The 2022-23 Leadership Development Program has 16 participants from various practice settings, subspecialties, and geographic locations.
David D. Chism, MD | Thompson Cancer Survival Center
Dr. David D. Chism is a board-certified medical oncologist and currently works at Thompson Cancer Survival Center in Tennessee. He holds a Master of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Tulane University and earned his medical degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He trained in internal medicine at Rutgers Robert Woods Johnson Medical School and completed his Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the University of North Carolina.
As a fellow, he was awarded an ASCO Merit Award in 2014 for his translational work in bladder cancer and the North Carolina Oncology Association Outstanding Oncology Fellow Award. Dr. Chism’s clinical research has focused on identifying targets for urological cancers and developing effective immunotherapy combination in urological malignancies.
Currently, Dr. Chism serves as the Medical Director for Clinical research at Thompson Cancer Survival Center and as principal investigator of multiple phase I/II/III clinical trials. He led the institutional COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) registry and the ASCO-ACC Implicit Bias Training pilot study and aims to improve outcomes in historically underserved communities and to decrease healthcare disparities.
Curtiland Deville, MD | Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Curtiland Deville is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He serves as Clinical Director of Sibley Radiation Oncology and Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins Proton Therapy Center.
Dr. Deville’s clinical expertise involves treating patients with prostate cancer and soft tissue sarcoma. His funded research interests include improving tumor targeting and assessing toxicity profiles using modern radiation techniques such as proton and photon therapy. He has co-authored over 140 peer-reviewed publications and serves as a Deputy Editor for the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics.
Dr. Deville has a research interest in physician workforce diversity as a means to address health equity. He is a leading voice in health equity, diversity, and inclusion (HEDI) in Radiation Oncology. He serves as the Immediate Past Chair of the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) Committee on HEDI and was recently appointed to the ASTRO Board of Directors as an ex-officio member.
Niharika Dixit, MD | University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Niharika Dixit is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the division of hematology/oncology and practices general oncology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG), a safety net hospital serving low-income, racially and ethnically diverse residents of San Francisco.
Dr. Dixit is the medical director of the Avon Comprehensive Breast Cancer program at ZSFG and directs the cancer navigation and survivorship program at ZSFG. She leads the San Francisco Cancer Initiative (SFCAN) breast cancer task force, a partnership between UCSF and the city of San Francisco to address inequities in cancer care. In addition, Dr. Dixit also serves as chairperson for the Cancer Committee at ZSFG, focusing on delivering high-quality cancer care.
Dr. Dixit’s research focuses on cancer disparities, supportive care, and survivorship care.
Blair Irwin, MD, MBA | MultiCare Regional Cancer Center
Dr. Blair Irwin, MD/MBA is a medical oncologist and medical director at MultiCare Regional Cancer Center (MRCC), a comprehensive cancer center in Tacoma, WA. She splits her time between seeing general oncology patients and supervising a team of 300 staff, including geneticists, medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists.
Prior to joining MRCC, Dr. Irwin completed an MBA at Harvard Business School, a residency in internal medicine, and fellowship in medical oncology at Duke University Heath System. After completing her training she spent a year at the Duke Cancer Network as an attending seeing patients in rural communities across North Carolina. Prior to her career in medicine, Dr. Irwin worked in healthcare finance at JP Morgan Chase H&Q and Aisling Capital.
Dr. Irwin volunteers as president of Washington State Medical Oncology Society (WSMOS). During her free time, she loves to play outside with her husband and three boys.
Allison Magnuson, MD | University of Michigan
Dr. Allison Magnuson is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester. She is board certified in both medical oncology and geriatrics, with a clinical focus in caring for older adults with breast cancer. She is the Director of the Specialized Oncology Care and Research in the Elderly (SOCARE) Clinic at the University of Rochester, which is one of the largest outpatient geriatric oncology clinical programs in the country.
Dr. Magnuson has over 70 peer-reviewed publications and is recognized as a leader in the field of geriatric oncology. Her research focuses on the intersection of cancer, aging, and cognition. She is funded through multiple awards from the NIH, including an R01 from the National Institute on Aging as well as a K76 Beeson Career Development Award for Aging Research. She also serves in multiple leadership roles both institutionally and nationally within the geriatric oncology community, with the goal of improving care for older adults with cancer.
Rana R. McKay, MD | University of California, San Diego
Dr. Rana R. McKay, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Urology at the University of California San Diego, Associate Director of Translational Sciences, and Co-Leader of the Genitourinary Oncology Program at the Moores Cancer Center. She is a medical oncologist who specializes in treating people with urogenital cancers.
