GantFamilyPrecisionCancerMedicineConsortium

Erin O. Aakhus, M.D. Dr. Aakhus is an instructor and assistant fellowship program director in the division of hematology-oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is also pursuing a Masters of Science in Health Policy Research (MSHP). Originally from southern Indiana, she completed undergraduate and medical degrees, as well as a residency in internal medicine, at Indiana University. In her ongoing research, she employs qualitative and quantitative methods to study barriers to discussions about the financial burden of care between cancer patients and their providers. Under the mentorship of bioethicists Steven Joffe and Angela Bradbury, she is developing tools to facilitate the ethical implementation of cost transparency in the outpatient oncology setting.

Peter C. Adamson, M.D.

Dr. Peter Adamson is Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), a National Cancer Institute (NCI) supported international consortium of more than 220 childhood centers that conducts clinical-translational research, including large-scale clinical trials, in children with cancer. Dr. Adamson is Board Certified in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and in Clinical Pharmacology. He currently serves on the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) and is an internationally recognized leader in pediatric cancer drug development. Prior to becoming Chair of the COG in 2011, Dr. Adamson served as Director for Clinical and Translational Research at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as well as Chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Other key roles that he has held include co-Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s - CHOP Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA), Program Director of the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and Principal Investigator of CHOP’s Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit (PPRU). His laboratory research focuses on the clinical pharmacology of new drugs for childhood cancer.

Justin E. Bekelman, M.D.

Dr. Bekelman is Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Faculty in the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, all at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bekelman leads research programs in cancer comparative effectiveness and delivery system and payment reform, integrating methods from the fields of epidemiology, clinical trials, health economics and public policy. In his current comparative effectiveness research, Dr. Bekelman leads the multi-institution Radiation Comparative Effectiveness Consortium (RADCOMP) large pragmatic randomized clinical trial comparing proton to photon radiation therapy for breast cancer and co-leads the PARTIQoL randomized clinical trial comparing proton to intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for prostate cancer. In his delivery system and payment reform research, Dr. Bekelman leads a series of quasi-experimental studies to evaluate the impact of reimbursement and insurance reforms on the use, costs, quality and outcomes of cancer treatments. He has received research funding from the National Cancer Institute, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the American Cancer Society, and philanthropic sources.

Dr. Bekelman completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and his medical training at Yale University, Johns Hopkins, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Previously, he was a management consultant at the Kalchas Group, advising senior executives of health care and insurance clients on corporate strategy. Dr. Bekelman also served as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense in the US Department of Defense. He is a board-certified radiation oncologist and practicing physician at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Mary Beckerle, PhD Mary Beckerle, PhD, has served as CEO and Director of Huntsman Cancer Institute since 2006, and she was appointed in 2009 to an additional key health sciences leadership role as Associate Vice President for Cancer Affairs at the University of Utah. Beckerle joined the faculty of the University of Utah in 1986, and is a distinguished professor of biology and oncological sciences, holding the Ralph E. and Willia T. Main Presidential Professorship. She earned her PhD in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she was the recipient of a Danforth Fellowship, and completed post-doctoral research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Beckerle’s research has defined a novel molecular pathway that regulates cell motility, and her lab is currently focused on understanding the impact of this pathway on tumor progression, particularly in Ewing’s sarcoma. Her scientific work has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Cancer Society for over 20 years. Beckerle is the principal investigator of Huntsman Cancer Institute’s NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG).

An active participant in national and international scientific affairs, Beckerle served as president of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) in 2006. She has served on the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director, as Chair of the American Cancer Society Council for Extramural Grants, and on the Coalition for Life Sciences Board of Directors. Beckerle was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research from 2013 to 2016. She currently serves on the NCI Scientific Review Group Subcommittee A (Parent Committee) for Cancer Centers, the Medical Advisory Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Scientific Advisory Boards of the National Center for Biological Sciences in India, the Mechanobiology Institute in Singapore, and several National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers. Beckerle serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Huntsman Corporation and Johnson & Johnson. In 2016, she was appointed to serve as a member of the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative Blue Ribbon Panel, a team charged with identification of strategies to best advance the scientific themes of Vice President Biden’s “cancer moonshot” initiative; Dr. Beckerle co-chaired the working group on Precision Prevention and Early Detection.

Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD

Chi Van Dang is Director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Professor of Medicine, and the John H. Glick Professor. As Director of the Abramson Cancer Center, he launched a series of Translational Centers of Excellence, which propels teams of scientists, nurses, and clinicians to reach for the cure for various cancers. He also catalyzed the establishment of the Center for Personalized Diagnostics with Penn’s Department of Pathology and the BassResearch Center for BRCA. His career at Penn started in September 2011 after having been at Johns Hopkins, where he was the Johns Hopkins Family Professor in Oncology Research and Vice Dean for Research of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He directed the Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and was a Professor of Medicine, Pathology, Oncology, and Cell Biology with joint appointment in Molecular Biology and Genetics. Dr. Dang is Editor-in-Chief of Cancer & Metabolism and serves or served on editorial boards of Cancer Discovery, Cancer Research, Clinical Translational Science, Current Cancer Therapy Reviews, eLIFE, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Molecular Medicine, Genes & Cancer, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neoplasia, and Oncotargets. He has authored over 200 scientific and medical articles, book chapters and a book. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors, American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and The Association of American Physicians. He was president of the ASCI (2003). He is a member of the White House Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel. He held an NIH/National Cancer Institute MERIT award, received a number of honors, and sponsored and mentored many NIH K08 physician-scientist awardees, Ph.D. doctorates and post-doctoral fellows. The Dang laboratory has contributed to the understanding of the function of the MYC cancer gene, which has emerged as a central transcription factor or gene switch in many different human cancers. His laboratory established the first mechanistic link between the MYC cancer gene and cellular energy metabolism, contributing to the concept that genetic alterations in cancers re-program fuel utilization by tumors and render cancers addicted to certain fuel sources. His laboratory is now exploiting these concepts for therapeutic targeting of cancer cell metabolism as a new way to treat cancer.

James H. Doroshow, MD

James H. Doroshow, MD has been director of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute, since 2004. From 1983 to 2004, he served as chairman of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research. From the time of his first research grant in 1980, Dr. Doroshow was continuously funded by NCI until he moved to the NIH in 2004. He is the author of more than 350 full-length publications in the areas of anthracycline antibiotic molecular pharmacology, the role of oxidant stress in tumor cell signal transduction, and novel therapeutic approaches to solid tumors. Dr. Doroshow served as a member of the Subspecialty Board on Medical Oncology of the American Board of Internal Medicine, chair of NCI’s Scientific Review Group A-Cancer Centers, and as a member of the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. He is currently a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation. Dr. Doroshow received his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1969 and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1973. After completing an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he spent three years performing his fellowship in Medical Oncology on the Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology Branches of the NCI. He is co-author of Abeloff’s Clinical Oncology, 5th Edition and a contributing author to Goldman’s Cecil Medicine, 24th Edition.

Chyke Doubeni, MD, FRCS, MPH

Dr. Doubeni is Chair and The Presidential Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health. He is a Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Senior Fellow at both the Center for Public Health Initiatives and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and a member of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Duke University Family Medicine, and the University of Massachusetts Preventive Medicine residency programs. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He previously served as Interim Associate Vice Provost for Diversity at the University of Massachusetts.

Dr. Doubeni is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the US government on early-career science and engineering professionals. His research focuses on healthcare delivery transformation and on eliminating disparities in premature death, particularly for colorectal cancer, and he has been continuously NIH-funded since 2004. His body of work spans the entire cancer screening continuum, providing unique insights for policy, research, and clinical interventions to improve the screening process for this eminently preventable cancer.

Over the past decade, Dr. Doubeni has led and collaborated extensively on high-impact studies using a variety of designs and data systems including the use of integrated healthcare data. This work has generated high-impact publications (such as NEJM/JAMA) and contributed to changes in screening delivery practices, colonoscopy screening quality guidelines, and helped inform coordinated national efforts to increase screening uptake. Internationally known for his work on improving the process and effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening, Dr. Doubeni has served on several national and international panels, including Chair of an NIH grant review panel. Additionally, he has a long track record of successfully leading trans-disciplinary collaborative research and community coalitions.

