Dr. Harold Freeman, known as the “father of patient navigation,” is a cancer surgeon who has had a longstanding career advocating for and advancing access to equitable healthcare. He served as the director of surgery at Harlem Hospital from 1974 to 1999 before he became the founding director of the National Cancer Institute’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities. In 2003, he became the cofounder of our first center: Ralph Lauren’s Center for Cancer Care in Harlem in New York City. In 2019, this center was officially absorbed into Memorial Sloan Kettering, becoming the MSK Ralph Lauren Center. He is also a former president of the American Cancer Society and a Professor Emeritus of Surgery at Columbia University. In 1990, the American Cancer Society established the Dr. Harold P. Freeman Award to recognize his extensive work in pioneering the patient-navigation model created to address disparities in access to timely diagnosis and treatment.