Committee Member and Staff Biographies
COMMITTEE MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES
Patricia A. Ganz, M.D. (Chair), a medical oncologist, received her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University and her M.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She completed her training in internal medicine and hematology/oncology at UCLA Medical Center and has been a member of the UCLA School of Medicine faculty since 1978 and the UCLA School of Public Health since 1992. In 1993, she became the director of the Division of Cancer Prevention & Control Research at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. She was awarded an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship in 1999 and was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2007. In 2010, she received the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor. She served on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Board of Scientific Advisors from 2002-2007 and on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Board of Directors from 2003-2006. She was a founding member of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) in 1986, and has directed the UCLA-LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center since 2006. Dr. Ganz’s current research is focused on two major areas: understanding the biological mechanisms of late effects of cancer treatment (e.g., fatigue, cognitive disturbance), and developing interventions to mitigate these effects. Since serving on the IOM committee study on adult cancer survivors (From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition, 2006), she has led a national effort to improve the post-treatment quality and coordination of care for cancer pa-
tients and survivors. In addition, she served on the IOM committee study focused on the psychosocial needs of cancer survivors (Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs, 2008). Dr. Ganz has been a member of the IOM National Cancer Policy Forum (NCPF) since 2005, and currently serves as its vice chair. She has conducted much of her recent policy work through her participation in NCPF workshops on, for example, the Rapid Learning Health System, Cancer Genetics, Obesity in Cancer Survivors, Cancer in the Elderly, and others.
Harvey Jay Cohen, M.D., currently serves in several professional roles at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, including Walter Kempner professor; director, Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development; chair emeritus, Department of Medicine; and principal investigator of the Duke Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, and of the Partnership for Anemia: Clinical and Translational Trials in the Elderly. He received his medical degree, cum laude, from Downstate Medical College of the State University of New York. He served his internship in medicine at Duke University Medical Center, where he was later a resident and fellow in hematology-oncology. He was also a staff associate for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. Dr. Cohen chairs the Cancer in the Elderly Committee for Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, and co-chaired the Task Force on Cancer and Aging for the American Association for Cancer Research. He is a past president of the American Geriatrics Society, the Gerontologic Society of America, and the International Society of Geriatric Oncology. He is also a member of the International Association of Gerontology Governing Board and the Board of the American Federation for Aging Research. Dr. Cohen is on the editorial board of Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences and of Clinical Geriatrics. He is also on the international editorial board of Geriatrics & Gerontology International. He has published extensively, with more than 300 peer-reviewed papers as well as book chapters on topics in geriatrics and hematology/oncology, including special emphasis on aspects of cancer and immunologic disorders in the elderly and geriatric assessment. His current interests are geriatric assessment, biologic basis of functional decline, and cancer and hematologic problems in the elderly. He is author of the book Taking Care After 50, and co-editor of The Link Between Religion and Health: Psychoneuroimmunology and the Faith Factor; Geriatric Medicine, 4th Edition; and Practical Geriatric Oncology. Dr. Cohen is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who Among American Teachers, Who’s Who in Frontiers of Science and Technology, Who’s Who in Science, International Who’s Who in Medicine, and American Men and Women of Science and Biography International. He has received the Joseph T. Freeman Award
and the Kent Award from the Gerontological Society of America, the Jahnigen Memorial Award from the American Geriatrics Society, the B.J. Kennedy Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Paul Calabresi Award from the International Society of Geriatric Oncology, and the Clinically Based Research Mentoring Award from Duke University. Dr. Cohen has been named one of the “Best Doctors” in the United States continuously since 1992 and has been awarded grants from the John A. Hartford Foundation for the Center of Excellence, the Academic Geriatrics Recruitment Initiative, the National Institute on Aging, and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.
