Newswise — BOSTON –– Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has named Lesley Solomon to the newly-created position of senior vice president for innovation and chief innovation officer. Solomon has been serving as executive director of the Brigham Innovation Hub at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and director of strategy and innovation in the Brigham Research Institute.
“Lesley understands the complex challenges of the health care landscape, and she is passionate about using modern technology to make exceptional cancer care more widely accessible,” said Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, president & CEO of Dana-Farber. “Lesley will help us to develop strategies and collaborations that enhance research and patient care while also delivering financial results and competitive advantages.”
Solomon is currently leading Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s effort to foster innovation, collaboration and translation of technology. Her iHub team works with scientists, clinicians and hospital administrators to solve hospital challenges through digital health. She develops and nurtures relationships with innovative organizations in Boston and beyond by identifying collaboration opportunities for co-development, piloting or creating and integrating new technologies. Solomon led the task force at Brigham that conceived of the iHub and became the founding director in 2013.
In this newly created position at Dana-Farber, Lesley will integrate the work of the Belfer Office for Dana-Farber Innovations, currently led by Gary Sclar, with her overall innovation strategies for the Institute. Gary will continue his successful efforts to initiate and sustain partnerships with established biotech and pharmaceutical companies that, when linked together with Lesley’s strategies, will accelerate bringing new diagnostic and therapeutic services to the market for the benefit of patients. Lesley will also focus on partnering with health care systems, nationally and potentially internationally, to explore opportunities for care collaborations.
“I am very excited and energized to lead the impressive innovation team at Dana-Farber,” Solomon said. “As the biotechnology industry blossoms around us here in Boston and across the globe, we have an incredible opportunity to leverage the most promising innovative advancements and further strengthen the already cutting edge cancer care that Dana-Farber clinicians deliver on a daily basis.”
Before joining Brigham’s Innovation Hub, Solomon previously served as director of e-philanthropy in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Development Office, where she developed the hospital’s first online fundraising strategy and launched the Stork Fund to support healthy pregnancies and babies. Solomon is a co-Founder of the Food Allergy Science Initiative at The Broad Institute, which brings together experts across disciplines to unlock the biology of food allergy and change the field to develop new treatments and more.
Solomon also has served in leadership positions for companies including Yoga Works and barnesandnoble.com where she focused on marketing, business development, strategy and communications. She earned her master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and her bachelor’s from Cornell University. Solomon lives in Brookline with her husband, Derek Hibbard, and their two sons.
About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
From achieving the first remissions in childhood cancer with chemotherapy in 1948, to developing the very latest new therapies, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is one of the world’s leading centers of cancer research and treatment. It is the only center ranked in the top 4 of U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals for both adult and pediatric cancer care.
Dana-Farber sits at the center of a wide range of collaborative efforts to reduce the burden of cancer through scientific inquiry, clinical care, education, community engagement, and advocacy. Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center provides the latest in cancer care for adults; Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center for children. The Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center unites the cancer research efforts of five Harvard academic medical centers and two graduate schools, while Dana-Farber Community Cancer Care provides high quality cancer treatment in communities outside Boston’s Longwood Medical Area.
Dana-Farber is dedicated to a unique, 50/50 balance between cancer research and care, and much of the Institute’s work is dedicated to translating the results of its discovery into new treatments for patients locally and around the world.
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