Lisa M. Coussens, PhD, FAACR
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Lisa M. Coussens, PhD, FAACR, as their President-Elect for 2021–2022. She started her official role as President-Elect on April 12, 2021, during the AACR’s Business Meeting of Members and will assume the Presidency in April 2022 at the next AACR Annual Meeting.
Dr. Coussens is Associate Director for Basic Research at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, where she is Professor and Chair of the Cell, Developmental, and Cancer Biology Department as well as the Hildegard Lamfrom Endowed Chair in Basic Science. A cancer biologist, Dr. Coussens has made seminal contributions to the fundamental understanding of the functions of innate immune cells in fostering neoplastic progression while also suppressing T-cell functionality. In addition, her research has defined the importance of chronic inflammation in cancer, thus identifying therapeutic targets for intervention and providing the basis for several clinical trials evaluating myeloid cell modulation in combination with chemotherapy.
‘A Tremendous Honor’
As AACR President-Elect, Dr. Coussens will work with the Board of Directors and the AACR membership, which includes more than 48,000 members in 127 countries, to further the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy and advocacy, and funding for cancer research.
“Being elected to serve the AACR community is a tremendous honor,” said Dr. Coussens. “I look forward to leveraging the stage provided by the AACR to bolster the basic, translational, and clinical cancer communities in our missions to further discoveries into the underpinnings of cancer, explore novel druggable targets, as well as uncover the rich genetic variation in diverse populations that predispose and protect from cancer.”
Dr. Coussens received her doctoral degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1993. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, from 1993 to 1997.
