund Lattime; Shared Resources – Adam Berger; and Administration and Planning – Linda Tanzer) each have welldefined roles and work collaboratively to drive scientific progress that addresses the needs of our catchment area. Our primary advisory bodies, which include our External and Internal Advisory Boards, Consortium Steering Committee, and Community Cancer Action Board (CCAB), engaged key stakeholders and provide valuable insights in alignment with the Strategic Plan. Selected achievements of Leadership include: 1) launch of a new five-year Strategic Plan with a vision and core values enhanced by communication with the new CCAB; 2) expansion of the role of our new Associate Director for Community Outreach to incorporate oversight of Population Science; 3) recruitment of a new Associate Director and Assistant Director for Shared Resources and development of an Office of Shared Resource Management; 4) 93% increase in accruals to interventional therapeutic studies with statewide impact; 5) growth in the cancer institute’s signature efforts in immunology and metabolism to include establishment of a new Immunology and Metabolism center, a developing Cellular Therapy program, operationalizing a GMP facility, strengthening the Cancer Metabolism and Immunology Research Program through better integration of the immunology aim, and accelerating cancer metabolism research with Princeton University, including a joint partnership in the new Ludwig-Princeton Branch; 6) establishment of the Immune Monitoring Core as a new Shared Resource; and 7) expanding our cancer screening initiative for underserved regions of our catchment area. These achievements contributed to an increased cancer focus, shown by the 22% growth in peer-reviewed cancer-focused funding.