Cancer Center Administration

ABSTRACT The Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University (Lurie Cancer Center or LCC) Administration supports efficient centralized operations, analytics and programmatic infrastructure that enables exceptional basic, translational, clinical, and population-based research at LCC. The Administration supports the Director, Senior Leaders, Program Leaders, Shared Resource Directors, the External Advisory Board, donors, and general membership in advancing LCC’s mission through administrative management, centralized services and overall planning and evaluation. The Administration manages the more than $74 million annual budget, implements institutional policy for the management of dedicated research and administrative space, coordinates new member applications and conducts the annual membership review and monitoring process. It also supports and facilitates community outreach and engagement and cancer research training and education, to carry out LCC’s mission to reduce the burden of cancer in the community. The LCC Administration has been led by Aleksandar (Alex) Zafirovski, MBA, Chief Administrative Officer, since 2015, supported by a stable and talented team. Full implementation of the previous LCC strategic plan and the development of a new strategic plan (2023-2028) was one of many accomplishments from the current funding period. The implementation and forward strategic planning were completed via extensive work with Senior Leadership, including engaging more than 350 stakeholders and working in close partnership and coordination with Northwestern Medicine HealthCare (NMHC). Other major LCC accomplishments include the development and support of new shared resources; logistical support for the recruitment of 124 new LCC faculty; support for the successful competing renewals of SPORE grants; and several new P01 and other large collaborative grants. The efforts of the LCC administration demonstrably contributed to the substantial increase in cancer-relevant NIH funding over this grant period, from $94 million in 2017 to $108.6 million currently.