Kids v Cancer

A pediatric cancer think tank

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About Us

Nancy Goodman

Nancy Goodman is the founder and Executive Director of Kids v Cancer.

Major accomplishments as Executive Director of KIDS V CANCER

2017: Nancy Goodman and Kids v Cancer are architects and champions of RACE for Children Act, which Congress passed into U.S. law in 2017 (21 U.S.C. 355c). The RACE for Children Act amends the Pediatric Research Equity Act to require companies developing cancer targeted therapies to undertake pediatric studies of those therapies. Before passage of the RACE Act, only a handful of novel cancer therapies were in pediatric cancer trials. Now, 80% of all new pediatric cancer clinical trials are of novel therapies pursuant to the RACE for Children Act.

2012: Nancy Goodman and Kids v Cancer are architects and champions Creating Hope Act Rare Pediatric Priority Review Voucher Program, which Congress passed into U.S. law in 2012 (21 U.S.C. 360ff). The priority review voucher program establishes a market-based incentive, a voucher, for companies to develop drugs expressly for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Some $2 billion in vouchers have been traded since the establishment of the program. Vouchers are currently trading for around $100 million each.

2021: Kids v Cancer is now asking Congress to pass the Give Kids a Chance Act, HR 5416.

Programs
2015: Kids v Cancer launched a Compassionate Use Navigator for pediatric cancer patients.
2010: Kids v Cancer launched a post mortem pediatric brain tumor tissue donation program

Honors

2019 American Association of Cancer Research Distinguished Advocacy Award
2016 Fast Company Magazine as top ten most innovative nonprofits (award to Kids v Cancer)
2015 Peter Drucker Nonprofit Innovation Award (award to Kids v Cancer)
2014 US Food and Drug Administration Group Recognition Award
2014 The One Hundred: top cancer leaders by Massachusetts General Hospital

Selected Memberships and Leadership Positions

2016 U.S. Vice President’s Blue Ribbon Pediatric Oncology Panel for the Cancer Moonshot
2014-2018 Member, National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Counselors,
2014 Member, FDA Pediatric Subcommittee of the Oncology Drug Advisory Committee
2018 to present: Member, FNIH Joint Steering Committee governing Partnership to Accelerate Cancer Therapies
2017 to present: Member, Stand Up 2 Cancer Scientific Advisory Committee
2017 to 2020: Consumer Representative, Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium
2015–2018 Member, AACR Pediatric Cancer Working Group Steering Committee

Selected Presentations

2020 Testimony before the Health Subcommittee of the Congressional House Energy and Commerce Committee on pediatric voucher program
2019 AACR Annual Meeting: Distinguished Advocate presentation
2019 Atlantic Live on Cancer
2018 The New England Journal of Medicine / TGen Pediatric Precision Oncology Conference 2018 FDA Public Meeting on Molecular Target List of RACE for Children Act
2018 American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting on RACE for Children Act 2018 AAADV Conference on RACE for Children Act
2018 Yale University: The Politics, Policy and Law of Cancer
2017 Atlantic Live on Childhood Cancer
2016 Testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Hearing on Right to Try 2016 New York Academy of Sciences on compassionate use
2016 AAADV on pediatric drug development
2016 Broad Institute: Pediatric cancer drug development
2015 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: The Art of Medicine
2014 Food and Drug Administration Conference on Pediatric Cancer
2014 Congressional Rare Disease Caucus
2014 Congressional Roundtable of 21st Century Cures Initiative, Springfield, IL
2013 Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus
2012 Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus
2012 Congressional High Tech Caucus
2011 Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus
2010 Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus

Education

1991 University of Chicago Law School JD
1990-1991 Harvard Law School visiting student
1988 Harvard Kennedy School of Government MPP

Personal

Nancy Goodman lives in D.C. with her husband, Mike Froman, and her surviving children, Ben and Sarah. Her son, Jacob, died of medulloblastoma when he was 10. Nancy can be contacted via email at nancygoodman@kidsvcancer.org.

Jennifer Flynn

Outreach Director

Jenn is Director of Kids v Cancer’s  CLIMB THE HILL Day, Youth Board, social media and events.  A Masters in Social Work student, Jenn knew and loved Jacob from the time he was a very little boy until his death. Jenn can be contacted via email at jenn@kidsvcancer.org.

 

Elena Gerasimov

Director of Programs, Compassionate Use Navigator

Elena is Director of the Kids v Cancer theCompassionate Use Navigator program, which assists physicians and families apply for experimental drugs.  She authored the Saved Josh: The gears of a successful patient advocacy campaign, which documented the case of an 7-year-old boy’s struggle for a life-saving  experimental drug.  Elena holds an M.A. degree in journalism from American University and an MPH degree in maternal and child health from George Washington University.  Elena has over 20 years of experience, having worked as a science and business journalist, as an epidemiological researcher at the International Epidemiology Institute, and program manager at the Johns Hopkins University and GW Center for Integrative Medicine where she created a nonprofit clinic for underserved populations. Elena can be reached at elena@kidsvcancer.org.