Dr. Justin Lathia is the Director of Faculty Development and the Vice Chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. He also holds a co-captain role on the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute’s Velosano Team. Dr. Lathia has been riding in Velosano since its inception 10 years ago, and he is a wonderful advocate for the importance of fundraising in cancer research. We wanted to sit down and talk with him to discuss why fundraising is so important. Particularly, Dr. Lathia notes that early career researchers and extremely innovative ideas are often blocked from funding from canonical funding sources due to reasonable risk-mitigation strategies from large institutions. Therefore, organizations like Velosano, he argues, allows for crazy ideas to launch and young scientists to earn a chance to succeed. 

Links from our Conversation

Velosano Homepage

Velosano Impact Site (How the Funding has Facilitated Discoveries at CCF)

CCF LRI Velosano Team Fundraising Site

Dr. Justin Lathia’s Velosano Fundraising Site

Dennis Grencewicz’s Velosano Fundraising Site

American Cancer Society List of Fundraisers

Pelotonia Home Page

Dennis Grencewicz’s Pelotonia Fundraising Site