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Nominations Open for 2022 Champion for Cures Award
AACI cancer center directors are invited to submit nominations for the 2022 Champion for Cures Award.
AACI established the award in 2018 to recognize an individual or individuals who, through direct financial support of an AACI cancer center, demonstrate exceptional leadership in advancing cancer research and care and in inspiring others to do the same.
Selected by the AACI Board of Directors, the awardee will have gained distinction through their visionary approach to promoting our shared goal of a future without cancer. Through their transformational philanthropy, which may take many forms—including supporting a new facility, cancer center infrastructure, or programming—the cancer center can focus beyond immediate needs to foster creativity and innovation and multiply its impact on patient health, research, and its surrounding community.
The 2021 Champion for Cures Award was presented virtually at the AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting to Sidney and Caroline Kimmel (pictured). Over the past 25 years, the Kimmels changed the course of cancer research and care in Philadelphia and across the nation. Since 1994, they have given nearly $600 million for cancer research. This included a gift of $10 million to Thomas Jefferson University to name its cancer center, igniting a five-fold growth in the number of its investigators and establishing a premier program in translating breakthroughs and treatments. Because of the Kimmels, Jefferson has been a Philadelphia-area leader in oncology research, patient treatment, and education services.
The 2020 award was presented to Nike, Inc. co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny. The Knights demonstrated their commitment to the cancer community with a $100 million gift used to recruit the best and brightest researchers to the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). The Knights also helped build a network of people who are invested in the success of Knight Cancer Institute. In 2019, AACI presented the award to Brynn and Peter Huntsman of the Jon M. and Karen Huntsman family, whose first major gift to cancer research came in 1993 at $10 million, followed by a $100 million gift in 1995 that formally established and named the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah.
The Champion for Cures Award will be presented during the 2022 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting, October 2-4, at the InterContinental at the Plaza, Kansas City.
Please contact Shelly Pocratsky, development coordinator, with any questions about the 2022 award cycle.