Wafik El-Deiry: Congratulations to Dr. Sheldon Holder on his Senior Leadership Appointment at the Legorreta Cancer Center

Wafik El-Deiry posted on LinkedIn.

“Congratulations to Dr. Sheldon Holder on his Senior Leadership Appointment at the Legorreta Cancer Center.

I’m delighted to announce the appointment of Sheldon Holder, MD, PhD as the Associate Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University.

Dr. Holder is an Assistant Professor in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine where his laboratory focuses on PIM1 in kidney cancer. In addition, Sheldon is a practicing Hematologist/Oncologist, seeing patients with genitourinary cancers at Brown University affiliated Miriam Hospital. Dr. Holder is active in developing clinical trials for his patients and is a recent recipient of the CuresWithReach Award with his project funding a clinical trial, “Repurposing deguelin to treat androgen receptor positive bladder cancer.” Dr. Holder also received the Kidney Cancer Association’s Trailblazer Award which funds promising young- to mid-career investigators to foster innovative research in kidney cancer.

Dr. Holder has grown his clinical trial work to focus on the accrual of underrepresented individuals via a Dr. Rob Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Award Program grant that focuses on diet interventions in minoritized prostate cancer patents. Dr. Holder currently co-chairs the American Cancer Society’s Peer Review Committee for Clinical Studies and Clinical Trials.

Recently, Holder has collaborated with the American Cancer Society to develop a plan to create a Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium with the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions.

Here in Rhode Island, Dr. Holder recently launched the Color of Cancer Project in the community. This is being paired with regularly scheduled Cancer Talk Café events in the community focusing on conversations about different kinds of cancer.

In his role as Associate Director, Holder will oversee the Cancer Center’s Plan to Enhance Diversity, a component of the cancer center support grant. This will entail leading DEI efforts at the Legorreta Cancer Center for strategic planning, to gather data, liaison with education and training efforts as well as community outreach and engagement. Holder will help to enhance participation of women, minorities and individuals from groups nationally under underrepresented in the research workforce, center leadership and advisory boards.

Please join me in warmly welcoming Sheldon to the Legorreta leadership team.”

Source: Wafik El-Deiry/LinkedIn

Wafik El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, FRSM, an American Cancer Society Research Professor, is the Associate Dean for Oncologic Sciences at the Warren Alpert Medical School and Director of the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University. Dr. El-Deiry discovered p21(WAF1) as a p53 target gene, cell cycle inhibitor, and tumor suppressor that explained the mammalian cell stress response. This has been the most highly cited original work published in Cell. He discovered TRAIL receptor DR5 as a p53 target, and ONC201/TIC10 as a TRAIL pathway, integrated stress response inducer, and cancer therapeutic with efficacy in diffuse midline glioma and other tumors. He was named one of America’s Top Oncologists by the Consumer Res Council of America in 2008 and 2009. He is a practicing physician-scientist specializing in colorectal cancer treatment.