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD

Ezekiel J. Emanuel is the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor, and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He was the founding chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and held that position until August of 2011. Until January 2011, he served as a Special Advisor on Health Policy to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council. He is also a breast oncologist and author. After completing Amherst College, he received his M.Sc. from Oxford University in Biochemistry. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard University. After completing his internship and residency in internal medicine at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital and his oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, he joined the faculty at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Emanuel has published widely on the ethics of clinical research, health care reform, international research ethics, end of life care issues, euthanasia, the ethics of managed care, and the physician-patient relationship. He is also an Op-Ed contributor to the New York Times.

Sarah Gant

Sarah Gant began her career as a business journalist in Tokyo, Japan. After returning to the United States, she served as health care policy analyst in the office of Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, and as a researcher and case writer at Harvard Business School, where she developed some of the earliest curriculum materials for the required MBA ethics course. In recent years she has combined her interest in what most profoundly motivates people with her reverence for the outdoors as a program manager with Outward Bound Professional, creating programs for Fortune 100 companies that explore issues of leadership and followership, possibility and fear, and the powerful mysteries that carry us all. Sarah’s most meaningful, transformative and humbling work has been as a mother and wife, as she has been challenged to wrestle to understand and to experience compassion, unconditional love and, ultimately, the faith that makes relationship possible. She has been a student of lyengar yoga for 25 years, and is a meditator.

Sarah earned her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College and her M.Div. from the Harvard Divinity School. She has served in numerous leadership positions within her denomination, The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). She is Clerk of the Permanent Board of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, and a member of the Corporation of Haverford College.

Abbe R. Gluck

Abbe R. Gluck is a Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School. She joined Yale Law School in 2012, having previously served on the faculty of Columbia Law School. She is an expert on Congress and the political process, federalism, civil procedure, and health law, and is the chair emerita of Section on Legislation and the Law of the Political Process for the Association of American Law Schools. Gluck has extensive experience working as a lawyer in all levels of government. Prior to joining Columbia, she served in the administration of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine as the special counsel and senior advisor to the New Jersey Attorney General; and in the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as chief of staff and counsel to the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, senior counsel in the New York City Office of Legal Counsel, and deputy special counsel to the New York City Charter Revision Commission. Prior to law school, she worked in the U.S. Senate for Senator Paul S. Sarbanes of Maryland. She earned her B.A. and JD degrees from Yale, and clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Gluck’s scholarship has been published in the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, and many other journals. Among her most recent work is the most extensive empirical study ever conducted about the realities of the congressional law-making process (published in the Stanford Law Review) and the Harvard Law Review’s Supreme Court issue comment on King v. Burwell, the 2015 challenge to the Affordable Care Act. She served as co-counsel on influential Supreme Court briefs in both King and the 2012 ACA challenge, NFIB v. Sebelius. Professor Gluck currently serves on numerous boards and commissions, including as an appointed member of both the Uniform Law Commission and the New York State Taskforce on Life and the Law, and as an elected member of the American Law Institute. In 2015, Gluck received the Law School’s teaching award.

StevenJoffe,MD,MPH

Dr. Joffe is the Emanuel and Robert Hart Associate Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He serves as Vice-Chair of the Department, leading the medical ethics division, and directs the Penn Fellowship in Advanced Biomedical Ethics. He is also Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Dr. Joffe attended Harvard College, received his medical degree from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), and received his public health degree from UC Berkeley. He trained in pediatrics at UCSF and undertook fellowship training in pediatric hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Joffe’s clinical work is in the area of stem cell transplantation in children. His research addresses the many ethical challenges that arise in the conduct of clinical and translational investigation, both in pediatric oncology and other areas of medicine and science. He has been the principal investigator (PI) of NIH, PCORI and foundation-funded studies that examine the roles and responsibilities of PIs in multicenter randomized trials, accountability in the clinical research enterprise, governance of learning activities within learning healthcare systems, return of individual genetic results to participants in epidemiologic cohort studies, and the integration of genomic sequencing technologies into the clinical care of cancer patients. He was previously a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee for Human Research Protections and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Federal Research Regulations and Reporting Requirements. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group Bioethics Committee and as a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Pediatrics Ethics Subcommittee.

Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H

Dr. Kesselheim is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research focuses on the effects of intellectual property laws and regulatory policies on pharmaceutical development, the drug approval process, and the costs, availability, and use of prescription drugs both domestically and in resource-poor settings. Within the Division, Dr. Kesselheim leads the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), an interdisciplinary research core focusing on intersections among prescription drugs and medical devices, patient health outcomes, and regulatory practices and the law. Dr. Kesselheim’s work is currently funded by the Greenwall Faculty Scholars in Bioethics, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the FDA and the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science. Dr. Kesselheim has testified before Congress on pharmaceutical policy, medical device regulation, generic drugs, and modernizing clinical trials, and served as a consultant for the NIH, FDA, Institute of Medicine, USPTO, and numerous state government offices. Dr. Kesselheim also serves as a faculty supervisor for the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, a faculty member of the Harvard Center for Bioethics, and a Research Associate in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. In the 2016-2017 academic year, he has been a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where taught Food and Drug Administration Law. He graduated from Harvard College and received his postgraduate training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Law School, and most recently at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, and serves as a primary care physician at the Phyllis Jen Center for Primary Care at BWH.

Matthew McCoy, PhD

Matthew McCoy earned a PhD from the Department of Politics and the Program in Political Philosophy at Princeton University. His dissertation assesses the implications of citizen ignorance and irrationality for both the theory and practice of democracy. As a Postdoctoral Fellow in Advanced Biomedical Ethics at Penn, he plans to conduct research on the ethics of engaging lay citizens in decision making about the allocation of scarce medical resources. More specifically, his research will focus on a pair of related questions: what sorts of values and benefits can we hope to realize by involving citizens in resource allocation decisions (and in the development of health policy more generally), and what institutional forms of citizen involvement are best suited to realizing those values and benefits? Prior to earning his PhD, Matthew earned an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics and spent several years as an analyst at a health services research and consulting firm in Washington, DC.

Katherine (Kate) L. Nathanson, MD

Dr. Nathanson is a Professor of Medicine, in the Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. She also is Associate Director for Population Sciences in the Abramson Cancer Center, as well as co-Leader of the Cancer Control Program and Chief Oncogenomics Physician, as well as Director of Genetics for the Basser Center for BRCA Research. Dr. Nathanson received her BA from Haverford College and MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She completed residencies in both Internal Medicine and Clinical Genetics, along with a post-doctoral fellowship in cancer genetics. She is an internationally recognized cancer geneticist for both her clinical and research expertise. Her research focuses on both inherited susceptibility to cancer and somatic genetic characterization of tumors, with interests across multiple tumor types, including testicular germ cell tumors, hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, melanoma and neuroendocrine tumors. Dr. Nathanson has published over 220 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Nature, JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine and Cancer Cell. Dr. Nathanson has an extensive record of national service, serving on committees for multiple organizations, such as ACMG and AACR, several editorial boards, and scientific review committees including for the National Institutes of Health. She has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians.

Mark V. Pauly, PhD

Dr. Pauly currently holds the position of Bendheim Professor in the Department of Health Care Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He received the Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia. He is Professor of Health Care Management and Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School, Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Professor of Economics in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a former commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Commission and an active member of the Institute of Medicine. One of the nation’s leading health economists, he has made significant contributions to the fields of medical economics and health insurance. His classic study on the economics of moral hazard was the first to point out how health insurance coverage may affect patients’ use of medical services. Subsequent work, both theoretical and empirical, has explored the impact of conventional insurance coverage on preventive care, on outpatient care, and on prescription drug use in managed care. His interests in health policy deal with ways to reduce the number of uninsured through tax credits for public and private insurance, and appropriate design for Medicare in a budget-constrained environment. He is currently studying the impacts of health care reform and the Affordable Care Act. He has explored the influences that determine whether insurance coverage is available and, through several cost effectiveness studies, the influence of medical care and health practices on health outcomes and cost. Mark is a co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Health Economics and Management and an associate editor of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. He has served on Institute of Medicine panels on public accountability for health insurers under Medicare and on improving the financing of vaccines. He currently serves as President of the American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon).

Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc

Dr. Pearson is the Founder and President of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), an independent non-profit organization that evaluates the evidence on the value of medical tests, treatments, and delivery system innovations to encourage collaborative efforts to improve patient care and control costs. Prominent among its evidence reports are ICER reviews of new drugs that include full assessments of clinical and cost-effectiveness along with suggested “value-based price benchmarks” to inform policymakers and guide price and coverage negotiation. ICER convenes public hearings to discuss its evidence reports under the auspices of the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF) and Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Councils (CEPAC) in New England and the Midwest. At these meetings independent groups of evidence experts and public representatives engage with all all stakeholders to debate the strength of evidence and provide recommendations on how best to apply the best evidence to clinical practice and coverage policies. Dr. Pearson is a Lecturer in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and also serves as Visiting Scientist in the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. From 2005-2006 he served during the Bush Administration as Special Advisor on Technology and Coverage Policy within the Coverage and Analysis Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Pearson has also been a Senior Visiting Fellow at England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), a Board Director of HTAi, the international society of health technology assessment agencies, and the Vice Chair of the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MedCAC).

Daniel Polsky, Ph.D.

Dr. Polsky is Executive Director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, is a Professor of Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Robert D. Eilers Professor of Health Care Management in the Wharton School. He currently serves on the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisers and he was the Senior Economist on health issues at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2007-08. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in May 1996 and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan in 1989. His research areas include access to health care, workforce, and economic evaluation of medical and behavioral health interventions. He is a coauthor of the book “Economic Evaluation in Clinical Trials” published by Oxford University Press.

David B. Roth, MD, PhD Dr. Roth obtained his MD/PhD from Baylor College of Medicine and a Pathology residency and postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. He joined the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine in 1993, where he became a Professor and HHMI Investigator. Roth joined NYU in 2001, where he was Chair of the Department of Pathology and directed the Medical Scientist Training Program. In 2011 he became Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penn. Roth founded Penn's Center for Personalized Diagnostics and, in 2016, was named the founding Director of Penn’s Center for Precision Medicine. Roth has spent over 20 years as an NIH funded researcher, with over 100 published papers. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, past president of the American Association of University Pathologists, and IS Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Pathology Chairs. He was recently featured in Pathologist magazine’s "Top 100 Power List."

Craig Samitt, MD

Dr. Craig Samitt is executive vice president and chief clinical officer for Anthem, Inc., and is responsible for establishing, leading and executing Anthem's overall clinical vision and strategy. Dr. Samitt oversees Anthem’s clinical operations including: health care analytics, corporate medical and pharmacy policy, health care management and quality, program integrity, and community health initiatives. He is also responsible for advancing Anthem’s industry-leading portfolio of provider partnerships and payment innovation models, focused on improving patient outcomes and delivering value-based care to Anthem’s 38.6 million medical members. Additionally, Dr. Samitt has responsibility for HealthCore, Anthem’s clinical outcomes research subsidiary, and AIM Specialty Health, Anthem’s specialty benefits management subsidiary focused on promoting evidence-based care in high-risk, high-cost areas such as imaging, oncology, and specialty pharmaceuticals.

Prior to joining Anthem, Dr. Samitt served as partner and global provider practice leader of Oliver Wyman’s Health & Life Sciences division, and president and chief executive officer for HealthCare Partners, a subsidiary of DaVita HealthCare, one of the largest physician-centric delivery systems in the country. Much of Dr. Samitt’s leadership career was spent as president and CEO of Dean Health System, Inc., one of the largest integrated health systems in the Midwest. Dr. Samitt led a transformation of Dean’s performance, resulting in the escalation of the system’s statewide WCHQ quality ranking from No. 5 to No. 2, driving 16 sequential quarters of improvement in patient satisfaction scores; reducing a three-year medical cost trend to 48 percent of national commercial health plan averages, and receiving recognition by CMS as a 5-star Medicare Plan, and by JD Power as No. 1 health plan in the Midwest for three consecutive years.

Dr. Samitt is a nationally recognized health care policy expert and thought leader with a record of collaborating across the health care system to develop and advance solutions that deliver higher-quality health care at a lower cost. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Quality Assurance and is currently serving a second three-year term as a Commissioner for MedPAC, an influential, independent legislative branch agency established and appointed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office to advise Congress on policies governing health plans and health care providers serving America’s Medicare beneficiaries.

