History

The Ovarian Cancer Academy, a virtual career development and research training platform, was created in FY09 to provide intensive mentoring, national networking, and peer group collaborative opportunities for junior faculty in ovarian cancer research. As expressed by FY09 OCRP IP member Dr. Michael Seiden, the OCRP chose to create the Academy because “the amount of science that needs to be covered to really get a global understanding of ovarian cancer is massive...it brings special opportunities for researchers... because there’s a lot of room to make a difference, but it also requires the ovarian cancer community to work hard to recruit young scientists, young clinical researchers into the field because we need more individuals to commit their time, energy, and talent to the problem.”

The Academy functions as an interactive entity across institutional boundaries to pair early career investigators (ECIs) with established mentors to foster successful, highly productive ovarian cancer investigators. The Academy Leadership supports this process by facilitating regular communication among all Academy members and acts as an additional mentor to assess the research and career progress of the ECIs. The Academy is bearing fruit as its members take strides toward career sustainability in the field of ovarian cancer research, with promotions, tenure, publications, presentations, and additional grants received since the Academy’s inception. The OCRP is proud to expand the network of researchers dedicated to ovarian cancer research and looks forward to the wealth of knowledge and impact that these scientists are bringing to the field.