Leonard M. Rosen Memorial Research Award
The Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy annually presents the Leonard M. Rosen Memorial Research Award of $10,000, to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to childhood cancer policy and advocacy.
About Leonard M. Rosen:
This Award honors Leonard Rosen’s many years of service on the Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy Board of Directors, as chairman and founding member. Leonard was the proud grandfather of a child treated successfully for cancer. He was a brilliant and astute advocate, who worked to advance research and regulations that could improve the effectiveness of childhood cancer therapies. Leonard was a founding partner of Wachtell Rosen Lipton & Katz, a prominent New York City law firm.
In tribute to his legacy, the Rosen Award is granted annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to childhood cancer policy and advocacy, recognizing the importance and unique challenges associated with the care and treatment of children with cancer.
2018 Recipient:
Julia Rowland, PhD | Senior Strategic Advisor, Smith Center for Healing the Arts
Dr. Rowland was formerly the Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, and she is widely recognized as a national and international scholar, researcher and leader in the psychosocial aspects of cancer care broadly and cancer survivorship specifically.
In the 1970s, Dr. Rowland was on the front-lines of early survivorship research in the 1970s at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. In her Rosen Award acceptance speech, she described this time of early survivorship research: “This was incredibly exciting science. The focus was shifting away from how long we could help these children live to look at quality of life and function being as important as length of life. To me, that was the start of cancer survivorship — a movement that caught me and I’ve been hooked ever since.”
Dr. Rowland’s work in the survivorship space continues to this day:
“Currently, I’m in the process of creating a way for treatment centers across the country to do a self-assessment to evaluate their capacity - staff, systems, resource, commitment needed - to provide the [recommended Standards for the Psychosocial Care of Children with Cancer and their Families.]”
As a recipient of the Leonard M. Rosen Memorial Research Award, Dr. Rowland receives $10,000 in recognition and support of her work. In accepting this award, she described how these funds will help support her current endeavors: “I’m hoping to use the Rosen Award funds to conduct demonstration projects at a handful of sites that will examine how this tool can be used to enhance the capacity to deliver high quality care, the ultimate goal being to improve the psycosocial care available and delivered to childhood cancer survivors and their families.”
Past Awardees:
2017: Aaron Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH | PORTAL Director, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Kesselheim is Director of the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kesselheim was selected for the second annual presentation of this award in recognition of his critical research advancing treatments and access for children battling cancer. His work in the legal and regulatory fields of drug development and approval, as well as insurance coverage and reimbursement practices, informs and supports the policy efforts of Children’s Cause and childhood cancer advocates. Dr. Kesselheim is also a faculty member in the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics and an Irving S. Ribicoff Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Yale Law School.
“Prescription drugs can be life-changing treatments for children with cancer, and so we need to make sure that there is adequate support for their discovery and development, that they are rigorously tested in the appropriate populations, and that they are accessible to the patients who need them,” Kesselheim stated in acceptance of this Award. “My research in pharmaceutical policy—done in close collaboration with my colleagues at PORTAL and the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology—touches on all of these subjects, and it’s an honor to be recognized by a group like Children’s Cause that is dedicated to supporting these goals.”
2016: Mary McCabe, RN, MA | Director of Cancer Survivorship Initiative, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Mary McCabe is widely recognized as a leader in cancer survivorship with the development of comprehensive programs for cancer survivors, which includes follow-up care, research, and education and training. An oncology nurse, she previously served as Director of Education and Special Initiatives at the National Cancer Institute and chairs Memorial Sloan Kettering's Ethics Committee.
In acknowledgment of the Award, Ms. McCabe initiated a guest lectureship at MSK focused on the ethics issues related to the development of new therapies for children including the issue of informed consent and specimen banks, novel clinical trial design, and how best to include children in the hoped-for benefits in targeted therapies.
"The CCCA Board is particularly gratified to present Mary with this, the first annual Rosen Award, in recognition of her long-standing contributions, passion and dedication to the needs of pediatric cancer patients, families and survivors," said Susan L. Weiner, PhD, Founder of Children's Cause.