St. Jude is a place of discovery, innovation and healing.
Through our work, we are now writing the next chapter in our institution’s history. Today’s efforts will be the foundation for future generations of doctors, nurses, scientists and others who will carry forward the mission of finding cures and saving children.
The recently completed FY16–21 St. Jude Strategic Plan charted a path for clinical and scientific program growth, infrastructure expansion and reimagined international outreach efforts. Working together, we made incredible gains.
How can we leverage these remarkable assets to accelerate progress and maximize impact for children in Memphis and around the globe? We have put forth a bold new strategic plan to accelerate progress globally.
Our aspirations are far-reaching.
The plan—a $12.9 billion commitment—will support 2,300 additional jobs; provide $2.3 billion in new construction, renovation and capital needs; and open new areas of research.
While ambitious, this six-year course will allow us to significantly influence the way the world understands and treats childhood cancer, sickle cell disease, neurological disorders and infectious diseases. At its heart, the plan is a call to accelerate progress for children with catastrophic diseases on a global scale.
Focus on Fundamental Science
Advance fundamental laboratory-based research efforts to drive discoveries that accelerate the ability to advance cures.
- Recruit laboratory-based faculty into basic science departments and improve onboarding, mentoring and management skills
- Expand support for laboratory-based shared resources and department-based technology centers and create a new Center of Excellence in Advanced Microscopy
- Become a leader in the application of data science to biological discovery
- Expand the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Focus on Childhood Cancer
Advance cures for pediatric cancers with the lowest survival rates and for children with relapsed disease
- Expand the number of cancer-focused, laboratory-based faculty
- Strengthen the cancer immunotherapy program through the creation of the Translational Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative (TI3)
- Accelerate the rate at which new therapeutic agents can be tested against pediatric cancer.
- Enhance the care delivered at St. Jude affiliates
Reduce the toxicity of cancer therapy and enhance the quality of life for all children who survive pediatric cancer
- Continue to invest in precision medicine, including clinical genomic diagnostic and pharmacogenomic services, the Cancer Predisposition Program and proton therapy
- Improve survivorship through research aimed at understanding the therapeutic and genetic underpinnings of short- and long-term effects of treatment
- Prevent new cancers by increasing HPV vaccinations in the Mid-South and beyond
Focus on Childhood Catastrophic Diseases
Advance cures for children with nonmalignant hematological diseases, including sickle cell disease, coagulation disorders and bone marrow failure syndromes
- Expand the laboratory-based faculty in the Division of Experimental Hematology
- Enhance the laboratory and clinical infrastructure for moving gene therapy and gene editing technology from an experimental concept to widely available cures
- Strengthen the patient support infrastructure for children with sickle cell disease and other chronic hematological diseases
Advance cures for children with catastrophic neurological diseases
- Grow the Pediatric Translational Neuroscience Initiative and its complementary centers, the Center for Experimental Neurotherapeutics and the Center for Pediatric Neurological Disease Research
Establish a world-leading research effort in infectious diseases that affect children
- Recruit a new chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases
- Develop a new laboratory-based Center for Pediatric Infectious Disease Research
Focus on Global Impact
Improve cure rates for pediatric cancer and catastrophic blood diseases worldwide through St. Jude Global and the Global Alliance
- Expand both the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine and St. Jude Global
- Develop St. Jude-staffed regional operation units that are strategically located to meet the growing needs of the Global Alliance
- Expand infrastructure to run clinical trials around the world
- Lead the development of a worldwide drug distribution program to provide the medicines required to treat pediatric cancer patients
- Develop and test country- and region-specific approaches to expand pathology and laboratory medicine diagnostic services to care for children with cancer
Focus on People and Place
Drive scientific collaboration across campus, the U.S. and around the globe to accelerate progress against pediatric catastrophic diseases
- Enrich the culture of science across the St. Jude campus
- Strengthen the blue-sky process to continually generate new ideas
- Expand the St. Jude Research Collaboratives program
Set the standard for patient care and the experience patients and their families have during the treatment journey
- Continue the clinical improvement process through Project SPARC and strengthen the quality and safety culture across all aspects of patient care
- Enhance the care model by extending care beyond the hospital walls through home health and telehealth
- Develop a new electronic patient and family education platform
Create a work environment that encourages employees to contribute maximally toward the mission, rewards their contributions and supports their career development
- Improve core business and administrative processes
- Strengthen employee educational platforms to enhance career development
- Incorporate the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion into talent sourcing, hiring, career development, promotion and retention, and community outreach
- Enrich the talent pipeline by developing educational efforts targeted at potential future St. Jude employees
Build and support best-in-class environments that help employees advance the institution’s life-saving work and offer patients and their families a home away from home
- Continue to invest in state-of-the-art facilities to help employees meet their goals
- Significantly expand the institution’s space planning and construction project development and management capacities
