The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recently announced the election of four new members to its Executive Committee, the governing body of the organization, for terms beginning after the 2014 ASH Annual Meeting, which will be held December 6–9 in San Francisco.
Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, will serve a 1-year term as Vice President, followed by successive terms as President-Elect and President. Susan B. Shurin, MD, will serve a 4-year term as Treasurer. Mary C. Dinauer, MD, PhD, and Terry B. Gernsheimer, MD, will both serve 4-year terms as Councillors.
“The field of hematology is changing rapidly around us—from the way we educate trainees to the way we deliver care at the patient bedside. These changes present opportunities and challenges that must be met by visionary leadership,” said ASH President Linda J. Burns, MD, of the University of Minnesota. “Drs. Anderson, Shurin, Dinauer, and Gernsheimer bring vast knowledge and diverse experience to address these opportunities and challenges, and we look forward to working with them to help further the Society’s mission to conquer blood diseases worldwide.”
Kenneth C. Anderson, MD
Dr. Anderson is Director of the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and the Jerome Lipper Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He also serves as Kraft Family Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair of the Joint Program in Transfusion Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Anderson’s major fields of interest include the biology and treatment of plasma cell disorders and transfusion. Outside of the laboratory, he is interested in identifying new opportunities for mentorship and role models to attract the next generation into hematology as well as strengthening international leadership to improve the care of patients with blood disorders across the world.
During his more than 15 years of involvement in ASH, Dr. Anderson has served in a variety of Society volunteer roles. He currently serves as Executive Editor of Hematology (the ASH Education Program) and served a 4-year term as an ASH councillor from 2010 to 2013.
Susan B. Shurin, MD
Dr. Shurin is Senior Adviser to the Center for Global Health of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, working from San Diego. Her most recent NIH roles have included Deputy and Acting Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Her fields of interest include nonmalignant hematologic diseases; pediatric oncology; noncommunicable diseases; and the biology and epidemiology of cardiovascular, pulmonary, and blood diseases. Dr. Shurin has previously served as a member of the ASH Committee on Government Relations and as faculty for the ASH Clinical Research Training Institute.
Mary C. Dinauer, MD, PhD
Dr. Dinauer is the Fred M. Saigh Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research and Professor of Pediatrics and of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She is also the Scientific Director at the Children’s Discovery Institute of Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Dinauer’s fields of interest include molecular mechanisms of innate immunity, inflammatory responses, and the development and function of white blood cells. Dr. Dinauer currently serves as an Associate Editor of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, and she served as a Scientific Program Co-Chair of the 2011 ASH Annual Meeting.
Terry B. Gernsheimer, MD
Dr. Gernsheimer is Medical Director of the Platelet Immunology Laboratory at Puget Sound Blood Center, Medical Director of Transfusion at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and Assistant Medical Director of Clinical Transfusion Service at the University of Washington Medical Center. She also serves as Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Adjunct Professor of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington.
Dr. Gernsheimer’s major research interests include platelet immunology and immune platelet disorders, platelet transfusion and hemostasis in hematologic malignancies, and hemostasis and transfusion management of the perioperative patient. She currently serves on the ASH Committee on Practice. ■
