Biden Cancer Initiative Launches
On June 26, at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden launched the Biden Cancer Initiative, their new venture to continue the fight to make progress in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and care.
Initiative Overview
The Biden Cancer Initiative will develop and drive implementation of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research, and care and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes. Through the Biden Cancer Initiative, Vice President and Dr. Biden strengthen their commitment to inject a sense of urgency into our cancer research and care systems and reimagine how the government, academia, nonprofits, and private sector can better organize their resources and systems to collaborate to take on cancer, with the patient as the focus. The Initiative will be a major convening force in driving new actions and collaborations toward ending cancer as we know it.
Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden said of this new effort, “Every minute, every day matters to patients, and we must bring that same sense of urgency to cancer research and care systems.… We are joining everyone who spends their days thinking about preventing cancer, about better understanding its biologic basis, about bringing early detection and education to all communities, about developing new treatments and therapies, and about caring for patients and their families through some of the hardest days anyone faces. We are on your team. And we are proud to be working alongside you.”
Board of Directors
The Biden Cancer Initiative will be guided by a Board of Directors (co-chaired by Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden) that includes world-renowned leaders and experts in the fields of medical research, patient care, information technology, finance, management, patient engagement, patient experience, and public policy.
Joining the Board of Directors are:
- David B. Agus, MD, Professor of Medicine and Engineering, University of Southern California (USC); Founding Director and CEO, Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC
- Erin Andrews, FOX Sports’ Lead NFL Sideline Reporter; Co-Host, ABC's Dancing With The Stars; cancer survivor
- David G. Bradley, Chairman, Atlantic Media Company; Founder, Advisory Board Company; Founder, Corporate Advisory Board Company
- Carol L. Brown, MD, Director, Office of Diversity Programs in Clinical Care, Research, and Training, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Jimmy “Taboo” Gomez, Musician (Black Eyed Peas); cancer survivor
- Julie Papanek Grant, MBA, MPhil, Partner, Canaan Partners
- Elizabeth Jaffee, MD, Deputy Director, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University
- Howard Krein, MD, PhD, Senior Director of Health Policy and Innovation, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and Associate Professor, Facial Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery, Microvascular Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University
- Eric S. Lander, PhD, Director, Broad Institute of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Todd Park, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer
- Gregory C. Simon, JD, President, Biden Cancer Initiative
- Kim Thiboldeaux, CEO, Cancer Support Community
- Jeffrey Zients, former Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council
Staff Leadership
The Biden Cancer Initiative will be headquartered in Washington, DC, and led by some of the same team who led the White House Cancer Moonshot for then–Vice President Biden.
Greg Simon will serve as President and member of the Biden Cancer Initiative Board of Directors. Mr. Simon served as the Executive Director of the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Worldwide Policy and Patient Engagement at Pfizer, cofounded FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, and cofounded the Melanoma Research Alliance. Mr. Simon is a cancer survivor, having been recently successfully treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Danielle Carnival, PhD, will serve as Vice President for the Biden Cancer Initiative. Danielle most recently served as the Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Director for the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force.
Katie Collins will be Program Director for the Biden Cancer Initiative. Katie served as the Policy Analyst for the Cancer Moonshot Task Force and the Special Assistant to the effort's Executive Director.
For More Information
Follow @BidenCancer on Twitter, and to like or view their Facebook page, go to www.facebook.com/bidencancer.
To learn more about the Biden Cancer Initiative, visit bidencancer.org.
The content in this post has not been reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) and does not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of ASCO®.
