NRG Oncology, a National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NTCN) group focused on improving outcomes for adults with cancer through international clinical research, recently announced the appointed leadership of the organization’s new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. Additionally, the group announced a change in the leadership of its Ancillary Projects Committee.
The DEI Committee was established to foster an environment that values and embraces the different ethnicities, races, cultures, ages, abilities, and sexual orientations that constitute NRG Oncology. This committee is charged with ensuring NRG is developing programs and policies with diversity, equity, and inclusion at the forefront.
DEI Committee Chair
Katherine Moxley, MD, MS
Katherine Moxley, MD, MS, was appointed NRG DEI Committee Chair. Dr. Moxley is Associate Professor for the Section of Gynecology Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa. She was a member of the Gynecologic Cancer Program at the University of Oklahoma Stephenson Cancer Center and is a full member of the Graduate Faculty in Clinical and Translational Sciences at the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health. Dr. Moxley has previously served as the University of Oklahoma NRG Principal Investigator.
DEI Committee Vice Chairs
Kathryn Hitchcock, MD, PhD, was selected as NRG DEI Committee Vice Chair. Dr. Hitchcock is Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Florida. She specializes in head and neck and gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies and is the Physician Director of Quality and Patient Safety. She also heads NRG’s Rectal Cancer Working Group within the GI Committee and has been appointed to the NCI Task Force on Neuroendocrine Cancers, the NCI Working Group for GI Cancers, and the NTCN Task Force on Diversity in GI Oncology.
Eleanor Walker, MD, was appointed the NRG DEI Committee Vice Chair. Dr. Walker is the Director of Breast Radiation Oncology and NRG Institutional Principal Investigator at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. She is also currently Medical Director of the Henry Ford Health System Center for Integrative Medicine, Chair for DEI Justice Committee, and Co-Chair of the DEI and Belonging Committee for the Society of Integrative Oncology.
Vice Chair of the Ancillary Projects Committee
Bridget Koontz, MD, was appointed Vice Chair of the Ancillary Projects Committee. Dr. Koontz is the U.S. Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Global Chief Medical Officer at GenesisCare USA. Additionally, she is an ad hoc member of the NCI Genitourinary Cancer Steering Committee. Dr. Koontz is Principal Investigator of the currently accruing, phase II NRG-GU011 clinical trial, also known as the NRG-PROMETHEAN study, of radiotherapy with or without androgen-deprivation therapy for oligometastatic prostate cancer. She is also a member of the NRG Genitourinary Cancer Core Committee.
