Breast Cancer Scientific Advisory Board
Kenneth Olden, PhD, ScD, LHD, Chairman - Founding and Acting Dean, School of Public Health, City University of New York
Dr. Ken Olden serves as the Chair of the Avon Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Olden is the founding Dean for the School of Public Health, City University of New York (CUNY). Dr. Olden retired in March 2005 from his position as the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a role held since 1991. He is the first African-American to become director of one of the 18 institutes of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Olden is a cell biologist and biochemist by training, and has been active in research into the properties of cell surface molecules and their possible roles in cancer for more than two decades. As a result of Dr. Olden's outstanding contributions, he was elected to the President’s Cancer Advisory Panel in 1991, for membership in the Institute of Medicine in 1994 and he won the City of Medicine Award in 1996. More recently, he was inducted into the Academy of Toxicological Sciences and was honored at the Jubilation Concert 2000 by the Children's Health Environment Coalition for Leadership Role in Children's Environmental Health Research.
Renee Bernett -Advocate
Renee Bernett is a breast cancer survivor with extensive experience serving as a patient-advocate and lay reviewer for the Department of Defense (DoD) Breast Cancer Research Program Peer Review Panel as well as for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, Lay Review Committee. She has served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Kidney Disease Education Program Steering Committee and the NIH Celiac Consensus Conference. She is presently a board member of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness and serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. Mrs. Bernett has received numerous awards and honors including the 2003 Living Beyond Breast Cancer Honoree and was an invited speaker to the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine. She holds a masters degree from Villanova University and was employed as a school teacher for 15 years in Pennsylvania. Since 1999, she has devoted most of her time to volunteering in patient-advocacy and grant making organizations. She is active in juvenile diabetes and celiac’s disease initiatives because her daughter suffers from these autoimmune disorders. Most recently, Mrs. Bernett became involved with the DoD Breast Cancer Review Panel and has served from 2002-2004, and as an ad-hoc member in 2005.
Kapil Dhingra, MB, BS - President, Kapital Consulting
Dr. Kapil Dhingra is the president of Kapital Consulting, a company dedicated to assisting biotechnology, pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies realize clinical and commercial advances in oncology. From 1999 to June 2008, Dr. Dhingra worked in positions of increasing responsibility at Hoffman-La Roche, most recently serving as Vice President, Head, Oncology Disease Biology Leadership Team, and Head, Oncology Clinical Development. Prior to Hoffmann-La Roche, from 1996 to 1999, Dr. Dhingra worked as a Clinical and Senior Clinical Research Physician with Eli Lilly and Company. From 1989 to 1996, a Clinical Instructor, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Throughout his industry career, he maintained an active faculty appointment, initially at Indiana University School of Medicine from 1997 to 1999 as Clinical Associate Professor, and, more recently, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York from 2000 to 2008. Dr. Dhingra holds an MB, BS degree (equivalent to a U.S. MD degree) from the All India Institute of Medical Services, and has performed postgraduate work the All India Institute of Medical Services, the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center (New York Medical College), Bronx, NY and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA.
Matthew J. Ellis, MB, PhD, FRCP - Professor of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Director, Breast Cancer Program
Dr. Matthew James Ellis is Professor of Medical Oncology in the Siteman Cancer Center, Department of Medicine at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, USA. After obtaining his medical degree at Cambridge University and PhD at the University of London, Dr Ellis completed his professional training at hospitals in the UK and USA. He has received American Board of Internal Medicine certification in Medical Oncology. Dr Ellis’ primary research interests include the identification of genes that affect responses and resistance to endocrine therapy in patients with breast cancer. Using gene microarray analysis, gene sequencing and array comparative genomic hybridization, Dr Ellis is currently investigating the regulation of genes before and after neoadjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy in patients with ER+ breast cancer. He is also principal investigator for the breast cancer project in the Specialized Program to Evaluate Cancer Signatures from the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, which aims to develop a qPCR assay for biological classification of breast cancer. Dr Ellis is an elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London; he is Vice Chair for Correlative Science for the Cancer and Leukemia Group B Breast Cancer Committee and holds the Anheuser Busch Chair in Medical Oncology at Barnes Jewish Hospital. In addition, Dr Ellis is a member of several National Cancer Institute review panels, journal editorial committees and advisory boards, and has published over 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals, as well as authoring over 20 book chapters and review articles in oncology.
