President Obama has announced his intention to appoint the following five people to the National Cancer Advisory Board:
* Marcia Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry and Basic and Translational Scientific Director and head of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the University of Puerto Rico. She founded the first population-based familial colorectal cancer registry in Puerto Rico.
* Kevin J. Cullen, MD, Director of the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center at the University of Maryland, which under his leadership became an NCI-Designated Cancer Center in 2008.
* Olufunmilayo Falusi Olopade, MD, the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine & Human Genetics, Associate Dean for Global Health, and Director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago. She is also a practicing clinician and Director of the University's Cancer Risk Clinic.Dr. Olopade, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship awardee, also works with educators, doctors, government officials and pharmaceutical companies to improve access to quality education and medical care in low-income communities.
* Jonathan M. Samet, MD, is Professor and Flora L. Thornton Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and Director of the USC Institute for Global Health.His research has addressed health risks posed by environmental agents, including active and passive smoking, indoor and outdoor air pollution, cancer occurrence among diverse populations, and patterns of cancer care. He chairs the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and the FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee.
* William R. Sellers, MD, Vice President and Global Head of Oncology for the Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research, where he oversees small molecule and antibody-based drug discovery efforts in oncology. Dr. Sellers's research funding has come from the NCI, the Damon-Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, and the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, among other institutions.