The Inception and Progression of a True Partnership: How to Make It Work for at Least 20 Years

ABSTRACT

A cancer partnership was established between the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC) Georgetown University Medical Center in 2000 to focus on Cancer Prevention and Control. The major goal of the Partnership was cancer research, education, and cancer outreach. African American populations in the District of Columbia were the focus of this Partnership. This Partnership began with a planning grant (P20) from the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health (NCI/NIH) and two years later it received additional funding in the form of a U56 grant from NCI/NIH. Stemming from this Partnership has been new undergraduate courses in cancer prevention, new cancer outreach activities, collaborative projects between UDC and LCCC faculty researchers, a Cancer Academy for both graduate and undergraduate students, a Bridges to the Doctorate Program for graduate students, and the designing and implementation of a UDC/LCCC jointly taught and administered Master’s Program in Cancer Biology, Prevention and Control. It is hoped that many more activities will stem from this continuing Partnership, which is twenty years old. A description of the planning activities, policies to include or avoid, and outcomes will be detailed in this article.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the many dedicated individuals who formed the UDC/LCCC Partnership. Each person was instrumental in its success. I truly appreciate the efforts of Ms. Regina Jackson and Kim Fenwick who were extraordinary administrative assistants. I would especially like to thank the individuals who played leadership roles: Drs Norman Kondo (UDC), Peter Shields (LCCC) and Jan Blancato (LCCC). They put forth a great deal of time and effort helping the African American citizens of the District of Columbia learn methods of cancer prevention and control, assisted many students to enhance their academic careers, and supported the faculty at both UDC and LCCC to collaborate on research projects. All of these parameters led to the longevity that this Partnership currently enjoys.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by many grants from the National Institutes of Health: P20 CA091432, U56CA101563, R25GMO75460 , R25CA129035 and T36GM008742 and the financial support from the University of the District of Columbia and Georgetown University.