Leadership, Planning and Evaluation

LEADERSHIP, PLANNING AND EVALUATION (LPE) PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Responsibility for planning and evaluation activities at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) rests with Center Director, Steven K. Libutti, MD, FACS who sets the vision for and leads the Strategic Planning process, participates in evaluation activities, and directs and supports Strategic Plan enhancements. The reporting period for this application spans the last three years of our previous Strategic Plan and the first two of our current plan (2021 – 2025). The Strategic Plans drove the evolution of the Center and accelerated progress toward achievement of our research vision, stability through tremendous growth and change, increased research collaborations, impact on catchment area, improvements in training and education, and plans to enhance diversity. 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 – Yiban Kang; Education and Training – Edmund Lattime; Shared Resources – Adam Berger; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – Haejin In; and Administration and Planning – Linda Tanzer) each have well-defined 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 planning and evaluation 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 development of an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; 4) recruitment of a new Associate Director and Assistant Director for Shared Resources and development of an Office of Shared Resource Management; 5) 93% increase in accruals to interventional therapeutic studies with statewide impact; 6) growth in CINJ signature efforts in immunology and metabolism to include a) establishment of a new Immunology and Metabolism center, b) a developing program in Cellular Therapy, c) operationalization of a GMP facility, d) strengthening the Cancer Metabolism and Immunology (formerly Cancer Metabolism and Growth) Research Program through better integration of the immunology aim, and e) accelerating research in cancer metabolism through stronger relations with Princeton University including a joint partnership in the new Ludwig-Princeton Branch; 7) establishment of the Immune Monitoring Core as a new Shared Resource; and 8) dramatic expansion in our cancer screening initiative for underserved regions of our catchment area (navigation to >52,000 cancer screenings). These achievements contributed to an increased cancer focus, shown by the 22% growth in peer-reviewed cancer-focused funding (17% increase in NCI funding).