COVID-19 and Cancer Task Force

Task Force Charge

• Provide leadership and insight to the AACR on issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic by:
  • Recommending science and policy priorities for COVID-19 and cancer;
  • Considering and determining the AACR’s potential involvement in COVID-19 related projects and what resources, information, data aggregations, etc. should be disseminated (endorsed) by the AACR;
  • Proposing and acting on AACR-led COVID-19 and cancer initiatives after consultation with the AACR Executive Committee; and
  • Addressing other issues that may arise with respect to this complex disease and its relationship to cancer.
• Help the AACR lead by proposing ideas while avoiding duplication of efforts in the field. Focus on initiatives the AACR can make a difference in, while avoiding dead-ends or things that may waste AACR resources.

Task Force Members

Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, FAACR
Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Science
Chief Scientific Officer, Saul J. Farber Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
New York University Langone Medical Center

John M. Carethers, MD
Professor and Chair, Department of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan

Melissa Cushing, MD
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Director of Transfusion Medicine and Cellular Therapy
Weill Cornell Medicine

Gypsyamber D’Souza, PhD, MPH
Professor
Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health

Keith T. Flaherty, MD
Director of Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy and Director of Clinical Research
Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor
Harvard Medical School

Susan M. Galbraith, MBBCh, PhD
Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Early Development, Oncology R&D
AstraZeneca

Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, FAACR
AACR President 2018-2019
Deputy Director and Professor of Oncology
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Karen E. Knudsen, MBA, PhD
Enterprise Director
Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health
Executive Vice President, Oncology Services
Jefferson Health

Jean-Charles Soria, MD, PhD
General Director
Institut Gustave Roussy

Avrum E. Spira, MD
Global Head, Lung Cancer Initiative
Johnson & Johnson
Professor of Medicine, Bioinformatics, and Pathology
Boston University

David A. Tuveson, MD, PhD, FAACR
AACR President-Elect
Professor and Director
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center
Chief Scientist
Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research

E. John Wherry, PhD
Chair, Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics
Director, Institute for Immunology
University of Pennsylvania

Helen X. Chen, MD (Ex Officio)
Associate Chief, Investigational Drug Branch
Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program
National Cancer Institute

James H. Doroshow, MD (Ex Officio)
Director, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis
Deputy Director, Clinical and Translational Research
National Cancer Institute

Marc Theoret, MD (Ex Officio)
Acting Associate Director of Immuno-Oncology
Therapeutics, Oncology Center of Excellence
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Oncologic Diseases
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc) (Ex Officio)
Chief Executive Officer
American Association for Cancer Research

STAFF Contact Information

Jon Retzlaff, MBA, MPA
Chief Policy Officer
Vice President, Science Policy and Government Affairs
Email