Dr. Samitt previously served on the Boards of Advocate Physicians Partners, Tandigm Health, the Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network, the Wharton Healthcare Alumni Association, and the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative Center for Accountable Care. He lectures extensively about the transformation of U.S. health care, has been recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the “50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders,” and serves as an annual faculty lecturer at the Wharton School of Business.

Dr. Samitt earned his undergraduate degree from Tufts University, medical degree from Columbia University, and MBA in health care management from the Wharton School of Business. He completed medical residency in Internal Medicine at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FASCO Dr. Schilsky is the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of ASCO. Formerly the Chief of the Section of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine and Deputy Director of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center, he is a highly respected leader in the field of clinical oncology, who specializes in new drug development and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Schilsky is a Past President of ASCO, having served in the role during 2008-2009, and also a Past Chair of one of the National Cancer Institute’s Cooperative Groups, the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB). Dr. Schilsky’s impressive experience and contributions to the field encompass a deep passion for and track record of accomplishments in cancer medicine; experience in both clinical medicine and clinical research; extensive leadership within ASCO; and an in-depth understanding of the current trends and issues affecting oncology clinical practice. He spent the majority of his career at the University of Chicago where he joined the faculty in 1984 subsequently rising to the rank of Professor of Medicine and serving in many roles including Associate Dean for Clinical Research in the Biological Sciences Division and as the Director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center. From 1995 to 2010, Dr. Schilsky served as chair of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, a national cooperative clinical research group funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He has extensive experience working with both the NCI and the Food and Drug Administration having served as a member and chair of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors, as a member of the NCI Clinical and Translational Research Committee, and as a member and chair of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the FDA. Dr. Schilsky has served on the editorial boards of many cancer journals including the Journal of Clinical Oncology and currently serves on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Mary (Dicey) Jackson Scroggins, MA

Mary (Dicey) Jackson Scroggins, MA, a 20-year ovarian cancer survivor and health activist, is a writer, producer, and founding partner in Pinkie Hugs, LLC—a mother-daughter writing and film production firm specializing in social justice-focused documentaries. She is also a co-founder of In My Sister’s Care, an organization focused on improving gynecologic cancer awareness and care for medically underserved women and on eliminating health disparities. Her activism is driven by a commitment to improved awareness, access, care, survival, and survivorship and by a commitment to medical/health equity. The recipient of the 2016 AACR Distinguished Public Service Award, Mary is a member of the Executive Committee for the “Globe-athon to End Women’s Cancers,” the Leadership Committee for MD Anderson Cancer Center’s “Women’s Cancer Moon Shots Program,” the President’s National Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel Working Group on Precision Prevention and Early Detection, and NCI’s Cancer Prevention and Control Central IRB and its Investigational Drug Steering Committee. Previously, Mary was a co-chair of the Eighth (2015) AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, a featured survivor in the 2013 “AACR Cancer Progress Report,” a member of NCI’s Gynecologic Cancer Steering Committee, a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the State of the Science in Ovarian Cancer Research, a faculty member of the annual AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop, a co-chair of NCI’s Patient Advocate Steering Committee, a member of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance Board of Directors, and a peer reviewer and integration panel member for the DOD Ovarian Cancer Research Program. In keeping with her interest in global health, Mary was a member of the Working Group to Facilitate International Cooperation on Non-Commercial Clinical Trials of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and is a member of the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC). She has visited hospitals and spent time in an HIV/AIDS collective in Kenya, planted trees on the Maasai Mara “in honor of all cancer survivors,” and visited a cervical cancer screening project housed in renovated freight containers in Khayelitsha—a South African township of perhaps half a million residents, most living in corrugated iron lean-tos. She has persistently promoted health equity and patient advocacy, initiating conversations with advocates in many countries, participating in and providing training at AORTIC biennial conferences since 2007, and speaking internationally at meetings such as the 6th Clinical Trial Nurse Symposium in Tokyo in 2013. She was also a speaker at an invitation-only international conference—Cancer Research in Africa: Building Transnational Research Collaborations (September 2012 in London)—sponsored by NCI and the Africa Oxford Cancer Foundation. Through Pinkie Hugs, she and her daughter/partner Nneka are the official documentarians of the “Globe-athon,” an international movement to spread gynecologic cancer awareness and save women’s lives.

