President Joe Biden's administration appointed seven clinicians and researchers to the National Cancer Advisory Board Sept. 15.
The board's primary purpose is to guide the National Cancer Institute's director in setting an agenda for the nation's cancer research program.
The additions are:
- John Carpten, PhD. Dr. Carpten, a professor and chair of translational genomics at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, was selected to serve as chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board.
- Nilofer Azad, MD. Dr. Azad is an oncology professor at Baltimore-based Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Johns Hopkins. She will serve as an advisory board member.
- Luis Alberto Diaz Jr., MD. Dr. Diaz was selected as an advisory board member. He is the head of the solid tumor oncology division at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
- Christopher Friese, PhD, RN, is a professor of nursing; a professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Dr. Friese, who will serve as a National Cancer Advisory Board member, is also the associate director for cancer control at population sciences at the university's Rogel Cancer Center.
- Amy Heimberger, MD. Dr. Heimberger was named a board member. She is a professor of neurological surgery at Northwestern University, and the scientific director of Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center's Malnati Brain Tumor Institute, both based in Chicago.
- Ashani Weeraratna, PhD, is president of the Society for Melanoma Research. She will serve as a National Cancer Advisory Board member. Dr. Weeraratna is leading a global analysis of how the aged microenvironment promotes metastasis.
- Karen Winkfield, MD, PhD. Dr. Winkfield, also selected as a board member, is professor of cancer research and radiation oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
To learn more about the new board members, click here.