Michelle Robertson Esser, MBA, Esq.- Advocate
Michelle Robertson Esser is a breast cancer survivor, diagnosed at the young age of 37 in 2006, who quickly turned into an advocate for her own health and for all women facing breast cancer. Michelle has attended advocate training programs, funded by the Avon Foundation, that include (i) Quality Care Project LEAD in 2007, (ii) Project LEAD Institute in 2008, and (iii) “Day in the Life of a Breast Cancer Researcher” at Fox Chase, in 2008. Michelle served in 2008 and 2009 as a reviewer for the Department of Defense (D.O.D.) Breast Cancer Research program. She volunteers at the Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation and serves on the Board of the Young Survival Coalition. In her professional life, Michelle has served as a Senior Staff Attorney since 2005 at Dechert in Philadelphia. Michelle received her undergraduate education at Ursinus College (Collegeville, PA) and both an MBA and law degree at Villanova University (Villanova, PA).
Elaine K. Gallin, PhD - Senior Advisor, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Elaine K. Gallin is currently a Senior Advisor at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). From 1999 through February 2010, Dr. Gallin served as DDCF’s Program Director for Medical Research. As the Foundation’s first Program Director for Medical Research, she led the creation and management of a portfolio of grant programs that have committed approximately $185 million to supporting clinical research. Dr. Gallin also designed and led the foundation’s $60 million African Health Initiative. Launched in September 2007, this initiative is supporting large-scale health services delivery projects in sub-Saharan Africa that are linked to rigorous operations and implementation research. Before joining the Foundation, Dr. Gallin spent two decades, first as a research physiologist and then as research administrator for the U.S. government, where she last served as the Deputy Director of the Office of International Health Programs in the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Gallin has participated in numerous professional committees and review panels. Currently, she is member of the board of directors of the Health Research Alliance (an alliance of non-government research funders), a member of the Forum on Drug Discovery, Development and Translation at the Institute of Medicine and the Sickle Cell Disease Advisory Committee at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Dr. Gallin received her Ph.D. from the City University of New York and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Johns Hopkins University Medical School and Columbia University Medical School.
Paul Goss, FRCP, MB, BCh, PhD - Professor, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Director, Breast Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Paul Goss is Director of Breast Cancer Research and Avon Foundation Senior Scholar at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Goss was educated at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa before pursuing postgraduate training in oncology and a doctorate in hormonal mechanisms of breast cancer at the University of London. He subsequently became Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at the Princess Margaret Hospital before joining Massachusetts General Hospital in September 2004. Dr. Goss’ principal research interest has been to explore the pivotal role of estrogen in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. He chairs a multitude of international clinical trials. His recently completed MA17 study of letrozole after tamoxifen led to FDA approval and changed the practice of oncology worldwide. His translational laboratory program focuses on tumor signatures and mechanisms of endocrine resistance. Dr. Goss has published over 200 manuscripts, sits on numerous international scientific committees and serves as ad hoc reviewer for many scientific and medical journals.
