100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to follow on Social Media in 2023: Part 7

We continue OncoDaily’s  ‘100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to Follow on Social Media in 2023.’ As promised, each week we will highlight 10 exceptional women leaders from around the globe who are advancing the field of oncology.

You can view the profiles of the nominees from the last four weeks by checking out the links below:

100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to Follow on Social Media in 2023 (1-10)

100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to Follow on Social Media in 2023 (11-20)

100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to Follow on Social Media in 2023 (21-30)

100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to Follow on Social Media in 2023 (31-40)

100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to Follow on Social Media in 2023 (41-50)

100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to Follow on Social Media in 2023 (51-60)

Below, we present the seventh part of our list featuring 100 Women Leaders in Oncology. You can follow them on Twitter (X) and/or LinkedIn. We are eager to hear your recommendations for individuals who should be highlighted in our forthcoming features.

Her Excellency Zuzana Čaputová is the President of the Slovak Republic. She has been widely recognized as a symbol of change in Slovak political landscapes. Before becoming the first female President of Slovakia in 2019, she was renowned as an environmental lawyer and activist. Čaputová first became known by prevailing in a decade-long struggle against the situating of a toxic landfill in her hometown of Pezinok. For this, Čaputová was awarded the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize. Healthcare and human rights have been among the priorities during her presidency and she pays a special attention to pediatric oncology.

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Ulrika Årehed Kågström is the President-Elect of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and the Secretary-General of the Swedish Cancer Society. Prior to joining the Swedish Cancer Society, Ulrika was the Secretary-General at the Swedish Red Cross. She is also the chairperson of the Swedish Arts Council (appointed by the Government). At UICC, prior being elected as the President, Ulrika was the treasurer, chairman & member of the Knowledge, Advocacy and Policy Committee, chairman & member of the Finance Committee, member of the Strategy Review task force, member of the ATOM coalition task force, member of the Governance committee, member of the task force on AMR, member of the Advisory board of the Solidarity Fund for Ukraine and member of the Congress and Summit Committee.

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Dr. Maryam Lustberg is the Director of the Center for Breast Cancer at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center, and Chief of Breast Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center. She is also an Associate Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology). She has been recognized for her patient-focused care with awards that include being rated by Forbes as one of the top breast medical oncologists in the nation and named to the Castle Connolly list of “Regional Top Doctors,” and “Exceptional Women in Medicine” for 2020. Dr. Lustberg is a member of the ASCO Annual Meeting Education Committee, Patient and Survivor Care Education Committee, and Neuropathy Expert Guideline Panel. She is the President and on the Board of Directors for the international organization Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC). She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Cancer Survivorship.

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Dr. Lisa Stevens is the Director of the Division of Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Austria. Prior to joining the Agency, Dr. Stevens spent 24 years in various roles at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI).  Dr. Stevens’ desire to facilitate and promote science is what brought her to the Office of the Director, NCI, in 2000. She joined the Center for Global Health (CGH) as the Deputy Director for Planning and Operations in 2012. In support of NCI, she fostered collaborations, created decision making tools, and oversaw the development of strategic plans.  As the Senior Lead of the International Global Cancer Control Program Lisa worked with Ministries of Health and other multi-sectorial groups in all WHO Regions to include evidence-based policies in cancer control and/or NCD control plans. In addition, Lisa co- founded the International Cancer Control Partnerships to organize multiple global partners working with stakeholders in cancer control.

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Dr. Estelamari (Estela) Rodriguez is an Associate Director of Community Outreach and Co-Lead Thoracic Site Disease Group of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is a board certified in medical oncology and hematology. In the past, she was the Medical Director Thoracic Oncology at Mount Sinai Medical Center Miami Beach. Dr. Rodriguez has a special interest in the early detection of lung cancer and increasing access to clinical trials. She is a community leader and mentor to many women and minorities in medicine. Her passion is community engagement and empowering women to be advocates for their health and profession.

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Samira Essiaf is the Chief Executive Officer of SIOP  Europe (European Society for Paediatric Oncology) since it became an independent organisation in 2007. Since 2019 she has been appointed as CEO of the international multi-stakeholder forum ACCELERATE (provides a transparent forum to discuss and address, in a timely fashion, overarching issues in the development of innovative anticancer medicines for children and adolescents with cancer.) Samira has been among the initiators of the ENCCA project, the PanCareSurFup project, the EPAAC project, ExPO-r-Net project, Joint Action on Rare Cancer (JARC), ERN PaedCan, Partner Project, IMI C4C project, Primage project, PanCare Follow-up project thereby gaining considerable experience in the management and dissemination of EU-funded projects.

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Carolyn Taylor is a global cancer care advocate, ovarian and endometrial cancer survivor and the Founder and Executive Director of Global Focus on Cancer (GFC), a US-based non-profit organization established in 2011 to act as an agent of simple and effective change to help reduce the global burden of cancer. Carolyn serves as a content expert with the Women’s Empowerment Cancer Advocacy Network, sits on ASCO’s Gynecologic Cancer Guidelines Committee and a Measures Panel, was a contributing author to the Lancet series ‘Health, Equity and Women’s Cancers’ along with additional publications. Carolyn is a frequent speaker/moderator at global cancer conferences and since 2015, has served as the co-founder and co-chair of the annual SE Asia Breast Cancer Symposium.

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Dr. 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.

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Dr. Sharlene Gill is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies at BC Cancer – Vancouver, Canada.  Dr. Gill serves as the Chair of the Canadian Clinical Trials Group (CCTG) GI Disease Site Committee and Chair of the UBC Department of Medicine Mentoring Committee.  She is the Editor-in-Chief for Current Oncology and is the President of the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists. Her TEDx talk in 2022 on ‘How to Flip the Script on Cancer’ delivered her passion for patient advocacy and empowerment.

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Dr. Tracey O’Brien is the NSW Chief Cancer Officer and CEO of the Cancer Institute NSW, Australia. Before her current role, Tracey was Director of the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, and Director of the Transplant & Cellular Therapy Program. Tracey has held numerous high-profile national and international leadership positions, including Advisory Chair, Cancer Australia; V/Chair (Africa, Asia and Australasia) International Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant Research and V/President of the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Oncology Group. In recognition of her exceptional contributions, Tracey was profiled in 2023 as one of the world’s foremost women in paediatric cancer by the International Society of Paediatric Oncology. In 2019 Tracey was named in the Australian Financial Review’s prestigious Top 10 Women of Influence, winning the Innovation category. In addition to her medical expertise, Tracey has a Master of Law (Health) and executive MBA and serves as a conjoint Professor in Clinical Medicine (UNSW) and Honorary Professor in Science and Engineering (Macquarie University). Dr. O’Brien remains committed to mentoring the next generation of clinician leaders and maintains an active clinical practice in cancer survivorship at Sydney Children’s Hospital.

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