The City College of New York (CCNY)/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Partnership for Cancer Research, Training, and Community Outreach is a collaboration between CCNY and Memorial Sloan Kettering aimed at understanding disparities in cancer treatment and their impact on minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.
Since 2002, the partnership has established joint programs focusing on development; training and evaluation; and community outreach.
Development
The development aspect of the partnership focuses on faculty recruitment and funding collaborative research projects. A U54 cooperative grant from the National Institutes of Health supports and helps develop translational research programs in the areas of cell biology, immunology, biomedical research, and cancer treatment disparities.
Currently, the U54 funds two pilot research projects and three research projects. The partnership has also helped recruit three new faculty members at CCNY.
Training and Evaluation
Our training and evaluation programs aim to educate minority students who are interested in pursuing careers in cancer research. The majority of CCNY’s students are from racial and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in science, with a significant proportion of students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
The training programs provide enhanced education and training opportunities, as well as increased mentorship and support, to graduate students from Memorial Sloan Kettering and CCNY, and to undergraduate students from CCNY.
Community Outreach
The Partnership Community Outreach Program (PCOP) is dedicated to identifying and addressing cancer disparities. This program provides an infrastructure to work with members of the community to identify and prioritize specific areas for action to improve public health.
Through the promotion of community collaboration, the program draws upon the extensive resources of CCNY and Memorial Sloan Kettering to strengthen our overall training and research efforts. The partnership also sponsors large-scale outreach events and smaller activities featuring experts on topics such as healthy eating, smoking cessation, and cancer screening.
Contact Us
For more info about recent activities, please contact (MSK) Nicole Roberts-Eversley at RobertsN@mskcc.org and (CCNY) Leo Spychala at lspychala@ccny.cuny.edu.
For training activities, please contact (MSK) Sheila Fortunato at fortunas@mskcc.org and (CCNY) Leo Spychala at lspychala@ccny.cuny.edu.
For more information about PCOP and community outreach, please contact (MSK) Nicole Roberts-Eversley at RobertsN@mskcc.org and (CCNY) Leo Spychala at lspychala@ccny.cuny.edu.