Carrie P. Hunter, MD, MPH - President & CEO, Oncology Consulting International
Dr. Carrie P. Hunter is President and CEO of Oncology Consulting International, a cancer care management, research, and education and training consultancy company. Primary areas of focus include breast and colorectal cancer, women’s health, cancer in the elderly, and partnership initiatives directed toward improving cancer care both nationally and internationally. Dr. Hunter has expertise on issues that contribute to cancer health disparities and that impact cancer health outcomes of minority and underserved populations in developed and developing countries. She is a member of the Executive Council of the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer, Inc. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the African Cancer Center, Inc. that is scheduled to open in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2008. Dr. Hunter was co-editor of a book entitled Cancer in the Elderly published by Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, in 2000. Recently, she co-edited a second book entitled Treatment and Management of Cancer in the Elderly published by Taylor & Francis Group, New York, in 2006. She is well published in peer-reviewed journals and is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. In 2006, Dr. Hunter became a member of the Board of Governors of the New York University School of Medicine Alumni Association. Dr. Hunter formerly served as program director for the Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP), Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute (NCI) where she spearheaded the development of the Minority-Based CCOPs. She served as clinical coordinator of the NCI Black/White Cancer Survival Study. Following these appointments, she served as a program director and project officer for the National Institutes of Health Women’s Health Initiative.
Elizabeth Morris, MD, FACR - Director, Breast MRI and Radiologist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Elizabeth Morris is an Associate Radiologist and Director of Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at the renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Dr. Morris is clinically trained in breast imaging (MRI, Digital Mammography and Ultrasound). Her research interests involve using MRI for the detection of breast cancer, and she has also studied the use of MRI for staging breast cancer and for screening women at high risk of the disease. Dr. Morris is developing methods to perform needle biopsies under MRI guidance and, in addition, she helps train and supervise residents and fellows in interventional breast procedures as well as image interpretation.
Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr PH, MPH- Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics and Director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). She is also the Dielmann Chair in Health Disparities Research and Community Outreach at UTHSCSA and Director of Outreach and Health Care Disparities at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Ramirez has directed numerous state-, Federal-, and privately funded research programs focusing on human and organizational communication to reduce chronic disease and cancer health disparities affecting Hispanics/Latinos and other populations. She has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and is the recipient of state and national awards in the area of health disparities research and the advancement of Hispanics/Latinos in the medical, public health, and behavioral sciences professions across the United States. Dr. Ramirez is a recognized spokesperson for cancer disparities reduction and is a member of various national and regional advisory groups and coalitions. Her most recent appointments include membership on the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Board, National Cancer Advisory Board, Behavior Change Expert Panel for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, National Cancer Policy Board of the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine and Commission of Life Sciences, Lance Armstrong Foundation Board of Directors, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation National Health Advisory Council, and the Advisory Board of the National Child Health Study. She is the recipient of national and state awards in public health. Dr. Ramirez received a B.S. from the University of Houston and M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. degrees from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health.
Timothy Rebbeck, PhD - Professor, Department of Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Dr. Timothy Rebbeck is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In addition, Dr. Rebbeck holds the positions of Cancer Epidemiology and Risk Reduction Program Leader, Abramson Cancer Center; Director, Center for Population Health and Health Disparities; and Director, Center for Genetics and Complex Traits. Dr. Rebbeck’s primary research interest is in the area of molecular and genetic epidemiology of common cancers. His research focuses on studies of breast, prostate, and melanoma skin cancers. The goal of is research is to identify genes involved in the etiology of these cancers, and to identify interactions of these genes with endogenous and exogenous exposures. These studies use a multidisciplinary approach that combines methods from epidemiology, statistics, molecular biology, and classical genetics. He directs a laboratory for molecular epidemiology, that is geared toward the generation of molecular biomarker data for family and epidemiological studies.
Marc Hurlbert, PhD - Executive Director, Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade
Dr. Marc Hurlbert serves as the Executive Secretary to the Avon Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. He is a pharmacologist by training and has extensive experience in managing medical research programs and grants administration in the voluntary health agency and patient-advocacy arena. Dr. Hurlbert holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the New School University. He received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Kansas and his doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He completed his training with a fellowship at New York University Medical Center, Skirball Institute for Biomolecular Medicine. Dr. Hurlbert serves as the Executive Director of the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade.
