WCLC24 Social Media Ambassadors

Narjust Florez shared a post on X:

“Our social media ambassadors for WCLC24. Make sure to follow their updates and insights during the conference.”

1. Dr. Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH, is an Associate Director and Innovation Faculty member at the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I) and Director of the Program in Precision Oncology Innovation at PC3I. She holds the title of Leslye Heisler Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Aggarwal is a leading expert in lung cancer management, focusing on novel immunotherapeutic approaches and biomarker-guided therapies. She spearheads multiple clinical trials, including those involving cellular therapy and CAR-T for solid tumors.
2. Anne-Marie Baird is the current president of Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE). She is a Senior Research Fellow in Trinity College Dublin, and a patient advocate. In 2017, she became involved in LuCE, and was elected to the board in 2018. Outside of the advocacy space, she is an experienced cancer molecular biologist with research interests in inflammation and immune mediators, metastatic cascade, drug resistance and disease biomarkers.
3. Luca Bertolaccini is a Thoracic Surgeon at Division of Thoracic Surgery at IEO European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Milan (IT). He is an Associate Editor (Thoracic) of the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and the Editor of the Statistic Corner Column of the Journal of Thoracic Disease. He was the former Associate Editor (Thoracic) of the Interactive CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgery, He also serves on several editorial boards, and he is a reviewer for many scientific journals.
4. Tina Cascone, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Cascone leads a basic laboratory and a translational research program that focuses on studying tumor and immune-mediated mechanisms of response and resistance to immunotherapy, identifying predictive biomarkers of therapeutic response in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
5. Jose Francisco Corona-Cruz is a Thoracic Surgical Oncologist in the Thoracic Oncology Department at National Cancer Institute (INCan) Mexico. He is also a surgical oncologist at Hospital Ángeles Pedregal.
6. Aakash Desai is an Assistant Professor at O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. He is also a Committee Member, Career Development Committee at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and committee member at ASCO.
7. Dusty Donaldson is the Executive Director of the Dusty Joy Foundation (LiveLung), focused on lung cancer advocacy. Diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2005, she has actively raised awareness and funds for lung cancer research. Donaldson has given media interviews, written articles and op-eds, and organized awareness events. She previously served as Director of Donor Relations at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
8. Narjust Florez is the Associate Director of the Cancer Care Equity Program and a Thoracic Medical Oncologist at the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. She is the principal investigator of the Sexual Health Assessment in Women with Lung Cancer (SHAWL) Study, the largest study to date evaluating sexual dysfunction in women with lung cancer. In addition, Dr. Florez founded the Florez Lab in 2019. The laboratory focuses on lung cancer, social justice issues in medicine, and medical education.
9. Martin Edelman is the inaugural Chair of the Department at Lewis Katz School of Medicine. He also holds the role of Associate Cancer Center Director for Clinical Research Integration, overseeing the development of the clinical research program across Temple University Health System. Dr. Edelman is a member of the Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee within the National Cancer Institute’s Scientific Review Group. With over 35 years of active involvement in the National Clinical Trials Network, he serves as Medical Oncology Co-chair for the Lung Cancer Committee of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group.
10. Mary J. Fidler, MD, is a thoracic oncologist and professor of Internal Medicine at Rush Medical Center, specializing in lung cancer treatment. She has experience managing early and late-stage lung cancer. Dr. Fidler serves as the national principal investigator for the ADAURA trial, which examines post-operative osimertinib in resected EGFR-positive lung cancer patients. She is also the institutional principal investigator for multiple clinical trials focused on stage III and IV lung cancer.
11. Kristin Higgins, MD, is the Chief Clinical Officer and Professor of Radiation Oncology at City of Hope, specializing in lung cancer treatment. She previously served as Professor and Vice Chair of Clinical Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology and led the thoracic oncology program. Dr. Higgins was a faculty member at Emory School of Medicine’s Department of Radiation Oncology, with a focus on lung cancer clinical research, particularly in small cell lung cancer.
12. Jessica J. Lin, MD, is an attending physician at the Center for Thoracic Cancers and the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin’s research focuses on driver oncogene alterations in non-small cell lung cancer and the development of resistance to targeted therapies. She leads clinical trials exploring new targeted therapies and immunotherapies for lung cancer.
13. Stephen V Liu is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University, where he holds the positions of Director of Thoracic Oncology and Head of Developmental Therapeutics at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. As a board-certified medical oncologist specializing in lung cancer and drug development, Dr. Liu is known for his expertise in advanced thoracic malignancies. His research focuses on novel therapeutic agents and innovative combinations to improve treatment outcomes for patients with lung cancer. Dr. Liu has received multiple teaching awards and actively engages in post-graduate education initiatives. Furthermore, he co-hosts the official podcast of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), “Lung Cancer Considered”
