Representatives from Curing Kids Cancer presented a check to Kelly Goldsmith, MD, and several of her colleagues during a ceremony at Winship. Front row (left to right): Clay Owen, Grainne Owen, Kelly Goldsmith, MD, Suresh Ramalingam, MD, Jenny Shim, PhD, and Douglas Graham, MD, PhD. Back row: Doug Safari, Hunter Jonus, PhD, Morgan McCraw and Ben Lowry.
Curing Kids Cancer awards a $1.3 million gift to Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University with $1 million to create an endowed professorship and $300,000 for immediate research funding. Kelly Goldsmith, MD, has been named the inaugural Curing Kids Cancer Professor of Pediatric Oncology.
Goldsmith, professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine and researcher at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, is renowned for her exceptional contributions to pediatric oncology research. Her research focuses on investigating experimental therapeutics for chemotherapy resistance in pediatric neuroblastoma. Goldsmith is currently co-leader of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute and director of the Neuroblastoma/MIBG Therapy Program at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
“I am truly honored to be the recipient of the Curing Kids Cancer Endowed Professorship,” said Goldsmith. “Organizations like CKC are fundamental to moving cancer research further forward toward finding cures for all childhood cancers. This endowment has the potential to impact the lives of many children by supporting my research to discover and translate novel immunotherapies into innovative clinical trials for patients with high-risk pediatric solid tumors.”
Through Emory President Gregory Fenves’ Faculty Eminence Initiative, Emory University further demonstrated its commitment to supporting faculty and groundbreaking research by matching Curing Kids Cancer’s contribution with an additional $500,000, increasing the endowment to $1.5 million.
During the ceremony at Winship Cancer Institute, Grainne and Clay Owen, co-founders of Curing Kids Cancer, presented the check to Goldsmith and several of her colleagues, including Winship’s executive director, Suresh Ramalingam, MD, Winship deputy director, Adam Marcus, PhD, and Winship researcher and pediatric oncologist Douglas Graham, MD, PhD, medical director of the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Emory University School of Medicine.
A team of CKC representatives accompanied Owen for the presentation ceremony, including executive director Lauren Korthoff, and board member Stephanie Ellenberg.
“We sincerely appreciate this impactful gift from Curing Kids Cancer. We look forward to leveraging this endowment to drive research and innovation to help successfully treat and cure more cancers, especially those that affect children,” Ramalingam said.
“Our mission to fund cutting-edge pediatric cancer research began right here in Atlanta, when our son Killian was diagnosed with leukemia,” said Grainne. “Although we lost Killian to cancer, we know that this endowed professorship at Emory will create better treatments for other children facing cancer.”