Background

Jimmie C. Holland was born on April 9, 1928, in Forney, Texas, United States. She is the daughter of a farmer Clifford and Velma Coker.

Education

Jimmie C. Holland always loved science and medicine, and during high school, she dreamed of becoming a doctor. But World War II was in full roar, and times were lean. After graduating high school, she pursued undergraduate studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

It was during these years that the war ended. With encouragement from the hometown family doctor and the support of her family and teachers, Dr. Holland enrolled at Baylor Medical School. She was 1 of only 3 women accepted into a class of more than 90 men, most of whom were older war veterans. She excelled in her studies and emerged on a path to a lifelong career in medicine.

Jimmie C. Holland earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Baylor University in 1948. She attended Baylor University School of Medicine, where she became a Doctor of Medicine in 1952.

Career

Jimmie C. Holland started her career as an Instructor to a professor at the State University of New York, Buffalo in 1956-1973. She was an associate professor, associate attending physician to assistant director consultant-liaison psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York, in 1973-1977.

She was a chair department psychiatry and behavioral Sciences, Wayne E. Chapman professor in psychiatric oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, since 1977. She worked as a Professor at department psychiatry at Cornell University, Medical College, New York City, since 1977. From 1956 to 1973 Holland was an attending physician assistant to the director of department psychiatry at E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital/Erie County Medical Center, Buffalo.

In 1972-1973 she worked as a consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health - Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics' joint schizophrenia study at Psychiatric Research Institute in Moscow, USSR. Also, she worked at the National Institute of Drug Abuse and Alcoholism, Rockville, Maryland, United States (1973-1975). Since 1976 she had been a Chairman of the psychiatry committee of Cancer and Leukemia Group B Clinical Trials, Brookline, Massachusetts. She was a consultant to the national advising committee on hospice Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Institutes of Health, New Brunswick, New Jersey, (1980-1984).

She was a member of the cancer control grant review committee National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, United States (1981-1985), a member of the committee study health consequences of the stress of bereavement at the Institute of Medicine, Washington in 1983-1984. Holand was a chairman task force on psychosocial oncology at the European School of Oncology, Venice, Italy, in 1988-1989. Also, she was a member of the Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in New York State Prisons, 1989.

Holland coedited the authoritative book on the field, Handbook of Psychooncology: Psychological Care of the Patient With Cancer, and coedited the seminal journal Psycho-Oncology. She also led the Distress Management Panel for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, which created the Distress Thermometer and Problem List - the most widely used distress-screening tools in the world.

Holland’s lifelong work centered on studying and treating the most difficult symptom cancer patients often face: a frail and vulnerable psyche. During her early years of research, when she was spearheading psycho-oncology, she also tussled with an oncology establishment that largely viewed the upstart field as “soft science.”

Yet Dr. Holland remained unperturbed by naysayers, and thanks to her fierce determination and commitment, the formal beginnings of psycho-oncology took root in the late 1970s - when the word “cancer” was still a social stigma - finally allowing patients the emotional freedom to explore the feelings associated with the scary ups and downs of battling a life-threatening disease.

Achievements

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  Jimmie C. Holland has been listed as a noteworthy psychiatrist and educator by Marquis Who's Who.
  
  A psychiatrist for more than 40 years, Dr. Holland conducted some of the first studies on the psychological impact of a cancer diagnosis on patients and proved that interventions to combat the anxiety and depression associated with cancer can work.
  
  For her efforts in treating both the physical symptoms and emotional distress patients with cancer often face, Holland received numerous awards, including the Medal of Honor for Clinical Research from the American Cancer Society and the Presidential Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association. In 2015, Dr. Holland received the T.J. Martell Foundation’s Pioneer Award for her leadership and vision in the field of psycho-oncology.
  
  Holland’s life’s work left a huge and lasting imprint on the practice of oncology - one that will continue to grow more important with time.
  
  The Jimmie Holland Memorial Award honors an IPOS or psycho-oncology community member recognized for making a unique contribution considered to be a highly creative or pioneering innovation or activity that advances the field of Psycho-oncology. The award is unique in its recognition as Jimmie Holland as a pioneer and chief innovator of our time, as well as recognizes her enormous contribution as a mentor.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Psychiatric Aspects of Symptom Management in Cancer Patients

    (This volume integrates the latest information from psychi...)

    1992
  • Geriatric Psycho-Oncology

    (Geriatric Psycho-Oncology is a comprehensive handbook tha...)

    2015
  • Psycho-Oncology

    (Psycho-Oncology is a comprehensive handbook that provides...)

    2015
  • Lighter as We Go

    (The fears of aging have been one long cascading domino ef...)

  • Psycho-Oncology

    (Edited by a team of leading experts in psycho-oncology, s...)

    1998
  • The Human Side of Cancer: Living with Hope, Coping with Uncertainty

    (For more than twenty years, Dr. Holland has pioneered the...)