14. Jan Mazotti is the Associate Director of Marketing & Communications at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). She oversees the creation and execution of marketing strategies to boost the organization’s visibility and engagement. Before her role at IASLC, she was the Director of Communications, Marketing & Public Relations at Project C.U.R.E.
15. Misako Nagasaka is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on lung cancer and thoracic oncology. Clinically, she is interested in early-phase clinical trials, medical ethics, and survivorship care for patients.
16. Jarushka Naidoo is a thoracic oncologist at the Beaumont Hospital Dublin (Ireland), Professor in RCSI and Adjunct Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as national lung cancer lead for Cancer Trials Ireland. She serves on several international guideline panels including ASCO and SITC (Society of Immunotherapy for Cancer), and is an experienced clinical trialist- having developed and completed several investigator-initiated, industry-funded and cooperative group clinical trials. She has received a number of grants including a young investigator award from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA), and a career development award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) KL2-program. She is the IASLC Communications Committee Chair.
17. Karen Reckamp is a Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Division of Medical Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Her research focuses on developing novel therapies and biomarkers for lung cancer, particularly targeted therapies. Dr. Reckamp is an active member of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) and its Lung Cancer Committee. She also represented City of Hope on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines Committee, shaping treatment guidelines for thoracic malignancies from 2008 to 2020.
18. Noemi Reguart is a Medical Oncologist at Hospital Clinic Barcelona. Prof. Reguart’s work focuses on translational genomics and targeted therapies in lung cancer. Noemi Reguart earned her Medical Degree from the University of Medicine Lleida, in Spain. She completed her postgraduate training and fellowship in the Oncology Department at Hospital Clinic Barcelona. She is an active member of several international organizations including the Lung Cancer Group of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).
19. Estela (Estelamari) Rodriguez is Associate Director of Community Outreach and Co-Lead of Thoracic Site Disease Group of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is board certified in medical oncology and hematology. She has a special interest in the early detection of lung cancer and increasing access to clinical trials.
20. Nagashree Seetharamu, MD, MBBS, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. At Northwell Health, she specializes in Medical Oncology, Hematology, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Seetharamu focuses on cancers of the head and neck, as well as thoracic malignancies, including lung cancer, mesothelioma, and thymic tumors.
21. Matthew P. Smeltzer, PhD, MStat, is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and University Research Professor. Dr. Smeltzer’s primary research interests include clinical outcomes, quality of care, disease surveillance, and implementation science in cancer and sickle cell disease. His work is currently funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Smeltzer has more than 120 peer-reviewed publications, with additional research experience in childhood cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, immunology, anesthesiology, and biomedical engineering.
22. Brendon Stiles, MD, is Professor and Chief, Thoracic Surgery and Surgical Oncology, Department of Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery at Montefiore-Einstein.  Dr. Stiles is also the Associate Director for Surgical Services in the Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center. Dr. Stiles’ clinical focus is on the treatment of lung and esophageal cancer and on neoadjuvant immunotherapy. Taking a patient-first philosophy, Dr. Stiles provides world-class personalized care, using minimally invasive, organ-sparing techniques and targeting surgical therapy to the specific needs of the patient and his or her individual tumor.
23. Dr Dipesh Uprety  was a Hematology and Medical Oncology fellow at Gundersen Health System, La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he also served as a Chief Fellow in his final year. He then did an advanced fellowship in Thoracic Oncology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Uprety is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology at Karmanos Cancer Institute and specializes in the care of patients with lung cancer. Dr. Uprety is also actively involved in clinical research and has published more than 100 papers or abstracts including original research, commentaries, editorial, abstracts and a book chapter in the leading journals and major conference meetings. He has special interest on studying mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy.
24. Ana Velázquez Mañana is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the UCSF Division of Hematology/Oncology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General and a thoracic oncologist at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. She serves as Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility for Trainees of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and co-chairs the UCSF Department of Medicine Fellowship Diversity Committee. Her research, advocacy, and education efforts are focused on promoting and advancing health equity and workforce diversity.

25. Wenzhao Zhong is the Director of Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute, and Chief Physician of Thoracic Neoplasms Surgery in Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.  He is the doctoral supervisor of School Of Medicine, South China University Of Technology and Southern Medical University.
26. Fiona Hegi-Johnson is a Radiation Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Victoria and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Clinically, she specialises in the treatment of patients with lung and breast cancer, including a subspecialty interest in stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR).
27. Monica Castro is the Head of the Thoracic Oncology and Translational Unit at the Instituto de Oncología Ángel H. Roffo, University of Buenos Aires.

Source:  Narjust Florez/X