Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of General Medicine

Professor, Health Care Management and Policy Health Behavior and Health Education

Faculty Lead, Education and TrainingInstitute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI)

Dr. Hawley’s primary research is in the area of understanding and improving the quality of cancer care and decision-making across the continuum from screening through survivorship. She has a specific focus on understanding the role of patient preferences and patient-physician communication in use of screening, treatment and survivorship care and in reducing disparities in cancer care. Dr. Hawley's research projects include both observational methods, using population based surveys to understand patterns of cancer care, and interventional projects, developing and evaluating interventions to improve patient centered cancer care.

Dr. Goutham Narla earned his BS in Biology and Economics from Santa Clara University in California and his MD and PhD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He also completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Medical Genetics at Mount Sinai. In July 2018, he joined the faculty at Michigan Medicine to become the seventh Chief of the Division of Genetic Medicine since the division’s inception in 1977. Dr. Narla has held several leadership positions. At Mount Sinai, he served as the Director of the Physician-Scientist Training Residency Program, Assistant Program Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), and was a member of the Medical School Admissions Committee. At CWRU, Dr. Narla sat on the MSTP Steering Committee and the Pharmacology Steering Committee. In 2012, he was named the first Harrington Distinguished Scholar (Early Career Award). He is currently the President of The Young Scientist Foundation, and a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Currently, he serves as an associate director for the MSTP program at the University of Michigan. His current research focuses on the identification and characterization of the key negative regulators, tumor suppressor proteins, of cancer development and progression, and the development of small molecule-based therapies that activate tumor suppressor genes for the treatment of cancer. To date, Dr. Narla has authored 11 patents. He has over 95 publications in journals including Nature Genetics, Cell, Science, Science Translational Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This work has also led to the formation of RAPPTA Therapeutics, a biotechnology company, seeking to develop these small molecule PP2A modulators for the treatment of cancer. Clinically, Dr. Narla leads the Division of Genetic Medicine that cares for over 3000 high-risk cancer and medical genetics patients per year. He oversees 40 faculty and staff members who are involved both in the research of the genetic basis of human disease as well as in the care at a system wide level for genetics patients.

Research Program Manager, Cancer Surveillance & Outcomes Research Team

Managing Director, Patients First Innovation Initiative

Research Area Specialist Senior, Division of General Medicine

Ms. Tocco is a Master’s-level health services and population sciences research professional with more than 15 years of academic research experience. She has spent just over half of her career with the Cancer Surveillance and Outcomes Research Team (CanSORT) studying cancer treatment decision-making, cancer care delivery, and cancer health outcomes at the population level. She is currently the Research Program Manager for CanSORT, overseeing an interdisciplinary, cross-institutional team of faculty and staff working to understand and improve the quality of care that patients with cancer receive. As a staff member at the University of Michigan, she is speaking today to let the audience know that you can make a difference in cancer research at any level. She will discuss her non-traditional career path, describe her current research, and end her talk with advice for students who are considering a career in cancer health services research.

Email: rtocco@med.umich.edu

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-tocco-0a985722/

Lauren Ghazal, PhD, FNP-BC is a family nurse practitioner and T32 post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. She is affiliated with the Center for Improving Patient and Population Health at the School of Nursing and the Rogel Cancer Center. Dr. Ghazal completed her PhD at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University, where she was a T42 predoctoral fellow in Occupational and Environmental Health and received grant support from the National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health. Her dissertation focused on work-related challenges and financial toxicity in adolescents and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors. Her broader program of research builds on her background in economics, clinical, and personal experiences to address cancer survivorship disparities in adolescents and young adults.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-ghazal

Dr. Cody Andrews attended medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and received his M.D. in 2012. He then completed a one year internal medicine internship at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and a three year residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan in 2016. He also completed a one year Cancer Rehabilitation fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2017. Dr. Andrews’ clinical responsibilities include the inpatient rehabilitation service and consults, as well as an outpatient practice focusing on the rehabilitation of oncology and hematology patients and electromyography testing.

email: coan@med.umich.edu

"I am a scientist with a passion for research, teaching and mentorship. I believe humanity must invest in educating itself in order to effectively solve evolving societal challenges"

Research interests

Cancer metabolism, genomics, therapy, tumour-immune interaction

Other activities

•> 20 Publications

•> 25 Conference participations

•Recipient of several awards

•Mentored several students

•Member of several professional associations, including American/European Associations for Cancer Research

•Founder – Zeribe Nwosu Foundation

website: https://zeribenwosu.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeribe-nwosu-6bb87236/

email: zcnwosu@umich.edu

"I am originally from Texas and completed my B.S. in Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. I then spent a year working at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland before moving to NYC for graduate school. During my graduate work, I used cell culture system and zebrafish models to study melanoma (a type of skin cancer). I earned my Ph.D. in Cancer Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC in 2018 and then moved to Ann Arbor to work in the Lawlor lab at the University of Michigan focusing on the role of the local bone tumor microenvironment in the progression of Ewing sarcoma. I transferred to the Shah lab in 2020, and my current research focuses on the effects of glucose on JAK-STAT signaling in colon cancer. I am just generally interested in Cancer Biology and am excited to share my passion for cancer biology and zebrafish as a model organism. Outside of the lab, I enjoy baking, crocheting, hiking, and eating ice cream! "

email: kelseyrt@umich.edu

Elise Pfaltzgraff earned their PhD in cell and developmental biology from Vanderbilt University before pursuing cancer research at the University of Michigan. They are currently the education coordinator for TREC at the Rogel Cancer Center.