Northwell Health has appointed Richard D. Carvajal, MD, a clinician and researcher in melanoma and early-phase drug development, as Deputy Physician-in-Chief and Director of Medical Oncology at the Northwell Health Cancer Institute. He also was named the R. J. Zuckerberg Chair in Medical Oncology. Dr. Carvajal’s expertise includes the development of novel therapies for patients with melanoma and other cancers, with the goals of controlling and curing these diseases.
Richard D. Carvajal, MD
Prior to joining Northwell, Dr. Carvajal led the Developmental Therapeutics Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and then served as Director of Experimental Therapeutics and Director of the Melanoma Service at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, as well as Co-Leader of the Precision Oncology and Systems Biology Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Far-Reaching Collaborations
At the Northwell Health Cancer Institute, Dr. Carvajal will oversee medical oncology across Northwell’s cancer network, collaborating with the Institute’s other two Deputy Physicians-in-Chief, who specialize in surgical and radiation oncology. In this team structure, these individuals lead all cancer programs in their oncologic specialty, integrating and expanding the health system’s services with regional and hospital cancer leaders across New York City, Long Island, and Westchester. Dr. Carvajal also will help lead efforts for the Northwell Health Cancer Institute to achieve National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation as a consortium with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
At Northwell, Dr. Carvajal will see patients at the R.J. Zuckerberg Cancer Center in Lake Success and Northwell’s Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital. He also will participate in clinical research at Northwell’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, with which Northwell has a strategic affiliation. Dr. Carvajal will hold an academic title of Professor of Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.
A Distinguished Career
Dr. Carvajal received his medical degree from NYU Grossman School of Medicine and completed his fellowship in medical oncology/hematology at MSK. His research has been supported by the NCI, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Conquer Cancer Foundation, the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Melanoma Research Foundation, and the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program.
The author or coauthor of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, books, and book chapters, Dr. Carvajal serves on the editorial board of 6 cancer journals and is an ad hoc reviewer for nearly 65 oncology and medical journals. He has received several awards in recognition of his work, including the Louise and Allston Boyer Young Investigator Award and the Melanoma Research Foundation CURE OM Vision of Hope Award.
