Faculty

Partner, Hematology Oncology of Indiana, a Division of American Oncology Network and President and CEO, Indy Hematology Education Inc. Clinical Professor, Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine (Indianapolis, Indiana)

Ruemu E. Birhiray, MD is an attending physician in medical oncology, hematology, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation at Hematology-Oncology of Indiana, and at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. After completing his internal medicine residency at Columbus Hospital in Chicago where he also served as Chief Medical Resident in 1994, he was a postgraduate fellow in bone marrow transplant at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland where his research included gene therapy and adoptive cellular immunotherapy strategies in bone marrow transplantation. Dr. Birhiray’s professional experience has also included serving as an attending physician, and Director of bone marrow transplantation and a member of Marshfield Clinic, Wisconsin and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin from 1998 to 2001. Additionally Dr. Birhiray was appointed an Associate Professor of bone marrow transplantation at Rush University, Chicago, Illinois in 2001, prior to joining Hematology Oncology of Indiana. Subsequently, Dr. Birhiray, served as and director of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Institutional Principal Investigator for the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project of the National Cancer Institute at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Indianapolis. Currently, he is also, Clinical Professor, Marian University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, and an Editorial Board Member of The Journal of Blood Transfusion and Hematopathology. Projects for which Dr. Birhiray is principal investigator include reduced intensity allogeneic transplantation in hematologic malignancies, and a trial of Interferon A, CHOP, and rituximab therapy in advanced-stage follicular lymphoma, and neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. Additional collaborations have included major phase III clinical trials. Additionally Dr. Birhiray founded the Clinical research program at Hematology Oncology of Indiana. His awards include, “Intern of the year” from Columbus Hospital, Hope award from the Indiana Wellness community and named “best physician” by the Indianapolis monthly magazine and “top doctor” by Castle Connelly. In 2002, Dr. Birhiray founded and has served as Chair of the annual “Indy Hematology Review”, a nationally respected program providing education for hematologists and oncologists nationally and regionally, and he is also President and CEO of Indy Hematology Education, Inc. A member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology, and the American Medical Association, Dr Birhiray has published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Leukemia, Gene Therapy and Therapeutic Apheresis, Journal of Blood Transfusion and Hematopathology, Human Immunology, Familial Cancer, Annals of Pharmacotherapy, American Journal of Health System Pharmacists, Pharmacotherapy, in addition to multiple abstracts. Dr. Birhiray is married to Donna Marie (nee Baynard) since 1995, and they are blessed with 3 children, a daughter, Maya, born in 1999, and a son, Dirin, born in 2003, and an older daughter Meaghan who was born in 1990.

Vice President, Indy Hematology Education, Inc.

Regional President & CEO, Ascension Michigan – Metro West Region and President, Ascension Medical Group (MI) and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Dr. Wiemann is a medical oncologist and Co-Founder of the Indy Hematology Review. While in Indianapolis, he held several leadership positions at St. Vincent Hospital and Health Center, including Medical Director of Oncology, Chief Medical Officer, and Interim President.

Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA)

Dr. Ken Anderson is the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He trained in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and then completed hematology, medical oncology, and tumor immunology training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Research Scientist and American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor.
Over the last four decades, he has developed laboratory and animal models of multiple myeloma in its microenvironment which have allowed for both identification of novel targets and validation of novel targeted and immune therapies. He has then led efforts to rapidly translate these studies to clinical trials culminating in FDA approval of multiple novel targeted therapies, which have transformed the treatment paradigm and markedly improved patient outcome.
He has also trained generations of researchers and caregivers who are now leading myeloma centers internationally. He has received the American Society of Hematology William Dameshek Prize, the American Association for Cancer Research Joseph H. Burchenal Award, the American Society of Clinical Oncology David A. Karnofsky Award, and the Harvard Medical School Warren Alpert Prize.
He is also recipient of the Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Myeloma Foundation and the Waldenstrom Award at the International Myeloma Workshop. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a member of the National Academy of Medicine as well as Royal College of Physicians and Pathologists, and past President of the International Myeloma Society and American Society of Hematology.