Timothy J. Eberlein, M.D., is the Bixby Professor of Surgery and Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is also the chairman of the Department of Surgery and the surgeon-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Dr. Eberlein serves as the Olin distinguished professor and director of the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University Medical Center. Siteman Cancer Center is now an NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center and a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). It is one of the largest clinical cancer centers in the United States and its integrated research programs involve all school of medicine departments, as well as the schools of engineering, social work, and arts and sciences. Prior to moving to St. Louis, Dr. Eberlein served as the Richard E. Wilson professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and vice chairman for research in the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Eberlein has been very active in the work of the NCI, having served on the Board of Scientific Counselors and having been a chairperson for a NIH Study Section. He is a past board member of the American Association of Cancer Institutes and is currently vice chair of the board of directors of the NCCN. In 2004, Dr. Eberlein was elected a member of the IOM. He received the John Wayne Clinical Research Award from the Society of Surgical Oncology in 1999 and the Sheen Award in 2006 for outstanding contributions to the medical profession. He has served as president of the Society of Surgical Chairs, the Society of Surgical Oncology, and the American Surgical Association. Recently he was named president of the Southern Surgical Association. Dr. Eberlein serves on a number of editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals and is currently the editor in chief of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and associate editor of Annals of Surgical Oncology.
Thomas W. Feeley, M.D., is a senior faculty member at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and is the Helen Shafer Fly Distin-
guished Professor of Anesthesiology. Dr. Feeley is the head of the Institute for Cancer Care Innovation and the Division of Anesthesiology and Critical Care. He came to MD Anderson in 1997, following 19 years on the anesthesiology faculty at Stanford University, to create a new division devoted to anesthesiology, critical care, and pain management for cancer patients. Since 2008, he has led the development of the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Institute for Cancer Care Innovation. The institute is designed to study the value of MD Anderson’s cancer care delivery system using the framework created by the 10 recommendations of 1999 IOM report Ensuring Quality Cancer Care and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter’s principles of value-based health care. In June 2009, he presented a proposal to the NCPF to reexamine the volume outcome recommendation of the 1999 report; however, the forum had a number of projects under way at the time. With his colleagues, he went on to perform an analysis of the current state of quality of cancer care in the United States as a follow-up to the 1999 IOM report and Cancer published the findings in a November 2011 paper titled “Ensuring Quality Cancer Care: A Follow-Up Review of the Institute of Medicine’s 10 Recommendations for Improving the Quality of Cancer Care in America.” He also presented MD Anderson’s work on value in cancer care using Porter’s value-based health care model at the IOM regional meeting in Houston in April 2010. He published a summary from that presentation in the Journal of Healthcare Management and that paper, titled “A Method for Defining Value in Healthcare Using Cancer Care as a Model,” earned the 2012 Edgar C. Hayhow Article of the Year Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives. Dr. Feeley’s team at MD Anderson has also published work on cancer quality metrics, the effect of the Affordable Care Act on cancer care delivery, and the use of medical records by cancer patients, and it has contributed to a major article in the Harvard Business Review on the measurement of cancer care delivery costs. Dr. Feeley’s Division of Anesthesiology and Critical Care is one of the world’s largest programs of its kind delivering anesthesia, critical care, and pain management services to cancer patients in conjunction with a major basic and clinical research program. Dr. Feeley also provides anesthesia care to cancer patients undergoing surgery at MD Anderson.
Betty R. Ferrell, RN, Ph.D., M.A., FAAN, FPCN, has been in oncology nursing for 35 years and has focused her clinical expertise and research on pain management, quality of life, and palliative care. Dr. Ferrell is a professor and research scientist at the City of Hope Medical Center in Los Angeles. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and she has contributed to more than 350 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts. She is principal investigator of a project funded by the NCI
on “Palliative Care for Quality of Life and Symptom Concerns in Lung Cancer” and of the “End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium” project. She directs several other projects related to palliative care in cancer centers and quality-of-life issues. Dr. Ferrell is a member of the NCI’s Board of Scientific Advisors and was chairperson of the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care. She served on the National Quality Forum (NQF) Committee for Preferred Practices in palliative care. She is also the chairperson of the Southern California Cancer Pain Initiative. She has authored nine books, including Cancer Pain Management (1995), Pain in the Elderly (1996), and the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing (3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 2010). She co-authored the text The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing (Oxford University Press, 2008) and Making Health Care Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care (Templeton Press, 2010). Dr. Ferrell completed a master’s degree in theology, ethics, and culture from Claremont Graduate University in 2007.
