Jimmie C. Holland

Jimmie Coker Holland (April 9, 1928 – December 24, 2017) was a founder of the field of psycho-oncology. In 1977, she worked with two colleagues to establish a full-time psychiatric service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The program was one of the first of its kind in cancer treatment, and trained its psychologists to specialize in issues specific to people with cancer. She became a Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College, and held the Wayne E. Chapman Chair of Psychiatric Oncology at MSK.

Holland founded the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (formerly known as the American Society of Psychosocial and Behavioral Oncology/AIDS) in 1980, and co-founded the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) in 1984. Her interest in the field of psycho-oncology arose in part from discussions with her husband about the patients he treated, and the understanding that arose from those discussions that little was known about the experiences of people with cancer and that little was being done to help people with cancer manage the experience.