Skip to main content
An official website of the United States government
Email

Black in Cancer Primes the Workforce Pipeline

Headshot of cancer researcher

Sigourney Bonner, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Director, Black in Cancer

I co-founded the U.K. nonprofit Black in Cancer in 2020 while still in graduate school, seeing firsthand the need for a space for Black researchers to connect and support each other professionally. Co-founder Henry Henderson III and I also recognized we could help inform and empower the Black community to advocate for themselves in health care decisions with the goal of reducing cancer health disparities. This dual vision fits perfectly into several goals of the National CancerPlan: Optimizing the Workforce, Eliminating Inequities, and Engaging Every Person.

Eager to make a global impact, we partnered with NCI’s Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research to hold the second Black in Cancer conference in June, this time in the United States. “Lifting as We Climb” was the theme of the 2024 Black in Cancer Conference, which brought together more than 300 oncologists, scientists, students, trainees, advocates, and allies to the NIH campus to share advances in cancer drug discovery and delivery and to discuss ways to support the Black cancer research community at every stage of their careers.

Beyond the conferences we host, Black in Cancer is committed to empowering ambitious cancerresearchers throughout their educational journey, facilitating their transition into successful careers. Black in Cancer offers a mentorship program as well as funding awards to support Ph.D., postdoctoral, and early-career investigators.

Black in Cancer’s awareness projects aim to provide culturally competent and accessible information about cancer to the community to educate and enhance participation in clinical trials. One of our more recent activities was a collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the annual Black Family Cancer Awareness Week, held over the 2024 Juneteenth weekend.

We are grateful to NCI for its support of our 2024 conference, where we were privileged to hear from many NCI leaders—as well as leaders from the American Cancer Society, the World Health Organization, Johnson & Johnson, FDA, and many U.S. cancer centers and universities—who all share our vision to grow the pipeline of talented Black researchers who can serve their communities.

If you would like to reproduce some or all of this content, see Reuse of NCI Information for guidance about copyright and permissions. In the case of permitted digital reproduction, please credit the National Cancer Institute as the source and link to the original NCI product using the original product's title; e.g., “Black in Cancer Primes the Workforce Pipeline was originally published by the National Cancer Institute.”

Email