In my role as president of the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC), I have always emphasized the importance of institutional partnerships to advance and ultimately achieve health equity. On a smaller scale, I believe that day-to-day collaboration and a respectful workplace culture can significantly affect the care that patients with cancer receive.

It is important for us to view the workplace environment as a space to partner and collaborate—in the workspace, on the clinic floor, up and down the hallways, and in hospitals and cancer centers. Creating the best environment for each other, where everyone is able to thrive and grow and feel lifted up by the work we do, directly impacts our patients and the care that we provide. Employee wellness is key to achieving the goal of quality care. Making sure that our staff and clinicians are doing well, that they are healthy, and that they have all they need to succeed and thrive can ultimately support patients by safeguarding members of their care team against professional burnout.

A lesson I have carried with me from my mother and grandmother, who both passed away last year, integrates these principles with a simple yet challenging self-care mantra: Do not let people pull you into their chaos— bring them into your peace. This mantra has become increasingly relevant and resonant over time, guiding me to move forward gracefully together when challenging workplace dynamics arise.

My mother also taught me to appreciate and embrace different perspectives. Understanding that my answer is not always the right one encourages openness to the viewpoints and contributions of others. The world does not rotate around me. There are many world perspectives, many different life experiences that shape people’s perspectives and views. Embracing the kaleidoscope that emerges from the synthesis of these different views allows us to learn from each other and ultimately collaborate on solutions to improve and advance health equity and improve quality of life.

The lack of diversity in clinical trials is one place to start, where people can get access to potentially life-saving or life enhancing care. We cannot wait for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to decide the best way to increase diverse representation in research. And we cannot let ourselves be bogged down by institutional inertia. Making a concerted effort to enroll diverse patient populations in clinical trials is something an institution can do on its own—if the organization is committed to health equity. In fact, we could have been doing this as organizations 20 years ago. We did not need the FDA to tell us the right thing to do.

Even with that lag in progress, I am hopeful. I never give up on hope. Everything I have ever done and started has always had this strong community and patient engagement component, and all of it in the context of health equity and health disparities. Along the way, institutional partnerships have been integral to that work. I have been privileged to work with many great organizations, including Duke School of Medicine, Atrium Health/Wake Forest Comprehensive Cancer Center, ACCC, the Association of American Cancer Institutes, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, as a partner, a collaborator, and a colleague.