A $7 million gift will fund an endowed chair and research fellowships focused on addressing health disparities in cancer care at New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The permanently endowed Nicholls-Biondi Chair for Health Equity aims to improve cancer patient outcomes for those with lack of access to quality medical care, MSK said in a Feb. 8 announcement. The cancer center named Carol Brown, MD, as the chair's inaugural incumbent. Dr. Brown is a gynecologic cancer surgeon and has worked at MSK for more than 20 years.
The newly established Nicholls-Biondi Diversity Clinical Scientist Fellowships for Academic Careers in Cancer Research will improve MSK's cancer research by recruiting and training physicians from historically underrepresented groups in science, according to the news release.
Jamie Nicholls, vice president of the MSK Boards of Trustees and Governing Trustees, and her husband O. Francis Biondi, provided the gift to fund the new efforts.