Wafik S. El-Deiry: CEO of the American Cancer Society Announces Transition Plans

Wafik S. El-Deiry shared a post on X:

“CEO of the American Cancer Society Announces Transition Plans Transformative leader will enter the next phase of her strategy to accelerate progress against cancer.

I appreciated the fact that American Cancer Society CEO, Dr. Karen Knudsen is a scientist and academic leader (past Cancer Center Director at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, past Journal Editor-in-Chief at American Association for Cancer Research, and past President at Association of American Cancer Institute).

Over her tenure as CEO at American Cancer Society I ran into her at American Society of Clinical Oncology and American Association for Cancer Research meetings, I heard her speak at national events such as the Association of American Cancer Institute Catchment Area Data Conference organized by Dr. Rob Winn, at the Caris Life Sciences.

Precision Oncology Alliance pre-ASCO meeting or at American Cancer Society events at national scientific cancer or oncology conferences. Over my career, I saw no prior ACS CEO at such events, and frankly this was a breath of fresh air that brought hope and inspiration.

Dr. Knudsen, not just as the first woman ACS CEO in history, is inspiring as a leader as I’ve watched over several years. She developed various signature programs at ACS that address cancer burden for example in prostate cancer while bringing and restoring ACS out of a very difficult time of COVID.

Dr. Knudsen demonstrated effective leadership nationally including when there were disagreements with White House policies while otherwise being a tireless advocate for sensible policies and innovative measures such as biomarker testing that help patients with cancer.”

Source: Wafik S. El-Deiry/X

Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, FRSM, is the Associate Dean for Oncologic Sciences at the Warren Alpert Medical School and Director of the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University and Director of the Joint Program in Cancer Biology at Brown University and affiliated hospitals. He is the Editor in Chief at Oncotarget. Dr. El-Deiry discovered p21(WAF1) as a p53 target gene, cell cycle inhibitor, and tumor suppressor that explained the mammalian cell stress response. Dr. El-Deiry’s research is focused on mechanisms of therapy resistance with major efforts in drug discovery and development.