James A. Hayman, M.D., M.B.A., received his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees simultaneously from the University of Chicago in 1991. Following a 1-year internship at Evanston Hospital in Evanston, Illinois, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and completed his radiation oncology residency at the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy, Harvard Medical School. Since joining the faculty in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Michigan in 1996, he has achieved the rank of professor and is also associate chair for clinical activities at the university hospital. His clinical and research interests include the management of thoracic and breast cancers, as well as skin, ocular, and central nervous system malignancies. He is among the few radiation oncologists in the United States who has been active in the field of health services research and who is board certified in hospice and palliative medicine. He has served on numerous local and national committees related to quality of care. Dr. Hayman is the chair of the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s Clinical Affairs and Quality Committee and is a long-serving member of ASCO’s Quality of Care Committee. He has also been involved with projects related to quality of care coordinated by NQF, the American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, the Cancer Quality Alliance, and the NCCN. He is helping to lead a new statewide collaborative quality initiative supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the Michigan Radiation Oncology Quality Consortium.
Katie B. Horton, J.D., M.P.H., is a research professor at the George Washington University (GWU) School of Public Health and Health Services, Department of Health Policy. Professor Horton has more than 20 years of public policy experience. Currently, she conducts research in a variety
of issue areas related to the implementation of the new health reform law, including the public health and prevention provisions, delivery system reforms, quality improvement initiatives, and the health insurance exchange system. Much of Professor Horton’s research involves issues specific to individuals with chronic illness. Prior to joining GWU, Professor Horton was president of Health Policy R&D, a health policy firm in Washington, DC, and she served as senior professional health staff specializing in Medicare financing issues for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. She was an advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) and other Democratic senators and their staffs on federal health insurance issues and drafted a variety of legislative proposals involving improvements to Medicare and patient protections in the private health insurance market. Prior to her work with the Senate Committee on Finance, Ms. Horton served as the legislative director for Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA), during which she was responsible for the representative’s legislative agenda regarding Medicare, Medicaid, welfare reform, and social security issues. As a nurse, Ms. Horton also served as director of clinical services for Operation Smile, an organization providing health services to indigent children in developing countries.
Arti Hurria, M.D., is a geriatrician and oncologist, focusing on care of the older patient with cancer. She completed a geriatric fellowship in the Harvard Geriatric Fellowship Program, followed by a hematology-oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). She subsequently joined the faculty at MSKCC, where she served as co—principal investigator on the institutional NIH P20 grant “Development of an Aging and Cancer Center at MSKCC.” In the fall of 2006, Dr. Hurria joined the City of Hope as director of the Cancer and Aging Research Program. Dr. Hurria is a recipient of the Paul Beeson Career Development Award in Aging Research (K23 AG026749-01) and American Society of Clinical Oncology—Association of Specialty Professors’ Junior Development Award in Geriatric Oncology. She is chair of the NCCN Senior Adult Oncology Panel, editor in chief of the Journal of Geriatric Oncology, vice co-chair of the Alliance Cancer in the Elderly Committee, and president of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology. Dr. Hurria serves as principal investigator on a U13 grant in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging and the NCI to identify and develop research methodology that will lead to evidence-based recommendations for improved clinical care for older adults with cancer. She also serves as principal investigator on an R01-funded grant evaluating clinical and biological predictors of chemotherapy toxicity in older adults with breast cancer. These grants are executed in collaboration with members from the Cancer and Aging Research Group, which Dr. Hurria founded and leads.