Dorotha W. and Grant L. Sundquist Professor in Hematologic Malignancies Research
Mayo Clinic
(Rochester, MN)

Stephen M. Ansell, MD, PhD, is a consultant in the Division of Hematology, Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Dr. Ansell currently serves as chair of the Division of Hematology and the Enterprise Deputy Director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. He joined the staff of Mayo Clinic in 1999 and holds the academic rank of Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
Dr. Ansell earned his MB, ChB, and PhD degrees at University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa, where he also completed an internship in internal medicine and surgery, a residency in internal medicine, and a fellowship in medical oncology.
Dr. Ansell continued his education at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where he was a registrar in internal medicine. He then came to the United States and completed a residency in internal medicine and then a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Ansell’s research focuses on investigating the phenotype and activity of intratumoral T-cells and developing strategies to modulate the immune function in lymphomas.

Johns Hopkins Family Professor of Medicine and Oncology, Director, Division of Hematology Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD)

Dr. Brodsky is the Johns Hopkins Family Professor of Medicine and Oncology, and a member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. He also serves as the Director of the Division of Hematology and the T32 Training Program.

Dr. Brodsky received his medical degree from Hahnemann University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and his fellowship training in hematology at the National Institutes of Health and in oncology at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Brodsky’s clinical and academic interests relate to bone marrow failure disorders, hemolytic anemias, and complement. He and his colleagues performed the first successful half matched bone marrow transplant worldwide for sickle cell disease in 2007.

He is on the editorial board for Blood, is a Section Editor for UpToDate. He is on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and serves as President for ASH.

Clinical Director and Acting Scientific Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (Bethesda, MD)

Dr. Childs oversees one of the NIH’s largest clinical and translational science programs, directing an office that oversees the research efforts of more than 900 staff members including with more than 350 clinical researchers conducting over 250 investigator-initiated clinical trials in heart, lung, and blood diseases.

Nurse practitioner, Hematology Oncology of Indiana, a Division of American Oncology Network (Indianapolis, IN)

Sandra G. Garofalo MS, APRN, AOCNP – Nurse practitioner, Hematology Oncology of Indiana, a Division of American Oncology Network, Indianapolis IN. She has over 18 years of experience in the field of oncology. She completed her bachelors of science in nursing as well as her masters of science at The Ohio State University. She started her nursing career in hematopoietic stem cell transplant at The Medical University of South Carolina. Since that time, she has had extensive experience in hematological and solid tumor malignancies as well as benign hematology at The James Cancer Center at The Ohio State University. She currently works as a nurse practitioner at Hematology Oncology of Indiana and St. Vincent’s Hospital in Indianapolis.

Roland Seidler Jr. Professor, Art of Medicine Chair Emeritus, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)

Morie Gertz, MD, MACP is a Master of the American College of Physicians. His undergraduate degree was awarded with highest distinction from Northwestern University graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

Emeritus Professor of Haematology at the University of Leeds and since May 2022 has been employed by Apellis Pharmaceuticals.

He qualified in Medicine at Leeds University Medical School in 1985 and completed his general medical training in Leeds in 1988. He then spent 5 years specialising in haematology at the Hammersmith Hospital including completing a PhD on the pathophysiology of paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) under the supervision of Professor Lucio Luzzatto. He returned to Leeds in 1994 and was appointed Professor of Haematology at the University of Leeds in 2013. Professor Hillmen’s research interests include both paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).

Understanding the pathophysiology of CLL and developing novel therapies for the disease has been an interest of his since 1995. His group pioneered the use of measurable residual disease (MRD) assessment in CLL. He Chaired the NCRI CLL sub-group between 2002 and 2018 and Chaired the NCRI Haematological Oncology Research Group, which oversees UK trials in leukaemia and related conditions, from 2017 to 2022. Prof Hillmen led the initial trials of eculizumab in PNH from 2002 and subsequently established the UK National PNH Service.

