Award is a three-year professional and leadership development program designed to help early-career clinical investigators
Thomas Odeny, MD, MPH, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Oncology, member of the School for Public Health secondary faculty, has been selected for a Winn Clinical Investigator Leadership Award. This competitive three-year program, supported by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and implemented through Conquer Cancer’s EveryGrant, prepares early-career investigators to lead multi-site cancer clinical trials.
The award is open exclusively to graduates of the Winn Career Development Award program, and Odeny is one of seven physicians nationwide selected for the third CILA-Onc cohort. He is also the first WashU Medicine faculty member to participate in the Winn Award Program. Through the program, Odeny will take part in leadership training led by ASCO and engage in clinical trial development through SWOG, one of the NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network cooperative research groups
The Winn CILA is a three-year professional and leadership development program designed for early-career clinical investigators — exclusively graduates of the Winn Career Development Award (Winn CDA). The program provides salary support, advanced clinical trials expertise, high-impact mentorship, and institutional networks to help participants become independent and highly effective community-oriented clinical researchers.
Odeny leads the Global Oncology Initiative at WashU, a U.S.- Africa cancer research platform spanning five countries that focuses on building clinical trial infrastructure and training cancer researchers. His NIH-funded research integrates implementation science into cancer clinical trials to strengthen trial delivery and accelerate the use of evidence-based cancer care.
This program will help position me to lead multi-site cancer studies within the National Clinical Trials Network and SWOG, while continuing to expand the international research partnerships we’ve built through the Global Oncology Initiative.”
Thomas Odeny, MD, MPH, PhD
Oncology (CILA-Onc), implemented by Conquer Cancer’s EveryGrant®
“As the Winn Awards enters its fifth year, we are seeing the vision behind the program take shape through a new generation of community-centered scientific leaders,” said Catharine Grimes, President of the BMS Foundation. “The Clinical Investigator Leadership Award equips Winn CDA graduates with leadership training and the unique opportunity to work directly within the National Clinical Trials Network and the Strategically Focused Research Networks to bring the promise of innovation closer to every community. The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation is proud to support their continued career and leadership development, as they improve clinical trial participation and ultimately patient outcomes in the communities they serve.”