Mary S. McCabe, RN, M.A., is director of the Cancer Survivorship Program at MSKCC. Since 2003, she has been responsible for developing and implementing a center-wide program for cancer survivors focused on research, clinical care, professional training, and education. She is also a faculty member in the Division of Medical Ethics at the Cornell Weill Medical College, and chair of the MSKCC Ethics Committee. A graduate of Trinity College, Emory University, and Catholic University, she was previously the nursing director at the Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University, in Washington, DC. She held several positions at the NCI before joining MSKCC, including assistant director of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, director of the Office of Clinical Research, and faculty in the Department of Bioethics at NIH. Ms. McCabe serves on many committees, including the Committee on Improving the Quality of Cancer Care at the IOM, the Survivorship Steering Committee of the American Cancer Society, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Survivorship Panel, the Scientific Advisory Board of the LIVESTRONG Foundation, and the NCI Clinical Trials and Translational Research Advisory Committee. Ms. McCabe is chair of the ASCO Survivorship Committee. She is a member of the Oncology Nursing Society, ASCO, and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. Ms. McCabe has published many peer-reviewed articles, serves on the editorial boards for Seminars in Oncology Nursing, Oncology, and Oncology for Nurses, and writes a column on cancer survivorship for the ASCO Post. She has received numerous awards, including the American Cancer Society Merit Award, Oncology Nursing Society Leadership Award, NIH Outstanding Performance Award, NIH Director’s Award, and Emory University’s Outstanding Alumnae Award.
Mary D. Naylor, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, is the Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology and director of the New Courtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing. Since 1989, Dr. Naylor has led an interdisciplinary program of research designed to improve the quality of care, decrease unnecessary hospitalizations, and reduce health care costs for vulnerable community-based older adults and their family caregivers. In the 1990s, Dr. Naylor co-led the establishment of a program of all-inclusive care at Penn’s School of Nursing called Living Independently for Elders. Dr. Naylor is the national program director for the Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI), sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The primary goal of INQRI is to generate, disseminate, and translate research that demonstrates nursing’s contribution to the quality of patient care. In recognition of her research and leadership, Dr. Naylor has received numerous awards. She was elected to the IOM in 2005. She is also a member
of the RAND Health Board, the NQF board of directors, and the founding board chair of the Long-Term Quality Alliance. She was appointed to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in 2010.
Larissa Nekhlyudov, M.D., M.P.H., is currently associate professor and director of cancer research at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Population Medicine. She is also a practicing general internist at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Nekhlyudov has published numerous original manuscripts in leading cancer and general medicine journals on topics related to cancer treatment and outcomes, specifically focusing on quality of life, surveillance for recurrences, adherence, communication, and coordination of care. She has also co-authored book chapters focusing on cancer screening, detection, and survivorship. Dr. Nekhlyudov is particularly interested in improving the care of cancer survivors and the interplay between primary and oncology care, and has extensive clinical and research expertise in this area. She served as guest editor of a supplement to the Journal of General Internal Medicine on cancer survivorship care for the general internist and has both led and participated in numerous educational programs in cancer survivorship. Dr. Nekhlyudov currently serves as the director of the NCI-funded Community Practice Research Core at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. She is an active member of the Society of General Internal Medicine and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She serves on the Advisory Board at the Massachusetts Cancer Registry. Dr. Nekhlyudov received her M.D. at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and then pursued her residency training at the Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Yale Primary Care Residency programs. She was chief resident at the Hospital of Saint Raphael, affiliated with the Yale School of Medicine. Following her training, Dr. Nekhlyudov was a fellow in the Harvard Medical School Fellowship Program in general medicine and received an M.P.H. at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Michael N. Neuss, M.D., is the chief medical officer of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and professor of clinical medicine in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. After receiving training at Duke University, leading to board certification in internal medicine and medical oncology, he was in private practice in Cincinnati from 1986 through 2011. As the first medical oncologist at Oncology Hematology Care, he has been the vice president of the Oncology Hematology Care Group from 1986 to 2011, a time during which the group expanded from 2 to 48 doctors. Since arriving at Vanderbilt in July 2011, he has served as chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Committee, is current chair of the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative Steering Group, and is on the
AMA Innovators’ Committee, which is examining care delivery and payment reform models.