He has been the Chief Investigator of many Phase I-III CLL Trials since 1996 including recently the NCRI FLAIR Trial. He was the Chair of the International PNH Interest Group (IPIG) and of the Executive Committee of the Global PNH Registry from 2004 to 2022. He is a member of the International Workshop on CLL (iwCLL) and was the Chair of the iwCLL Executive from 2019 to 2023.

He has published over 250 papers mostly on PNH and CLL. In 2017 was awarded the Binet-Rai Medal for his outstanding contribution to CLL research and in December 2022 he delivered the Ernest Beutler lecture at the American Society of Hematology meeting recognizing his 30 years of research into PNH and complement inhibition.

Professor of Medicine and Pathology, Attending Physician, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Georgetown University Medical Center (Washington, DC)

Craig Kessler, MD also serves as the Director of the Division of Coagulation in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and is the Director of the Therapeutic and Cellular Apheresis Unit. With a distinguished career beginning in 1973, Dr Kessler earned his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. He remained in New Orleans to complete his medical internship and residency before moving to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1976 to assume a Fellowship in Special Hematology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Vice Chair of the Malignant Hematology Department and the Head of the Leukemia and MDS Section at the Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, FL)

He is a senior Member of the Malignant Hematology and Experimental Therapeutics Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center, and Professor in Medicine & Oncologic Sciences at the College of Medicine, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.

After earning a medical degree in 1996 from the Jordan University School of Medicine, Dr. Komrokji completed an internship and residency at Case Western University, St. Vincent Program. He then completed a fellowship at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, in Hematology/Oncology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Dr Komrokji is an expert in myeloid neoplasms where he led several clinical trials and lectured worldwide. His work paved the FDA approval for luspatercept in myelodysplastic syndromes and for Pacritinib in myelofibrosis.

He has authored or co-authored more than 325 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 20 book chapters, and more than 700 abstracts in Hematologic Malignancies. He served as member on the MDS Panel of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and is currently a member of the NIH MDS natural history study steering committee and aplastic anemia and MDS foundation board of directors. He was member of the editorial board for Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). He is peer reviewer for several medical journals including Blood Journal, JCO and Leukemia Journal.

Dr. Komrokji’s research interests are in Phase I and II Clinical Trials, and in the outcome research in hematologic malignancies with focus on myeloid neoplasms. His clinical interests are Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), Acute Myeloid Leukemias, and Myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Professor of Medicine in Hematology/Oncology, Director of Hematologic Malignancies Clinical Research Program The University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (Chicago, IL)

Richard A. Larson, MD is Professor of Medicine in the Section of Hematology/Oncology and Director of the Hematologic Malignancies Clinical Research Program at the University of Chicago. He received his medical degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1977, and completed his postdoctoral training in Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology at the University of Chicago. He has been a member of the faculty in the Section of Hematology/Oncology and the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Chicago since 1983.

Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Associate Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Director of the Clinical Research Center (CRC), and Medical Director of Cellular Therapies.

He received his medical degree from Des Moines University in 2006. Dr. Lunning completed his internal medicine residency at UNMC where he served as Chief Medical Resident. He completed his Hematology/Oncology fellowship and served as the Hematology Chief Fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Lunning returned to UNMC in 2013 and has been active in clinic research, research mentoring, education, and patient care. Dr. Lunning was the recipient of the Distinguish Scientist Award in 2019.

Dr. Lunning has served on several National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s guidelines committees including the Immunotherapy Toxicity & T-cell lymphoma panels. He has served as an invited member of ASCO’s Cancer Education Committee on the Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. He is the co-organizer of the Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference.

Associate Attending Physician and Director of the MPN and Rare Hematologic Malignancies Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer.

He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester. He subsequently went on to train in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Stony Brook University. This was followed by internship and residency at the University of Chicago and fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Professor of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Butler University Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Hematology/Oncology, Franciscan Physician Network Oncology/Hematology Specialist (Indianapolis, IN)

David Reeves, PharmD, BCOP is a professor of pharmacy practice for the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Butler University and clinical pharmacy specialist in hematology/oncology at Franciscan Physician Network Oncology/Hematology Specialists in Indianapolis, IN.

