The non-profit CEO Roundtable on Cancer has launched a multi-year initiative – Going for Gold – in partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), global health care companies Amgen and Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada), along with analytics leader SAS.
With a focus on improving health equity, education, navigation, and access, the program has the capacity to impact more than 20 million lives within 7-10 years, especially among communities disproportionately affected by cancer.
Going for Gold extends the CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ employer accreditation to recognize universities that champion health and well-being by advancing prevention, diagnosis, and quality treatment for cancer for their students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and communities. The initiative also enables universities to contribute to research efforts through CEO Roundtable’s Project Data Sphere®, which helps expand access to clinical trial research and offers an open-access digital platform for aggregating and analyzing data to advance health equity efforts.
“History is being made through this collaboration with the HBCU community,” said Robert J. Brown, ambassador for the initiative and CEO of B&C International, a CEO Roundtable on Cancer partner. “Health safety and health education are top priorities in our nation and will continue to be a driving force as we strive to reach our Going for Gold standard. If we believe we can do it, we will achieve it. Let’s stand up and work together until future generations can expect to live cancer free lives.”
The initial group of university partners involved in the Going for Gold initiative include:
- Dillard University in New Orleans, La.
- Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C.
- Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Va.
- North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C.
- Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C.
- Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, La.
- Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
- Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
This group of schools already is expanding and now includes:
- Carribean University in Bayamón, Puerto Rico
- Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Tex.
- Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, N.Y.
- Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.
- Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark.
- Ponce Health Sciences University in Ponce, Puerto Rico
- Savannah State University in Savannah, Ga.
- South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C.
- Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala.
- University of Texas Permian Basin in Odessa, Tex.
The initiative is focused on the 27 four-year HSIs with at least 60% Hispanic enrollment and seeks to include all 101 HBCUs in the U.S. Of those HBCUs, 50 institutions have health-affiliated programs such as medical schools, nursing, pre-med, health information, and health communication, which provide opportunities for further engagement by partnering on clinical trials, developing health materials, and shaping community outreach.
Recruiting for additional corporate and university partners is ongoing.
For more information, email Info@ceoroundtableoncancer.org.