Noma L. Roberson, Ph.D., is a retired cancer research scientist with expertise in cancer control, epidemiology, and health services research. Currently, she is president and owner of Roberson Consulting International, a health research consulting firm. She is also the owner of Noma’s Fine Apparel, an upscale women’s dress shop located in Amherst, New York. Dr. Roberson received her graduate degree in experiential pathology and epidemiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She is author of three books and numerous articles. During her 29-year tenure at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, Dr. Roberson served as the director of community intervention and research. In addition to her research, Dr. Roberson is credited for the development of several training curricula and health promotional materials for the early detection of breast and lung cancer. Dr. Roberson is also credited for the design and operation of a 34-foot mobile van that provided health education and screening services throughout western New York. With more than 40 years of experience as a health care professional, Dr. Roberson’s research has carried her across the United States as well as to several international locations, including Budapest, Hungary; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; New Delhi, India; Toronto, Canada; and Jamaica, West Indies. Dr. Roberson currently serves on the NIH/NCI Scientific Review Board/Special Emphasis Panel, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Diversity Strategic Planning Group and Behavioral and Health Outcomes Committee, the American Cancer Society Eastern Division Board of Advisors, the National Federation for Just Communities board of directors, and the Faith-Based Health Initiative of Buffalo Committee. Throughout her career, she has served on numerous boards and committees and is the recipient of more than 40 awards and certificates for her contributions to research and the community. As the wife of businessman and contractor Willie Roberson, Dr. Roberson served as the president of the National PHC Contractors Auxiliary, where she oversaw 6 U.S. zones and 13 national committees.
Ya-Chen Tina Shih, Ph.D., is associate professor of health economics in the Section of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Shih is also the director of the Economics of Cancer Program, affiliated faculty at the Center for Health and the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, and member of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to joining the University of Chicago in March 2011, she was associate professor at the Section of Health Services Research, Department of Biostatistics,
at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Prior to that, she was assistant professor at the Division of Pharmaceutical Policy and Evaluative Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Dr. Shih came to the United States in 1990 for graduate study. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University, with a concentration on labor/health economics and econometrics. She has served as principal investigator on research grants related to various economic aspects of cancer funded by the NCI, National Human Genome Research Institute, Agency for Healthcare and Quality, American Cancer Society, Lance Armstrong Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Shih has more than 15 years of experience with economic evaluation, health services, and comparative effectiveness research, using both modeling approaches and econometric techniques applied to observational and trial data. Major themes in her work include studying the diffusion of new medical technologies among various patients/provider subgroups and/or geographic areas; examining the impact of new technologies on the outcomes and costs of cancer care; and exploring the effect, especially the unintended consequences, of technology diffusion, health policies, and regulations on cancer patients. Her other research interests are assessing the cost-effectiveness of medical and behavioral interventions. Dr. Shih is co-editor of Value in Health, and is on the editorial board of PharmacoEconomics. She has been a member of the NCPF at the IOM since 2011 and serves on the American Cancer Society Guidelines Development Panel.
