Successful career transition entails collaboration, clear contract negotiation, mentorship

A year after shifting from clinical practice to an academic role, oncologist Stephanie L. Graff, MD, FACP, has achieved a productive and successful career transition year.

In fact, Graff was named the Woman Disruptor of the Year at the inaugural Healio Disruptive Innovators in hematology/oncology award reception, held at this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting. This award goes to a woman in the field who emerged as a leader and an example to younger women of how a successful career can unfold.

Graff was nominated alongside Marcia Brose, MD; Julie Gralow, MD; Barbara Burtness, MD; Reshma Jagsi, MD; Pamela Kunz, MD; Olufunmilayo Olopade, MD; and Julie Silver, MD.

“The list of nominees was so totally humbling. I can't believe that I was nominated with all those people, and I won,” Graff told Healio.

‘Bravely doing’ something new

In June 2021, Graff started a new academic role as director of breast oncology at Lifespan Cancer Institute at Brown University, following her time at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute as an associate director of breast cancer clinical research and at HCA Midwest Health as director of breast cancer and clinical research programs.

“It's scary to accept a new position, move across the country and start something that feels fully different from what you've been doing,” she said. “I think just bravely doing something new was the big thing.”

Graff told Healio her first year as director has been incredibly rewarding. In 1 year, she built relationships with her partners and the team she is leading, helped add to their trial portfolio and mentored residents and fellows.

In terms of success, Graff highlighted how important connecting with people was in her first year.

“I read a ton of books, including a book called The First 90 Days, that discussed how important the power of networking, collaboration and alliance building really are in terms of being successful, and I think that that's very true,” she said. “I've spent much, much of the first year just meeting people.”

Graff also discussed the importance of having a mentor during a career transition, adding that Kunz, one of her fellow nominees, offered her crucial advice in this area.

“Dr. Kunz had a career transition to Yale maybe a year before my career transition, so I had befriended her to ask advice on how she went about moving to a new place, and she's become this fantastic mentor and friend outside of my area of expertise,” Graff said. “It's good to have those outside of your normal basket of mentors and sponsors who you can reach out to and collaborate with.”

Challenges, future goals

When asked about the biggest challenge she faced in her transition, Graff highlighted the importance of figuring out the politics of a new health care system.

“In oncology, you've got a health system, you've got a university, but then you also have clinical research infrastructure, which includes cooperative groups, industry partners and collaborators across the country or world, so there's a lot of pieces that need to align and just figuring out how all of that fits together is the hardest part of the job,” she said.

With 1 year under her belt, Graff has three big goals for her next year.

“I spent much of the first year getting a robust clinical trial portfolio up and running, so now I want to see it be successful; I want to recruit and accrue to those trials,” she said.

“I’d love to support and mentor the fellows and junior faculty in more successful research endeavors and look at strategies to improve workflows both for patients and physicians across our breast program that I think will drive patient experience, quality and safety, which are the things that really matter at the end of the day,” she added.

With such a successful year, including winning the Woman Disruptor of the Year award, Graff offered up some tips on how to remain productive and successful throughout the year when going through a big career transition like her own.

“The advice I would give for somebody starting the process of negotiating your contract and your job position is to be very clear about what you want to do and what you're being hired to do. Those things should align,” she said. “What you say yes and no to should align with that raison d’être of what you have been hired for, what your mission is and what you are looking to accomplish. A career transition is a great opportunity to say no to things that don't excite you anymore and say yes to things that do.”

For more information:

Stephanie L. Graff, MD, FACP, can be reached at sgraff1@lifespan.org.