St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has named Dr. Charles W. M. Roberts its new president and chief executive officer, replacing Dr. James R. Downing, who led the nonprofit for 12 years. Roberts, currently director of St. Jude's Comprehensive Cancer Center and an executive vice president, begins his new role on Jan. 1. Downing moves into a faculty position in the hospital's Global Pediatric Medicine department.
The numbers tell the story of what this institution has built. When actor and philanthropist Danny Thomas founded St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1962, the survival rate for childhood cancer patients stood at around 20%. Today it exceeds 80%. Roberts says the hope is for all childhood cancers to be easily treatable someday.
'I'm really excited because I think we are at the dawn of a new era,' Roberts told The Associated Press. 'In the next several years, I believe we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve much more of Danny's dream than ever before.'
Roberts attributes the opportunity to a convergence of technological advances that are producing treatments capable of killing childhood cancers more effectively while reducing impact on the patient. He also points to technology-driven progress on other catastrophic childhood diseases beyond cancer.
Judy Habib, chair of the St. Jude Board of Governors, said Roberts' emphasis on new treatment discoveries played a significant role in the board's decision following a global search. 'He combines the rigor of a researcher, the care of a clinician, and passion for our mission,' Habib said in a statement.
Downing, who recruited Roberts from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2015, said Roberts has built the Comprehensive Cancer Center into a 'national treasure,' according to the National Cancer Institute. 'Charlie represents a unique combination of physician, researcher and leader,' Downing said.
Roberts said he plans to continue his own research after taking the CEO role — work that has included confirming that certain genes suppress tumor growth. 'Keeping my hand in that is really important to make sure that I'm still at the cutting edge of understanding where the field is,' he said.
The financial landscape is not without friction. Childhood cancers receive less research investment from pharmaceutical companies, which focus more on adult cancers. Federal cuts to scientific research funding add further pressure. Roberts said St. Jude will maintain its policy of providing treatment at no cost to patients or their families and plans to expand services to more children around the world.
The hospital's fundraising arm, ALSAC, is the engine sustaining that commitment. According to an analysis by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, ALSAC raised an average of $2.3 billion a year in donations between 2021 and 2023, making it the second-largest fundraiser in the United States, behind only United Way. Ike Anand, president and CEO of ALSAC, said he welcomes Roberts' partnership in their shared mission.
Marlo Thomas, St. Jude's national outreach director and daughter of founder Danny Thomas, said Roberts embodies the hospital's mission. 'We are closer than ever before to realizing my father's dream that no child should die in the dawn of life,' she said.
The St. Jude model deserves recognition for what it demonstrates: a nonprofit institution, sustained entirely by voluntary philanthropic support, has driven childhood cancer survival from 20% to more than 80% over six decades — without billing a single patient or family. That is what mission-driven private capital, accountable to donors rather than to bureaucracies, can accomplish. As Roberts steps in at a moment of genuine scientific possibility, the question is whether Washington's retreat from research funding will be offset by the generosity of American donors who have already proven they are up to the task.
