Message from the Director: NCI designation

By Mark Evers, MD, UK Markey Cancer Center Director 

While a big part of the mission of faculty and staff at the Markey Cancer Center is focused on educating the students at all levels in our institution, our secondary mission is to continue educating ourselves, ensuring that the opportunities we afford both our patients and our students continues to be cutting-edge.

I’ve always been proud of the collaborative atmosphere at the cancer center. One visible manifestation of this teamwork is through the cooperative and collaborative events we host. Already this year, we’ve had our established journal clubs and weekly research seminars (every Wednesday at noon), hosted multiple guest lecturers and researchers from across the U.S., and held an impressive number of symposia and regional and national conferences.

Many of these events are organized by our faculty, either voluntarily or as a result of their leadership positions in professional organizations that bring them together with researchers and leaders at other institutions who are interested in the same concepts and projects.

More and more, measures around these events impact our institution’s ability to compete on a national scale. For example, grant mechanisms look to see how often we’re leading collaborative educational efforts, and recruits pay attention to those opportunities as evidence that we continually support lifelong learning. I would like to commend our community for embracing these learning opportunities, for supporting each other in the success of each event, and for continuing to devote time and resources to provide learning opportunities for everyone. The spring and summer seasons always feature a busy conference and collaborative learning schedule, with our very own Cancer Research Day held every spring. I encourage all of you to take advantage of those opportunities to learn, discuss and share with each other the important work you do for Markey on a daily basis.