By now you’ll have seen the announcement that Craig Jordan will be joining us effective this July. I’m delighted to welcome him to Lombardi. He’s an old friend and colleague and I have witnessed firsthand his remarkable capacity to pull together diverse investigators in shared research enterprises. As Scientific Director, Craig will take a leading role in helping me to shape the research portfolio of the Cancer Center. He will be part of my senior operational leadership team, which will consist of Peter Shields in his role as Deputy Director, Michael Vander Hoek as Administrative Director, Craig as Scientific Director, and John Marshall as Clinical Director.
One of Craig’s most important tasks will be to identify opportunities for multi-investigator research programs and to help those programs coalesce and develop so they can be supported by traditional multi-investigator mechanisms such as P01s and SPOREs. I know that he is very excited about putting together a breast cancer SPORE effort working with our outstanding breast cancer investigators at Lombardi.
I was pleased when Claudine Isaacs and Bob Clarke initially approached me about trying to recruit Craig to Lombardi to take on a senior leadership role. They recognized his excellent fit with the breast cancer program at Lombardi. In his new role, Craig will have no specific programmatic leadership responsibilities, although his presence will certainly strengthen our breast cancer efforts here.
Craig will also have an important role in supporting fund raising efforts. His energy, charm, and wide experience will certainly prove to be great assets to Lombardi in that regard.
He will be visiting Lombardi to give a Visiting Professor Seminar in May. This will be a great opportunity for those of who you have not met him to learn more about his science. In the coming months there will be many additional opportunities for you to meet with Craig and learn more about his vision for his role as Scientific Director here at Lombardi.