Cancer Health Equity Award

The AACI Cancer Health Equity Award was created in 2021 to recognize an individual or group who demonstrates exceptional leadership in promoting health equity, mitigating cancer disparities, and advocating for diversity and inclusion at their cancer center. 

Previous AACI Cancer Health Equity Award recipients are Drs. Amelie Ramirez, Electra D. Paskett, and Robert A. Winn.

Edith P. Mitchell, MD, MACP, FCCP, FRCP (London)

The 2024 Cancer Health Equity Award will be presented posthumously to Edith P. Mitchell, MD, MACP, FCCP, FRCP (London), with Dr. Mitchell’s family accepting the award on her behalf.

Prior to her death in January 2024, Dr. Mitchell served as enterprise vice president for cancer disparities at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC) at Jefferson, director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities and associate director for diversity affairs at SKCCC, and clinical professor of medicine and medical oncology at Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

At SKCCC, Dr. Mitchell regularly hosted the Black History Month Grand Rounds, which always featured a topic regarding health equity, diversity, and/or cancer disparities. As the 116th President of the National Medical Association from 2015-2016, she used her platform to further promote equity in health care, cancer care, and diversity for minority communities. During her tenure, the Annual Colloquium featured a Health Equity Summit which addressed a spectrum of health issues impacting minority populations and featured medical, political, social, and religious leaders from across the United States. Dr. Mitchell also used her position to establish a symposium with the Congressional Black Caucus, which has continued as an annual event that allows for policy discussions with the United States Congress.

Cancer health disparities were central to her research, which examined factors affecting clinical trial participation and barriers to accrual among underrepresented populations. Recognizing colorectal cancer disparities in the SKCCC catchment area, Dr. Mitchell, along with a group of primary-care physicians, established a program to increase colorectal cancer screening. African American patient participation in colorectal clinical trials increased from 7.9 to 24.9 percent and has remained in the range of 20 percent since. Dr. Mitchell also established the CDC Breast and Cervical Screening Project at the SKCCC in 2016 and helped operate a mobile mammography unit that offered free mammograms throughout the U.S.

A retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General, Dr. Mitchell was the first woman physician in history to attain
the rank. She completed 36 years in the armed forces and supported fellow veterans through her work
with the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Philadelphia. She was also the first African American and the first female faculty member to receive the Jefferson Achievement Award in Medicine from Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. Mitchell helped to establish the Minority Scholarship Program to increase diversity in the oncology workforce and served on a number of National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute committees. She was the recipient of numerous awards for military service and community health; was appointed a member of the President’s Cancer Panel (2019-2023); received the 2021 AACR Minorities in Cancer Research-Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship; and was inducted into the National Historical Black College Hall of Fame, among many other achievements.

Dr. Mitchell's unwavering commitment to advancing minority investigators and promoting health equity embodies her remarkable legacy and the profound impact she leaves behind.