? Leadership, Planning and Evaluation Senior Leadership of the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) is a carefully selected group of nationally prominent individuals who have clearly defined roles, and together share overall responsibility for realizing the mission of the ACC. Senior Leaders develop and implement strategies that respond to the needs of members, fostering a creative, cohesive, and comprehensive cancer research environment that encourages transdisciplinary team science across the translational pipeline for which the ACC is well-known. Senior Leaders foster and advance basic discovery in line with strategic priorities, facilitating clinical translation. The ACC has a well-established internal, Institutional, and external Planning and Evaluation (P&E) process that engages leaders, members, and scientific and community advisors from multiple disciplines and perspectives. The goal of this process is to guide future directions, set priorities, and prioritize investments of the ACC while at the same time, providing ongoing mechanisms to monitor, assess, and adjust research progress, Programs, Shared Resources, allocations, and strategies. This cohesive process is supported by highly integrated and effective bodies, such as the Director's Advisory Council, Executive Committee, Program Leaders Committee, and committees for Shared Resources, Community Outreach and Engagement, Cancer Research Training and Education, Pilot Funds, and Clinical Informatics. External Scientific Advisory (ESAB) and Community Advisory Boards (CAB) provide critical advice and feedback. The P&E process resulted in changes in Program infrastructure; development of new Shared Resources; new leaders, resources, and tools for COE; improvements in clinical research operations; strategic recruitments; and prioritization of Developmental Funds. Complementing these efforts are Programmatic and Center-wide research seminars, meetings, and retreats that foster new interactions and collaborations with Penn colleagues and external experts. A Strategic Plan in 2016 set forth the goals for this period, and upon appointment of Dr. Vonderheide as Director, the ACC conducted a Strategic Plan Update in 2018-2019. Seven priority areas were evaluated: Experimental Therapeutics, Biomedical Informatics, Population Sciences, Immune Health, Precision Oncology, Shared Resources, and Education and Training. Priority values include relevance to the catchment area, team science, translation of discovery, risk assessment, precision profiling, leveraging of big data, behavioral research, and education and training. Rigorous internal review of Programs, Shared Resources, Developmental Funds, and the strategic plan by Senior Leaders and the ESAB ensure that the ACC continues to achieve its highest aspirations and adheres to NCI guidelines. The ACC responds to all ESAB recommendations and then reports on its actions. Taken together, integrated P&E processes successfully guided marked growth and impact of the ACC during the current funding period.
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