George W. Sledge, Jr., M.D., is the oncology chief at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is currently a professor of medicine. He specializes in the study and treatment of breast cancer and directed the first nationwide study on the use of paclitaxel to treat advanced breast cancer. His recent research focuses on novel biologic treatments for breast cancer. He has published more than 250 articles in medical journals about breast cancer and has chaired several national clinical trials involving new breast cancer treatments. He conducts both laboratory and clinical work. Dr. Sledge serves as editor in chief of Clinical Breast Cancer and was past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He served as chairman of the Breast Cancer Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group from 2002 to 2009, where he played an important role in the development of several nationwide clinical trials. He has also been chair of ASCO’s Education Committee, a member of the Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program’s Integration Panel, and a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee. He is currently a member of the External Advisory Committee for The Cancer Genome Atlas Project. Dr. Sledge was the recipient
of the 2006 Komen Foundation Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction, the 2007 Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s Jill Rose Award, and the 2010 William L. McGuire Award from the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Thomas J. Smith, M.D., is a medical oncologist and palliative care specialist with a lifelong interest in better symptom management, open and accurate communication, and improving access to high-quality affordable care. He is now the director of palliative medicine for Johns Hopkins Medicine, charged with integrating palliative care into all the Johns Hopkins venues. Johns Hopkins has opened a hospital-wide PC consult service that will see more than 1,000 patients each year, an inpatient unit as of March 1, and has a growing research agenda. Dr. Smith has a long track record of starting innovative programs while their impact on care and costs are being evaluated concurrently; examples of those programs include the Rural Cancer Outreach Program, the Thomas Palliative Care Program, the Virginia Initiative on Palliative Care, and the Rural Palliative Care Program. The palliative medicine group at Johns Hopkins was the first to show improved care with substantial cost savings from coordinated rural-urban care, inpatient palliative care, and rural palliative care. He has been influential within the oncology community, working to improve care at a cost society can afford, maintaining his credentials as a treating oncologist while integrating palliative care. Dr. Smith received the national Humanism in Medicine Award in 2000, and in 2000 and 2006 he was voted the Distinguished Clinician on the Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine faculty. He has been recognized in “Best Doctors in America” for many years. In June 2008, he received the ASCO “Statesman” award for continued service to oncology, and is now a fellow with the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In 2012, Dr. Smith and Bruce Hillner received the ABIM “Professionalism” Prize for their New England Journal of Medicine article “Bending the Cost Curve in Cancer Care” and leading the “Choosing Wisely” initiatives. He serves as an attending physician on the Longcope Service of the Osler Medical Housestaff training program as well as in palliative care.
Neil S. Wenger, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at UCLA, and a practicing general internist with an interest in patients with complex illness. He also directs the UCLA Health System Ethics Center. At RAND, he is a senior scientist and directs the Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders project. Dr. Wenger’s research focuses on measuring and improving the quality of care for vulnerable older persons. He has led assessments of
care for various groups of older individuals and has recently participated in a team that implements practice redesign efforts aimed at improving primary care for older patients, with an emphasis on falls, incontinence, and dementia care. He is particularly interested in measuring and improving care toward the end of life. Dr. Wenger’s educational efforts focus on training physician fellows in health services and primary care research, training resident physicians in primary care general internal medicine, and teaching clinical ethics. He directs the National Research Service Award Primary Care Research Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, in the Division of General Internal Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Wenger received his M.D. from the UCLA School of Medicine and his M.P.H. from the UCLA School of Public Health.
IOM STAFF BIOGRAPHIES
Laura Levit, J.D., is a program officer at the IOM, where she has worked with the Board on Health Care Services and the NCPF. She started at the IOM as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Graduate Fellow in the winter of 2007 and that year received the IOM Rookie Award. Her previous work at the IOM has focused on topics that include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, comparative effectiveness research, the oncology workforce, and regulatory hurdles to personalized medicine. She graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and is a member of the Virginia Bar Association. In law school, Ms. Levit worked for several different nonprofit organizations that focused on health and mental health care policy, including the Treatment Advocacy Center, the National Research Center for Women & Families, the Bazelon Center, and the World Federation for Mental Health. She completed her undergraduate studies at the College of William and Mary, receiving a B.S. with honors in psychology. Ms. Levit was the 2009 recipient of the National Academies’ Group Distinguished Service Award, and the 2012 recipient of the IOM staff team achievement award.
