The Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) Board of Directors has named Candace S. Johnson, PhD, as the Institute’s 15th President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Dr. Johnson will be the first female leader for this 117-year-old comprehensive cancer center.
“Over the past few months, we have met some highly qualified cancer leaders from around the country who were interested in pursuing this job. Through this process of discovery, the search committee took note of the incredible job Dr. Johnson has been doing in leading this organization since Donald
Trump, MD, FACP, retired last fall,” says Michael Joseph, Chair of the RPCI Board of Directors. “There wasn’t a member of the board, community leader, RPCI employee, or cancer center friend who hasn’t realized that our future leader was right in front of us.”
Dr. Johnson has led the scientific strategies and achievements of RPCI for 13 years. During that time, she has helped secure the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Center Support Grant for the Institute twice and has built the foundation for successfully recompeting for this prestigious allocation in 5 years.
“Roswell Park Cancer Institute is one of the founding organizations of Buffalo. The community and state leaders who established this cancer center and built this region’s center of excellence deserve to have their legacy continue. I am committed to creating an organization and Institute culture that allows our region to take pride in having a leading cancer center in its midst—one that continues to generate discoveries that diminish the burden that cancer places on our loved ones and friends throughout the world,” said Dr. Johnson.
Prior to becoming President and CEO of RPCI in October 2014, Dr. Johnson was the Deputy Director and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics,and the Wallace Family Chair for Translational Research and Professor of Oncology. Since November 2014, she has also served as Cancer Center Director for the Institute.
Before coming to RPCI, she served as Deputy Director of Basic Research at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Johnson earned her doctoral degree in immunology from The Ohio State University. She completed research and postdoctoral fellowships in immunology and cell biology at the Michigan Cancer Foundation. ■
