Dr. Von Roenn’s history with ASCO spans nearly 3 decades. She has served on ASCO’s Board of Directors, the ASCO Palliative Care Task Force, the Scientific Program, Cancer Education, and Cancer Communications Committees, among others. In 2011, Dr. Von Roenn received the ASCO-ACS Award at the Annual Meeting and presented the accompanying lecture, Personalized Medicine: A Comprehensive Definition.

Dr. Von Roenn’s clinical and research interests have focused on breast cancer and palliative care, and she served as the Director of the Palliative Medicine Fellowship Training Program at Northwestern before taking her new position with ASCO.

It was while on a 6-month sabbatical from Northwestern last year that Dr. Von Roenn realized it might be time to pursue challenges outside of patient care.

“I’ve loved clinical practice, but I thought it was time to do something different,” said Dr. Von Roenn. “I’ve long had an interest in education and I felt I was ready to contribute to medicine in a slightly different way. I have always held ASCO in the highest regard and see the Society as a committed, productive organization, so the position seemed like a perfect fit for me.” ■