Lawrence N. Shulman, M.D.

Dr. Shulman is the Deputy Director for Clinical Services of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and Director of their newly formed Center for Global Cancer Medicine. In this role he has a leadership role in the strategic development of cancer services for the Cancer Center, the University of Pennsylvania’s health system, and its affiliated hospitals. He also has a leadership role in the development of Penn’s global cancer work.

Dr. Shulman is the former Chair of American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Quality of Care Committee. He is a member of the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons, and Chair of their Quality Integration Committee. In October 2016 he will become Chair of the Commission on Cancer.

Dr. Shulman serves as Senior Oncology Advisor to Partners In Health (PIH), a non-profit organization co-founded by Dr. Paul Farmer, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, and Ophelia Dahl in 1987. Over the past five years, PIH has expanded its mission to include supporting the establishment of national cancer treatment programs with the Ministries of Health in Rwanda and Haiti. In addition he works with the cancer program in Botswana. Dr. Shulman is a member of ASCO’s Global Oncology Leadership Task Force and International Affairs Committee. He has a leadership role working with the World Health Organization and the Union International for Cancer Control around their essential medicines and medical devices for cancer efforts.

A specialist in the treatment of patients with breast cancer, his research includes development of new cancer therapies, and implementation of cancer treatment programs in low-resource settings.

He received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and trained in Hematology and Oncology at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, MA.

Janet Weiner, PhD Janet Weiner, PhD, MPH, is Associate Director for Health Policy at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Penn. She writes and edits Data Briefs, Issue Briefs, and LDI’s blog, Health Policy$ense. She also works with multidisciplinary teams to conduct health services research and to develop strategies to disseminate research results to policymakers. Prior to coming to Penn, she was a Research Associate for the American College of Physicians, where she researched and wrote College position papers on health policy, ethics, and clinical practice. She holds a journalism degree from Northwestern University, a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University, and a doctoral degree in urban planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Gail Wilensky, PhD Dr. Wilensky is an economist and senior fellow at Project HOPE, an international health foundation. She directed the Medicare and Medicaid programs from 1990 to 1992 and served in the White House as a senior health and welfare adviser to President GHW Bush. Dr. Wilensky currently serves as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mine Workers of America and the National Opinion Research Center, is on the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), and a director of the Geisinger Health System Foundation. She served as president of the Defense Health Board, a Federal advisory to the Secretary of Defense, was a commissioner on the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health and co-chaired the Dept. of Defense Task Force on the Future of Military Health Care.

She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) and has served two terms on its governing board. She is a director of United HealthGroup, Quest Diagnostics and BrainScope and has been a director of several other public companies. She is also a former chair of the board of Academy Health, a former trustee of the American Heart Association and a current or former director of numerous other non-profit organizations.

From 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on payment and other issues relating to Medicare and previously chaired one of its predecessor commissions, the Physician Payment Review Commission. From 2001 to 2003, she co-chaired the President’s Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation’s Veterans and in 2007, served as a Commissioner on the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors (Dole/Shalala Commission).

Dr. Wilensky testifies frequently before Congressional committees, serves as an advisor to members of Congress and other elected officials, speaks nationally and internationally before professional, business and consumer groups. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan and has received several honorary degrees.

GantFamilyPrecisionCancerMedicineConsortium

Staffmembers:

Shannon Fernandez-Ledon Research Fellow Email: sfern@sas.upenn.edu

Shannon, an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, joined the Gant Precision Cancer Medicine Initiative as a research fellow in August of 2016. She is graduating in May of 2017 with a degree in Economics.

Aaron Glickman Research Administrative Coordinator Email: aarongl@mail.med.upenn.edu Aaron joined the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. He is a Research Administrative Coordinator for Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD. Aaron earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University in 2013. Prior to working at Penn, Aaron worked for a private management consulting firm in Philadelphia.

Angela Golub Consortium Associate Director Email: goluba@mail.med.upenn.edu Office: 215-573-9483

Angela joined The University of Pennsylvania in 2013. She is the Administrative Coordinator to Steve Joffe, MD, MPH and provides administrative support for the Penn Fellowship in Advanced Biomedical Ethics. She earned a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico.