O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Spring 2020 | Page 14

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
After 17 years at Washington University, Sleckman
began looking for a new opportunity, somewhere he
could use his talents for integrating research and patient
care to build something new. He then spent five years
at the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill
Cornell Medicine in New York City, most recently serving
as the center’s associate director, before he set his sights
on Birmingham, Alabama.
Last fall, Sleckman was asked to interview for the position
of director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center
at UAB, but this time, the interviewers weren’t interested
in his experience as a New Jersey state trooper.
“I did just about every job at the Siteman Cancer Center
at Washington University, and I have seen just about
everything imaginable,” Sleckman said. “I believe that
I have become good at spotting growth opportunities
in cancer centers at academic medical institutions now,
and I think that’s a key feature of this position.”
Coming from Weill Cornell Medicine, where the Meyer
Cancer Center is still working to become a National
Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer
center, Sleckman says he was drawn to UAB because he
could see how vital the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer
Center is to the University, the UAB Health System, the
city of Birmingham and the state at large. As the only
NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in a fourstate
radius, the O’Neal Cancer Center provided the kind
of high-impact opportunities Sleckman was looking for.
“I think one of the big advantages here is that UAB is
the only academic provider of health care services in
the Birmingham metropolitan region and in much of the
state,” Sleckman said. “It’s definitely a real opportunity
for this institution and the O’Neal Comprehensive
Cancer Center to make ‘O’Neal’ the brand name for the
very best cancer care in the Birmingham area and the
state of Alabama.”
During his visit to UAB, Sleckman discussed his vision for
the Cancer Center, which came as no surprise to at least
one face in the crowd that day: Brandon Rocque, M.D.,
one of Sleckman’s former students from Washington
University in St. Louis.
Now a neurosurgeon at UAB, Rocque treats pediatric
brain tumors at Children’s of Alabama and serves as a
scientist in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“I hadn’t seen Dr. Sleckman in more than 15 years, but
when I approached him after his lecture during his visit
to UAB, he greeted me like an old friend,” Rocque said.
“It’s exciting to have someone like that at the head of the
Cancer Center. Not only does he have a vision, but he’s
also the kind of person who will engage every Cancer
Center member in sharing that vision.”
The crux of Sleckman’s vision was and still is simple:
“Do great things.”
“Doing something ‘great’ to me means that you’ve
discovered something that’s important for diagnosing
cancer, for treating cancer or for preventing cancer.
Now, as a cancer center, our job is to make sure
that our work makes its way to patient care or to the
population,” Sleckman said. “We must do great things,
make great discoveries that advance fields and get
those discoveries into the care of the people who need
it most.”
In January of this year, Sleckman left New York and
moved to Birmingham, Alabama, to join the O’Neal
Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB as its new
director.
In his new role, Sleckman says he plans to build on
the successes of his predecessors by strengthening
the O’Neal Cancer Center’s existing programs and
empowering its many physicians and scientists to do
the same.
“To do a job like this, you have to stand on the
shoulders of giants,” Sleckman said. “Dr. Edward
Partridge is widely considered a giant in the field
for health care delivery, as well as for serving as the
director and leader of the Cancer Center for so
many years.”
However, Sleckman says he doesn’t really like referring
to himself as the “leader” of the Cancer Center.
“I think ‘leader’ is a strange term for what I do,” he said.
“I consider myself more of a catalyst. I see myself as an
enabler, someone who can help make great programs
even greater.”
To Sleckman, enabling great programs to become
greater requires developing a culture of collaboration,
integration and teamwork, an endeavor he says he is
excited to see to fruition.
“The bar is really high, which doesn’t bother me. I don’t
mind a high bar,” Sleckman said. “I just feel incredibly
lucky to be playing on a team with people who want
to get over the bar – for the good of the field and for
the good of the people we serve through the O’Neal
Comprehensive Cancer Center.”
Learn more about Dr. Barry Sleckman in the
third episode of School of Medicine Dean
Selwyn Vickers’ new podcast, The Checkup:
go.uab.edu/thecheckup
12 O’NEAL COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER AT UAB