Dr. McKay’s research interests include advanced therapeutics, precision medicine, and biomarker development. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed publications such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer, among others. She is a member of the NCI Renal Task Force, NRG RCC Cadre Leader, and Alliance Advanced Prostate Cancer, Cadre Leader, and member of the NCCN Prostate Cancer Guidelines panel.
Dr. McKay earned her medical degree at the University of Florida College of Medicine before completing her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She completed a fellowship in Oncology/Hematology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Jane Meisel, MD | Winship Cancer Institute/Emory University
Dr. Jane Meisel was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, and moved to Boston for college, medical school, and residency. She completed her fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York and moved back to Atlanta to join the faculty at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute in 2015.
At Winship, Dr. Meisel is an Associate Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology. She specializes in breast and gynecologic cancers and run clinical trials for patients with those diseases. She also mentors fellows in clinic and in their research, and serves as one of the core faculty members for Emory’s internal medicine residency. Dr. Meisel is also the Associate Vice Chair of Faculty Development and Promotions, and in this role spearheads the career development program for junior faculty. "Helping people find their passions in academic medicine and make valuable connections throughout the field is really important to me."
Dr. Meisel has enjoyed volunteering at ASCO as a member of the Professional Development Committee, the Cancer Communications Committee, in the Women’s Networking Center, and as a representative to the NAPBC (National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers) Board.
Sukhmani Padda, MD | Cedars-Sinai Cancer Institute
Dr. Sukhmani Padda is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Director of Thoracic Medical Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. She specializes in interventional clinical trials and translational research in thoracic oncology, including in genomic subsets of non-small cell lung cancer (e.g., EGFR, KRAS), lung neuroendocrine tumors and thymic malignancies.
Dr. Padda has a growing interest in physician advocacy and leadership. She joined the Health & Public Policy Committee of the American College of Physicians (ACP) Services California Chapter in 2021, participating in 2022 Sacramento Leadership Day and 2022 ACP Leadership Day in Washington DC.
Dr. Padda is currently serving a 3-year term as the ACP Well Being Champion for Southern California Region 1 Governor’s Council. She is a member of the Legislative Committee of the Medical Oncology Association of Southern California (MOASC), which led her to serve in the California Cancer Caucus and participate in the 2022 ASCO Advocacy Summit.
Navid Sadeghi, MD, MS, FACP | University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Dr. Navid Sadeghi an Associate Professor of Medicine in the division of Hematology-Oncology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, with a clinical focus on breast cancer and hematologic malignancies. In addition, he leads the Cancer Program at Parkland Health, a safety-net health system in Dallas County, affiliated with UT Southwestern.
His research interest is focused on care delivery and cancer outcomes in minorities and underserved populations. Dr. Sadeghi also serves as the Assistant Director of Clinical Investigation for Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center with the goal of improving access to clinical trials for underrepresented minorities.
Dr. Sadeghi is a member of the TxSCO/ACCC Committee on Health Equity and Access.
Corey Speers, MD | University of Michigan
Dr. Coery Speers is an Associate Professor with tenure at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and Associate Residency Program Director in the Department of Radiation Oncology. He has also served as Chief of Clinical Service at the AAVA.
Dr. Speers completed his medical and graduate degrees in the MSTP program at Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX before completing his residency and Holman Pathway training at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After joining the faculty at the University of Michigan as a physician scientist, he has continued his research exploring the biology of aggressive breast cancers, including inflammatory, lobular, and triple-negative breast cancer.
Dr. Speers’ laboratory is interested in “bench to bedside” research that includes basic mechanistic studies, translational pre-clinical studies, and clinical research. His interest in targeted therapies includes PARP-inhibitors, CDK 4/6 inhibitors, and androgen receptor antagonists as agents for radiosensitization. These preclinical studies have been foundational to completed or open clinical trials evaluating these combinations in women with aggressive forms of breast cancer. In addition, he leads a number of studies that focus on utilizing expression-based signatures to predict the need for treatment intensification and de-escalation for breast cancer.