    2001
  • Handbook of Psychooncology 1989

Views

Holland said, that in childhood her main inspiration was her fifth through the seventh-grade teacher, Maureen Lamm Davis. In college, her mentor was Dr. Cornelia Smith, Baylor University, chair of the Department of Biology.

Quotations: "It was an ambition from early childhood which stayed with me."

"Understanding the experience of the human being with cancer is as important as understanding the biology of the cancer itself."

“My motivation for writing "The Human Side of Cancer" was to make the information others and I have written for our professional colleagues available directly to patients with cancer and their families. My work at a cancer center for the past twenty-five years as a psychiatrist counseling patients and families serves as the basis for the contents of the book. It attempts to correct some of the misconceptions about the mind-body connection and cancer that results in ‘blaming the victim’ and adding a psychological burden to patients.”

Membership

Jimmie C. Holland was a board of directors at Cancer Care, Inc. in 1979-1981. Also, she was a Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists, American Psychiatric Association, and founding member of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. She was a member of the American Society Psychiatric Oncology/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (1988-2017), American Cancer Society (national division commission on rehabilitation since 1979, chair workshop psychological, social and behavioral medicine aspects of cancer, 1981, chair national committee psychosocial education and research, since 1986, delegate-at-large since 1986), American Psychosomatic Society, Society for Liaison Psychiatry (Special citation 1989), American Society Clinical Oncology, International Psycho-oncology Society (founder, chair Executive Committee since 1984).

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  board of directors

  Cancer Care, Inc. , United States

  1979 - 1981

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  fellow

  American College of Psychiatrists , United States

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  American Psychiatric Association , United States

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  founding member

  Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine , United States

• American Society Psychiatric Oncology/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome , United States

  1988 - 2017

• 

  national division commission on rehabilitation since 1979, chair workshop psychological, social and behavioral medicine aspects of cancer, 1981, chair national committee psychosocial education and research, since 1986, delegate-at-large since 1986

  American Cancer Society , United States

  1979 - 2017

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  American Psychosomatic Society , United States

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  Special citation, 1989

  Society for Liaison Psychiatry , United States

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  American Society Clinical Oncology , United States

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  (founder, chair Executive Committee since 1984

  International Psycho-oncology Society , United States

Personality

Jimmie C. Holland​​'s colleagues said, that she was still seeing patients and writing books at the time of her death at age 89, she had an indefatigable spirit as well as a dark sense of humor and a sunny disposition. She loved to paraphrase psychiatrist R.D. Laing’s definition of life: a sexually transmitted disease whose mortality rate is 100%.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Jimmie didn’t need to be a star; she was a star - a star of reflection. She pointed the way to raise our awareness that living with uncertainty could be a blessing, not just a cause of anxiety." - Nina, cancer survivor and participant in Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Lung Cancer Support Group.
  
  "Jimmie had a special gift. It is not often that one interacts with the founder of a whole field of treatment and research. But her gift was that in her presence, you felt enlightened. She always acknowledged your contributions, even though they may not have been novel. Jimmie brought out the best in people - a rare talent, and a lasting legacy." - Larry Norton.
  
  "Dr. Holland was a true pioneer in the field of psycho-oncology, and her passion for her patients and her research was evident. For more than 40 years, Jimmie made an essential question - “How do people with cancer feel?” - the center of her work. She profoundly influenced the field of cancer care by shining a light on the inner lives of patients. She will be dearly missed by the Memorial Sloan Kettering community and by the world." - Craig B. Thompson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
  
  "Above all, Jimmie Holland was a compassionate human being who felt deeply for others. Her passion for making the lives of patients with cancer better was inspirational. She had countless mentees and inspired countless more. She was a living legend who touched the lives of so many patients and healers in oncology. She was forever modest - perhaps this was due to her humble upbringing - but she forever changed the world of oncology through her work to relieve the suffering of patients with cancer. Although she was gentle, she was in no way timid. She fought for what was right and what she believed in, and the field of psycho-oncology and thousands of patients benefited from her efforts." - Daniel C. McFarland, Division of Network Services in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Connections

Jimmie C. Holland was married to Robert J. Brockman (a medical doctor; died, November 12, 1954). Later she married James F. Holland (a medical doctor) on July 7, 1956. They had six children: Steven, Mary, Sally, Peter, David, Diane (stepdaughter).

Father:

Clifford Coker

Mother:

Velma Coker

Spouse:

James F. Holland

James Frederick Holland (May 16, 1925 – March 22, 2018) was an American physician and Distinguished Professor of Neoplastic Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He served as president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. His 1953 clinical trial on acute leukemia resulted in the formation of Acute Leukemia Group B, a research collaboration that later became known as the Cancer and Leukemia Group B. He was considered a key figure in the development of cancer chemotherapy.

ex-spouse:

Robert J. Brockman

died, November 12, 1954

Son:

Steven Holland

Daughter:

Mary Holland

Daughter:

Sally Holland

Son:

Peter Holland

Son:

David Holland

stepdaughter:

Diane Holland

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 194
  2010