Robert Winn, MD, Director of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center, has been elected by the members of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) to serve as Vice President/President-Elect of AACI’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Winn’s new position is effective immediately. AACI’s current president, Caryn Lerman, PhD, Director of the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, assumed leadership of the association in June following the departure of Karen E. Knudsen, PhD, who stepped down to become Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society.
Marcia Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD; Ruben Mesa, MD, FACP; and Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, have been elected as new board members, and Joann Sweasy, PhD, has been appointed to fill the remainder of Dr. Winn’s term as a regular board member (through October 2023). Drs. Cruz-Correa, Mesa, and Vonderheide will replace outgoing board members Leon Platanias, MD; Randall Holcombe, MD, MBA; and Tom Loughran, MD.
Dr. Winn is Chair of the 2021 AACI/CCAF (Cancer Centers Administrators Forum) Annual Meeting Program Committee. Appointed to lead the VCU Massey Cancer Center in 2019, he previously served as Director of the University of Illinois Cancer Center, following 13 years at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and School of Medicine.
New Board Members
Dr. Cruz-Correa is Executive Director of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Comprehensive Cancer Center and leads the center’s Gastrointestinal Oncology Research Program. She is Professor of Medicine at the UPR, Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, and Adjunct Professor of Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Mesa is Executive Director of the NCI-designated Mays Cancer Center, home to the UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he is the Mays Family Foundation Distinguished University Presidential Chair.
Dr. Vonderheide is Director of the Abramson Cancer Center and the John H. Glick, MD Abramson Cancer Center’s Director Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is Vice Dean of Cancer Programs at the Perelman School of Medicine and Vice President for Cancer Programs at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Dr. Sweasy was appointed Director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) in 2020. She is the inaugural holder of the Nancy C. and Craig M. Berge Endowed Chair for the Director of the UACC and was recruited from Yale Cancer Center, where she served as a member of the faculty for 26 years.