Elwood V. Jensen Professor of Medicine, Section Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Co-Leader of the Cancer Service Line, and Co-Director of the Lymphoma Program at the University of Chicago in the Department of Medicine (Chicago, IL)

Dr. Sonali M. Smith is the Elwood V. Jensen Professor of Medicine, Section Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Co-Leader of the Cancer Service Line, and Co-Director of the Lymphoma Program at the University of Chicago in the Department of Medicine. She is a clinical investigator in lymphoma and a clinical expert in Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

As faculty member at the University of Chicago since 2001, she has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has written over 25 review articles on lymphoid malignancies. She is particularly interested in targeted agents and pathway inhibitors and has first and senior author publications through cooperative group trials and investigator-initiated trials.

She has had many active leadership roles including Vice-Chair of the SWOG Lymphoma Committee, Chair of the Lymphoma Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Board, and past chair of the ASCO Annual Meeting Scientific Committee in 2021-2022. She has won numerous teaching awards and considers mentorship a key aspect of her career.

Lunder Family Chair in Leukemia and Chief of Staff at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Director of Translational Research for the Adult Leukemia Program, at DFCI, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)

Richard Stone, MD, is the Lunder Family Chair in Leukemia and Chief of Staff at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is also Director of Translational Research for the Adult Leukemia Program, at DFCI, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Stone is nationally recognized for translational and clinical research in blood and bone marrow malignancies including acute leukemia, myeloproliferative disorders, and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). He has had a significant leadership role in the development of at least five recently approved agents for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

In addition to his work at Dana-Farber, Dr. Stone is a Vice Chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) MDS panel and is also a member of the NCCN AML panel. He previously served as the Chair of the Alliance Leukemia Committee, Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation, and the Chair of the ABIM Oncology Board.

Dr. Stone has participated extensively in teaching medical students, residents, and fellows, as well as graduate medical education courses on leukemia and related disorders. He is the author of many academic papers that have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Leukemia as well as numerous other journals. He has also served on the editorial boards of Leukemia Research, Blood and Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Stone earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1981. He
completed his internal medicine residency training and served as Chief Medical Resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed his hematology-oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber.

Barbara Woodward Lips II Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)

Ayalew Tefferi, MD research interest is primarily focused on myeloid neoplasms including acute myeloid leukemia and chronic myeloid neoplasms. His web of science core collection publications, as of 6/3/2021, number over 1500 with an H-index of 120. He has participated in hundreds of invited lectureships including service as core faculty for GW, MDACC and Harvard annual board review courses.

Director of the Bing Center for Waldenstrom’s Macroglobuliemia (WM) at DFCI and a Professor of Medicine at HMS (Boston, MA)

Professor Treon is the Director of the Bing Center for Waldenstrom’s Macroglobuliemia (WM) at DFCI and a Professor of Medicine at HMS. Using whole-genome sequencing, his laboratory was the first to clarify the genetic basis of WM by identifying MYD88 (L265P) as a highly recurring somatic mutation in 95% of WM patients. This finding has permitted differentiation of WM from other B-cell malignancies that share overlapping characteristics, and was adopted in WHO and NCCN guidelines as a supportive diagnostic marker for WM. His lab also identified the CXCR4 mutation found in 40% of WM patients. Professor Treon’s lab has focused on the development of novel agents to target both mutated MYD88 and CXCR4. His lab was the first to report that Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) was a downstream target of MYD88 L265P mutation, in a study that enabled a clinical trial that led to the investigation, adoption and approval of BTK-inhibitors for WM.