Anna Spreafico, MD, PhD | Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto
Dr. Anna Spreafico is Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and Clinician Investigator in the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada. Her previous training includes a PhD in translational research in the Program for Evaluation of Targeted Therapies at the University of Colorado, USA, and a subspecialty fellowship in experimental therapeutics at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Spreafico serves as the Head and Neck Medical Oncology Disease Site Lead and Director of the Phase I Drug Development Fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
Dr. Spreafico's full-time academic practice and research include early phase clinical trials, with disease-specific interests in skin/melanoma, and head and neck cancers. Her translational research focuses on immuno-oncology-based, microbiome and cancer interception-driven studies. Dr. Spreafico serves on the US NCI Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee rare tumor task force and leads as PI multiple Canadian Cancer Trial Group and NCI CTEP early phase investigator-initiated clinical trials.
Daniel Stover, MD | Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. Daniel Stover is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in Division of Medical Oncology and Department of Biomedical Informatics at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. His focus is clinical computational oncology – the intersection of computational biology and clinical oncology, seeking to bridge high dimensional data and patient care. He cares for patients with breast cancer at the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center. Dr. Stover is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University and received his M.D. from Vanderbilt University where he was named AOA. He completed internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt University and was Hugh J. Morgan Chief Resident in Medicine. He completed Medical Oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School with Joan Brugge, PhD.
Dr. Stover serves as Co-Vice Chair of the Breast Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and is Co-Chair of the Alliance Standardized Translational ‘Omics Resource (A-STOR).
Gevorg Tamamyan, MD, MSc, DSc | Yerevan State Medical University
Dr. Gevorg Tamamyan is the Head of the Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Armenia, Chairman and Professor of the Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology of Yerevan State Medical University, CEO of the Immune Oncology Research Institute. He is also the adviser to the Rector of YSMU and to the Director of the Hematology Center.
He is a co-founder of the Armenian Association of Hematology and Oncology and City of Smile Charitable Foundation, and the Former President of the Harvard Club of Armenia.
Dr. Tamamyan is the past-chair of the ASCO IDEA Steering Group and SIOP PODC Supportive care WG, Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Cancer and Crisis, and ambassador of the Society of Hematologic Oncology. He is a recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, among them the ASCO IDEA and LIFe Awards, he was recognized as a Young Leader of the IARC and UICC.
Lucie Turcotte, MD | University of Minnesota
Dr. Lucie Turcotte is a tenured Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology) at the University of Minnesota. She is the Co-Director for the University of Minnesota Pediatric Leukemia and Lymphoma Program and is also the Director of Pediatric Survivorship Research.
Dr. Turcotte serves on the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Steering Committee as a co-chair for the Second Malignancy Working Group and is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Outcomes/Survivorship Steering Committee. Dr. Turcotte is the silo leader for the Subsequent Malignant Neoplasms and Cancer Screening task force for the COG Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines.
Dr. Turcotte’s research focuses on the outcomes and late health consequences of childhood cancer therapies. She is the PI of an NCI-funded study examining subsequent breast cancer treatment and toxicity among childhood cancer survivors and is also an MPI for an NCI-funded study examining donor socioeconomic status as a predictor of hematopoietic cell transplantation outcomes.
Anna Weiss, MD | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Anna Weiss completed her medical school training at Case Western Reserve University and her General Surgery Residency at the University of California, San Diego. She then completed her Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Weiss is currently a Breast Surgeon at Dana-Farber/Brigham Cancer Center, Director of Breast Surgery Research at Dana-Farber/Brigham Cancer Center’s South Shore affiliate, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and an Executive Officer for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. She has previously served as the Society of Surgical Oncology’s Fellows and Young Attendings Subcommittee Chair and has been an ASCO member since 2017.
Dr. Weiss’ clinical and research interests align in the following two areas: 1) breast surgical management of patients with a hereditary cancer predisposition and 2) subtype-specific surgery after neoadjuvant systemic therapy, with special attention to surgical management of the axilla.
Breelyn A. Wilky, MD | University of Colorado School of Medicine
Dr. Breelyn A. Wilky is Associate Professor and Director of the Sarcoma Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She received her MD degree with Distinction in Research from the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completed her Internal Medicine Residency and Medical Oncology Fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Wilky is a clinical trialist and translational researcher, with interests in immunotherapy and tumor microenvironment in sarcomas. She serves as the Deputy Associate Director of Clinical Research for the University of Colorado Cancer Center and leads the Investigator-Initiated Trials Committee.
Dr. Wilky is a member of the medical and scientific advisory boards for numerous sarcoma patient advocacy foundations, and a member of multiple cooperative group committees and scientific program committees for the Annual Meetings of ASCO, ESMO, and the Connective Tissue Oncology Society.
Dr. Wilky is highly dedicated to trainee education and enjoys mentoring in clinical and laboratory research settings.