Erin Balogh, M.P.H., is an associate program officer for the IOM Board on Health Care Services and the NCPF. She has directed NCPF workshops on patient-centered cancer treatment planning, affordable cancer care, precompetitive collaboration, combination cancer therapies, and reducing tobacco-related cancer incidence and mortality. She has staffed IOM consensus studies focusing on the quality of cancer care, omics-based test development, the national cancer clinical trials system, and the evaluation of biomarkers and surrogate endpoints. She completed her M.P.H. in health management and policy at the University of Michigan School
of Public Health, and graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with bachelor’s degrees in microbiology and psychology. Ms. Balogh interned with AcademyHealth in Washington, DC, and worked as a research site coordinator for the Urban Institute in Topeka, Kansas. Previously, Ms. Balogh was a management intern with the Arizona State University Office of University Initiatives, a strategic planning group for the university.
Pamela Lighter, M.P.H., is a research assistant on the Board on Health Care Services. She is currently working with the NCPF and Committee on Improving Quality of Cancer Care. She has previously worked with the Committee on Living Well with Chronic Disease; the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; and the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities. She received her M.P.H. and a certificate on health disparities and health inequality from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in August 2013 and received bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and general biology from the University of Maryland, College Park, in August 2008.
Michael Park served as senior program assistant for the NCPF and Board on Health Care Services at the IOM from September 3, 2007, to September 2, 2013. He received his B.A. in Germanic language and literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2006 after studying 2 years abroad (on scholarship) in Germany and Italy. Having completed his final year of high school in Zaragoza, Spain, he is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and German. In 2013, Mr. Park graduated from Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business, with a Master of Management in Clinical Informatics degree. He is enthusiastic about developing apps, tools, and processes to facilitate personalized medicine, clinical decision support, and real-time insight discovery.
Sharyl Nass, Ph.D., is director of the NCPF. As a study director and senior program officer at the IOM, she has worked with the Board on Health Sciences Policy, the Board on Health Care Services, and the National Cancer Policy Board and Forum. Her previous work at the IOM focused on topics that include developing cancer biomarkers and omics-based tests to guide patient care, improving cancer clinical trials, formulating strategies for large-scale biomedical science, developing technologies for the early detection of breast cancer, improving breast imaging quality standards, assessing the impact of the HIPAA Privacy Rule on health research, and facilitating contraceptive research and development. She has also served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland School of
Nursing, lecturing on cancer biology, detection, and treatment. With a Ph.D. in cell and tumor biology from Georgetown University and postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, she has published research on the cell and molecular biology of breast cancer. She also holds a B.S. in genetics and an M.S. in endocrinology/reproductive physiology, both from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In addition, she studied developmental genetics and molecular biology at the Max Planck Institute in Germany under a fellowship from the Heinrich Hertz-Stiftung Foundation. Dr. Nass was the 2007 recipient of the IOM’s Cecil Award for Excellence in Health Policy Research, the 2010 recipient of a National Academy of Sciences Distinguished Service Award, and the 2012 recipient of the IOM staff team achievement award.
Roger Herdman, M.D., is director of the IOM Board on Health Care Services. He received his undergraduate and medical school degrees from Yale University. Following an internship at the University of Minnesota and a stint in the U.S. Navy, he returned to Minnesota, where he completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in immunology and nephrology, and also served on the faculty. He was a professor of pediatrics at Albany Medical College until 1979. In 1969, Dr. Herdman was appointed director of the New York State Kidney Disease Institute in Albany, New York, and shortly thereafter was appointed deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Health (1969-1977). In 1977, he was named New York state’s director of public health. From 1979 until joining the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), he served as a vice president of MSKCC in New York City. In 1983, Dr. Herdman was named assistant director of OTA, where he subsequently served as director from 1993 to 1996. He later joined the IOM as a senior scholar and directed studies on graduate medical education, organ transplantation, silicone breast implants, and the Department of Veterans Affairs national formulary. Dr. Herdman was appointed director of the IOM/National Research Council National Cancer Policy Board from 2000 through 2005. From 2005 until 2009, Dr. Herdman directed the IOM National Cancer Policy Forum. In 2007, he was also appointed director of the IOM Board on Health Care Services. During his work at the IOM, Dr. Herdman has worked closely with the U.S. Congress on a wide variety of health care policy issues.
