Honoring Dawn Hershman as a Leading Mentor to Women in Cancer

April 23, 2020

Dawn Hershman, MD, MS, has been named the recipient of the 2020 Hologic, Inc. Endowed Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award. The award, which will be presented to Dr. Hershman during the virtual 2020 ASCO Annual Meeting, recognizes a female leader in oncology who is  a role model and serves as a mentor to women in training to be cancer clinicians, educators, or researchers.

Women are vastly underrepresented in the field of cancer research and medicine. To this end, Women Who Conquer Cancer supports and celebrates those who are doing their part to help advance the careers of the next generation of female leaders in the field. Through  mentorship and professional development of women oncology professionals, Women Who Conquer Cancer aims to narrow career gender disparities.

Dr. Hershman, a prominent physician-scientist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and leader of the Cancer Population Sciences Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC), is an expert in breast cancer treatment, prevention, and survivorship. She has consistently supported programs and initiatives that give women scientists and doctors the credit and support they deserve. Throughout her career, she has mentored numerous faculty members who have been granted mentored career development awards.

For Dr. Hershman, this honor resonates personally as well as professionally.

“To be recognized by an organization I value so highly for an activity that is so personally meaningful to me, but is often unrecognized, has left me speechless,” she says of receiving the award.

“Others have said that success is not about how much money you make; it is about the difference you make in peoples’ lives. I have had the honor of helping my mentees see their potential so that they can make a bigger difference in the lives of people with cancer,” she says, “and they can go on and mentor others. The impact is exponential.”

Dr. Hershman, who joined NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia in 2001, also is professor of medicine at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. Her work focuses on ways to improve cancer care delivery, quality of care, and quality of life for patients with breast cancer.

The Women Who Conquer Cancer program has funded 21 Young Investigator awards since its inception in 2013. Each year, the group recognizes one Endowed Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship awardee and one recipient for its International Mentorship award. Both honorees will be recognized during ASCO's virtual annual meeting on May 29-31.