|
|
|
Vol. 09 Issue 3, Summer 2004
It has been a complete delight to see the BCERF Program integrated both programmatically and physically into the Cancer and Environment Division of the new Sprecher Institute for Comparative Cancer Research (Department of Clinical Sciences at Cornell). This fulfills one of my dreams of seeing the program administered and housed within a superstructure supporting Cornell’s premier cancer research activities. The new setting for the program means that BCERF will be able to apply its highly successful model of integrated environment-cancer research and risk reduction education to an even broader landscape of issues. One aspect the program will never lose is the capacity to learn from its constituents even as it works to share the latest scientifically based information on cancer risk reduction.
As the program approaches a decade of operation, it serves as a testimony to the ideals vested in our statutory universities: namely being positioned to meet the needs of consumers, taxpayers, communities, families and individuals. Since its formation in 1995, under the leadership of Professor June Fessenden McDonald, BCERF was never an old-school, one-discipline program in search of continued funding. Rather it was a multi-disciplinary problem-oriented program created almost overnight in response to and at the specific request of New York State’s elected leaders. It has also evolved as the needs of its constituents have changed. The program exists because the information it generates has value, utility and reliability. BCERF is able to serve as a neutral arbiter of the information, since it is generated within the safe haven of academic freedom. As a result, it fills an important niche and complements information that is available from various governmental and private-sector sources. That task of filling information gaps to facilitate informed public and personal decisions is a role BCERF and other state university programs can and should continue to perform.
By the time this issue of The Ribbon appears, I will have completed a highly gratifying four-year term as the second Director of BCERF. One added benefit of the new Sprecher Institute structure for BCERF is we have achieved better efficiency in program administration. Since 1995, when I was directing the Toxicology Institute that housed BCERF during its early years, I have had the pleasure of following and supporting BCERF’s operation from its inception. In my nearly three decades at Cornell, I have never seen a program that touched so many lives in such a positive way. The aim of reducing the incidence of breast cancer and related diseases for future generations is a goal that has driven everyone involved in this program. As Director, I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with a remarkably talented group of scholars and educators. Visitors to the program are always amazed at the sheer volume of information that has been generated by so few. But that is part of the energy vested in the program and certainly a result of the tremendous encouragement and support we have received from our state, national and community partners. I look forward to supporting this program and its efforts from my faculty position at Cornell and want to express my deep appreciation to our funders and supporters for the opportunity to have been a part of this public service endeavor.
Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors
Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine
Vet Box 31, Ithaca, NY 14853-6401
Phone: 607.254.2893; Fax: 607.254.4730
Email: breastcancer@cornell.edu
We subscribe to the HONcode principles. Verify here.