Professor Treon has also made contributions to the investigation and advancement of most novel agents used for the treatment of WM. He served as the PI or co-investigator for prospective clinical trials which included the monoclonal antibodies rituximab and alemtuzumab; the nucleoside analogue fludarabine with rituximab; the immunomodulatory agents thalidomide, lenalidomide, and pomalidomide with rituximab; the proteasome inhibitors bortezomib and carfilzomib alone and with rituximab; the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib and zanubrutinib, the CXCR4 antagonists ulocuplomab and mavorixafor in combination with ibrutinib; and the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax alone and in combination with ibrutinib. These studies enabled inclusion of many of these agents into WM Consensus and NCCN Treatment guidelines. These studies also identified drug toxicities particular for or more pronounced in WM patients, including the IgM flare to rituximab, peripheral neuropathy (3-fold higher) to bortezomib, lenalidomide-related aggravated anemia, late immune thrombocytopenia to alemtuzumab, and secondary malignancies associated with nucleoside analogues that impacted treatment guidelines and led to trials examining alternative treatment strategies.

Professor Treon is also the principal organizer of the International Workshops on WM, a biannual event that brings hundreds of basic science and clinical investigators from around the world. Key consensus recommendations are adopted at these meetings that help guide management and response evaluation of WM patients. Professor Treon was also the chair of the 17th International Workshop on Multiple Myeloma, the largest workshop held to date for this disease. For his efforts, he has received the Robert A. Kyle Award, the Jan Gosta Waldenstrom Lifetime Achievement Award, and was elected a fellow to the American College of Physicians, and the Royal College of Physicians, London UK.

Chief Attending and Member, Myeloma Service Member, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. Professor of Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College – Cornell University
(New York, NY)

Dr. Saad Zafar Usmani received his medical education at Allama Iqbal Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Sinai-Grace Hospital/Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut. He then joined the Myeloma Institute for Research & Therapy, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR in 2010 as the Director of Developmental Therapeutics and Assistant Professor of Medicine. He was recruited to the Levine Cancer Institute/Atrium Health in 2013 as the inaugural Division Chief of Plasma Cell Disorders and Director of Clinical Research for Hematologic Malignancies where he built an internationally renowned myeloma program. He was then recruited in 2021 as the Chief of Myeloma Service at MSKCC.

Dr. Usmani is board-certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hematology. He holds membership and leadership roles on national/international committees, including the International Myeloma Working Group, the ALLIANCE Myeloma Committee (Chair), the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society of Transplant & Cellular Therapy, and the National Cancer Institute Myeloma Steering Committee. Dr. Usmani has served as the Vice-Chair of the SWOG Myeloma Committee and has served as chair for the ASH Scientific Committee on Plasma Cell Neoplasia, and the ASCO Scientific Committee on Plasma Cell Disorders.

He has received several international awards recognizing his clinical and translational research contributions to the field, including the Celgene Young Investigator Award for Clinical Research, COMY Award for Excellence in Myeloma Research, LLS Scholar in Clinical Research, the International Myeloma Society Bart Barlogie Award for Clinical and Translational Research, and the LLS CDP Achievement Award. Dr. Usmani has authored/co-authored more than 260 peer-reviewed research manuscripts (NEJM, Lancet, JCO, Cancer Cell, Blood, Leukemia, etc.). Active in clinical and translational research, Dr. Usmani has research interests focus on plasma cell disorders—in particular, high-risk multiple myeloma.

Clinical Hospital Coordinator, Cancer Support Community, Art Therapist (Carmel, IN)

Works exclusively with those who have been touched by cancer since 2017. She works with
those touched by cancer at Cancer Support Community as a clinical hospital coordinator, and a
mental health therapist specializing in art therapy. She has a passion for helping others and
creating art.

Byrd S. Leavell Professor of Medicine and Professor of Pathology, Physician Lead, Oncology Service Line, UVA Health, Associate Director for Clinical Affairs, UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Virginia School of Medicine (Charlottesville, VA)

Dr. Williams received his MD from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Master of Science from the Harvard School of Public Health. Following residency and fellowship at UVA he joined the Department of Medicine and the NCI-designated Cancer Center. His patient care and research interests include clinical trials and translational science for mantle cell lymphoma, other non-Hodgkin lymphomas and CLL, with a focus on targeted agents and immuno-therapeutics.