Meet (?Join?) the Hope Foundation Board

But it’s also unique among the foundations associated with the four NCTN adult groups in that its board of directors has the freedom to select a leader other than their group chair. That indicates a deep commitment to a broadly representative, diverse, and independent leadership. The foundation’s bylaws limit leadership terms, ensure new members are rotated in regularly, and require that several board members be from outside of the SWOG membership.

Hope administers more peer-reviewed, competitive grant programs than the other NCTN group foundations, so it needs multiple routes for mitigating potential conflicts of interest. The safeguards built into the board’s structure ensure that the quality of the science and the potential value to patients are the primary drivers of Hope’s decisions about resource allocation.

They also make an important value statement for use in Hope’s fundraising efforts, making it clear the board has the freedom to steward foundation resources according to its stated principles.

Changes to the Hope board
While the selection of the group chair as board chair is not automatic, it is allowable. Early in my tenure, I served as chair of the Hope board (for six years) and will continue, as SWOG group chair, to be an ex officio board member. However, in October, the board named a new chair, vice chair, and secretary.

Our new board chair is Dr. Raymond Osarogiagbon, who is chief scientist at the Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation and directs the Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program and the Thoracic Oncology Research Group at the Baptist Cancer Center in Memphis. At Baptist he also oversees the “Mid-South Miracle” initiative, a seven-pronged strategy for significantly reducing lung cancer deaths in the Mid-South, a multi-state region with a markedly elevated incidence of this cancer. A community oncologist, Osarogiagbon serves as site primary investigator for the Baptist Memorial Health Care/Mid-South Minority Underserved NCORP, and he has led the NCORP site PI sessions at SWOG’s recent group meetings.

Dr. Don Dizon is the board’s new vice chair, replacing outgoing vice chair Dr. Lee Ellis. He’s professor of medicine and professor of surgery at Brown University, director of the pelvic malignancies program at the Lifespan Cancer Institute, head of community outreach and engagement at the Legoretta Cancer Center at Brown University, and director of medical oncology at Rhode Island Hospital. Within SWOG, Dizon is well known as chair of our digital engagement committee, and he’s seemingly everywhere on social media. He’s a cofounder of the Collaboration for Outcomes using Social Media in Oncology, or COSMOS, and writes columns for The Oncologist, ASCO, and Medscape.

At the fall meeting, the board also selected David Gibson as board secretary, replacing Dr. James Rae. Gibson is vice president for communications and marketing at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has more than 30 years of experience in communications for higher education and nonprofit organizations in the healthcare, charitable, and cultural sectors. He has led teams specializing in advancement communications, including divisions at MIT and Dartmouth, and is a trustee of the philanthropic organization JourneyGives.

Our board treasurer, Cavitt Randall has served in that role for several years now. He’s the chief operating officer at SI Capital, a private investment firm with a $5+ billion portfolio, where he’s responsible for equity and derivative investing. He joined SI Capital after almost 17 years as senior vice president at GE Capital.

At the fall meeting, the board also welcomed three new members: Drs. Sarah Goldberg, Syed Ahmad, and Cathy Tangen. They replaced outgoing board members who had completed their terms: Drs. Jason Zell, Lee Ellis, and Mike LeBlanc.

The remaining members of the Hope Foundation board of directors are:

• Anjali S. Advani, MD
• Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, MD, MSc
• Nathan Eriksen
• Jo Horn
• Primo “Lucky” Lara, Jr., MD
• Gary H. Lyman, MD
• Lajos Pusztai, MD, DPhil
• James M. Rae, PhD
• Joseph M. Unger, PhD

I thank the outgoing board members for their service to Hope, and thank our incoming members and new leaders for continually demonstrating their commitment to our shared mission.

I also note that we have an open board seat right now for a director from outside the ranks of SWOG members. If you have a great candidate in mind – perhaps a patient or community supporter – please bring them to Jo Horn’s attention (jo@thehopefoundation.org). And if you are interested in joining the board yourself, we’d love to consider you for a future position!