Substantial lack of diversity seen in senior, emerging leadership of US cancer centers

Cultivating diversity in the cancer workforce — and particularly its leadership — has been an area of increased priority over the past several years.

The Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) conducted a survey to determine the extent of diversity not only at the highest levels of leadership, but also among emerging leaders in the field of oncology.

“There’s an awareness of limited diversity at the highest levels of leadership, such as cancer center directors, but we didn’t know as much about the level of diversity among emerging leaders, such as associate directors of cancer centers, deputy directors and even program leaders,” Caryn Lerman, PhD, director of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and president of AACI, told Healio. “I consider these to be the pool of emerging leaders that we would want to groom for the future and, therefore, assessed gender, ethnic and racial diversity among these individuals, as well.”

The survey included 82 cancer directors, 62 deputy directors, 639 associate directors and 795 research program leaders. …Read More