Senior Leadership Appointment of Dr. Sheldon Holder 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 degarelix to treat androgen receptor positive bladder cancer.” (https://www.cureswithinreach.org/aiovg_videos/cureaccelerator-live-for-d...). 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 Robert A. 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 (https://www.colorofcancer.live/about) in the community (https://x.com/weldeiry/status/1717701925737578981?s=20). 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.