Dr. Shelton 'Shelley' Earp to speak at Winter Commencement ceremony

Dr. Shelton “Shelley” Earp, former director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, will deliver the keynote address at the 2024 Winter Commencement on Dec. 15 at the Dean E. Smith Center.

Since recently transitioning out of his positions at the cancer center and UNC Cancer Care, Earp said he is continuing to write grants and work in his lab. Earp said he is specifically excited about possibly contributing to cancer immunotherapy as a way of understanding how to treat the disease. 

Earp said that his key to career success was a combination of being curious and excited about what he was doing, knowing how to write and dealing with rejection. 

“Your ideas aren't going to work, your papers are going to get rejected, your grants are going to have to be rewritten,” Earp said. “And if you really love what you're doing, you can get over those setbacks and get up the next day and live to fight again.”

Earp said he hasn't decided on what he will say at the commencement ceremony, but he knows he will feature curiosity, passion for what is being done and what his late wife, Jo Anne Earp, would say about relationships regarding health behaviors. 

While Chancellor Lee Roberts was overseeing the University Cancer Research Fund, Earp met him before stepping down from his role. Earp said he thinks Roberts made the decision for him to speak at the ceremony because the keynote speaker is traditionally a faculty member, and Earp has been involved at the University for over 55 years. 

UNC Media Relations Manager Beth Lutz wrote in an email statement to The Daily Tar Heel that Roberts reflected on inviting Earp to be the keynote speaker, acknowledging Earp's service to the University during a UNC Board of Trustees meeting on Nov. 7.

Earp said it's a great honor to be chosen to deliver the keynote address. He said he was a student at UNC before being drafted in the Army, where he then met his wife. 

“We came back here together. The University has been so wonderful for us, so to be chosen to give back to the University is a lovely, lovely thing for me,” he said.

Stephen Frye, retired Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor, worked closely with Earp for years, as Frye's work in drug discovery was relevant to Earp's cancer research. 

Frye said that Earp made sure UNC became more collaborative in areas like drug discovery, which he said other universities don't focus on as much.

“He’s a great statesman,” Frye said. “I mean, I'll tell you, if anybody needs really thoughtful advice on complex situations, challenges to the University, Shelley would be somebody I want at the table.”

One staff member Earp helped recruit, Jo Anne Earp Distinguished Professor Kurt Ribisl, said that stewarding the campaign that convinced the state legislature to create the University Cancer Research Fund was Earp's biggest legacy because it transformed the Lineberger Center and North Carolina as a state.

Ribisl said the cancer fund is bringing in around 59.5 million dollars per year, helping UNC recruit what he described as a few hundred of the top researchers in the country and best professors at the University. He said that the fund has made a big difference in the UNC community and that UNC Cancer Care took off under Earp's leadership. 

Ribisl said that some qualities that he associates with Earp are his ability to unite people with diverse political perspectives to make a difference, to build a team and to have fun.

Graduating senior Nicole Pistani, who received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the Lineberger Cancer Center, said she is currently involved in coagulation system research, which deals with obesity and is disease-related.

“As somebody who is obviously prominent in the medical field and has made a huge impact on UNC and the UNC Medical School and the health care system here, it should be exciting to hear some motivation or encouraging words,” Pistani said.

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