Leadership, Planning and Evaluation

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT – LEADERSHIP, PLANNING AND EVALUATION The committee structure of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center (DLDCCC) provides a robust framework for evaluating activities in its research as well as its clinical, education and outreach missions. These committees also review programs, disease working groups and shared resources. The Director, Dr. Pavan Reddy, has broad authority across strategic planning and evaluation and engages senior leaders and external advisors to provide input and refine his vision for the center. The Executive Committee is comprised of senior leadership — including Dr. Reddy, Deputy Director Dr. Helen Heslop, and the 11 Associate Directors — and is the key decision-making entity. In addition, the Program Leaders Committee, which includes all members of the EC and program leaders, plays an important role guiding the DLDCCC. A number of other committees support specific areas such as Clinical Research, Shared Resources, Education and Community Outreach. Each of these committees reports metrics to the EC as part of the evaluation process for all DLDCCC components. The Director and leadership team develop strategies to enhance the DLDCCC’s basic, translational, clinical, and population science research efforts; to monitor education and community outreach and engagement efforts; and to identify opportunities for collaborations and new research directions. Dr. Reddy and the senior leadership obtain additional advice from Internal and External Advisory Committees. The Internal Committee includes Department Chairs and Center Directors at Baylor College of Medicine, while our engaged External Committee meets annually to provide valuable input. The DLDCCC recently completed an extensive strategic planning process, with input from all members, which resulted in a new five-year strategic plan introduced in 2024. This plan focuses on promoting high-impact collaborative basic, translational, clinical and population science research that serves our catchment area and has identified six pillars, including Basic immunology and quantitative science, Cross-cutting basic and clinical programs of excellence, with a focus on neuroscience, mesothelioma and clonal hematopoiesis, and translation of DLDCCC basic concepts, among others.