Dana-Farber Department Chairs and Academic Leadership
Department Chairs
Bradley Bernstein, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Cancer Biology
Bradley Bernstein, MD, PhD, is Chair of Cancer Biology at Dana-Farber, where he holds the Richard and Nancy Lubin Family Chair.
Bernstein is also Director of the Gene Regulation Observatory at the Broad Institute, Professor of Cell Biology and Pathology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Investigator in HMS's Ludwig Institute. In 2005, he launched an independent research program in the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and HMS.
Bernstein's honors include the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist Award, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, American Cancer Society Professorship, and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. Bernstein earned his BS from Yale and his MD and PhD from the University of Washington. He completed a clinical pathology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and postdoctoral research at HMS.
Kathleen Burns, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Pathology
Kathleen Burns, MD, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Pathology at Dana-Farber. She is also Vice Chair of Pathology and Senior Hematopathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. The Burns laboratory studies high-copy number genomic repeats, transposable elements, their roles in human disease, and their use in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Previously, Burns was Deputy Director for Research and Programs and Director of the Physician-Scientist Training Program at Johns Hopkins. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Association of University Pathologists, and Interurban Clinical Club. Her honors include a Career Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Scriver Family Visiting Professorship at McGill University, and Daria Haust Lectureship at Queen’s University. Burns earned her MD and PhD from Baylor College of Medicine. She completed her residency and fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, where she also served as Chief Resident.
Rafael Irizarry, PhD
Chair, Department of Data Science
Rafael Irizarry, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Data Science at Dana-Farber and Professor of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Previously, Irizarry was a professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Biostatistics. He is dedicated to education, having mentored numerous successful trainees in data science, data analysis for the life sciences, and genomics data analysis. Irizarry earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Puerto Rico and a PhD in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, where his thesis focused on statistical models for music sound signals.
Katherine Krajewski, MD
Interim Chair, Department of Imaging
Katherine Krajewski, MD, is the Acting Chair of the Department of Imaging at Dana-Farber. She joined the radiology faculty at Dana-Farber in 2009.
Krajewski has received the Association of University Radiologists GE-Radiology Research Academic Fellowship (GERRAF) Award and the Society of Abdominal Radiology Morton A. Bosniak Research Award for her research on imaging in the management of renal cell carcinoma. She is a fellow of the International Cancer Imaging Society and a section editor for Cancer Imaging. Krajewski received her BS from the University of Michigan and her MD from Wayne State University School of Medicine. She completed a diagnostic radiology residency and abdominal imaging fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she served as Chief Radiology Resident.
Peter F. Orio, DO, MS
Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology
Peter F. Orio, DO, MS, is Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology. He joined the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center in 2010. For ten years, he served as Vice Chair of Network Operations for Radiation Oncology, where he guided the department's growth through the standardization of clinical practice, program implementation, and staff mentoring.
Orio served in the United States Army as Assistant Chief of Radiation Oncology at Brooke Army Medical Center. While there, he completed officer leadership training, received the Meritorious Service Medal, and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He is a past President of the American Brachytherapy Society and a former RUC member for the American Society of Radiation Oncology. Orio earned his bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross; his master’s degree in public health from the University of Massachusetts Amherst; and his medical degree from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Alice Shaw, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Medical Oncology and Chief of Strategic Partnerships
Alice Shaw, MD, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Medical Oncology and the Chief of Strategic Partnerships at Dana-Farber.
Previously, Shaw was Vice President and Global Head of Translational Clinical Oncology at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where she led early oncology drug development. Before that, she was Director of the Center for Thoracic Cancers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Paula O’Keeffe Endowed Chair of Thoracic Oncology at MGH, and Co-Leader of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Thoracic Oncology Program.
Her research at MGH focused on resistance to targeted therapies. She helped helped develop numerous targeted therapies — four of which are now FDA-approved therapies (crizotinib, ceritinib, alectinib, lorlatinib) — for oncogene-driven lung cancer. Shaw was elected to the American Association for Cancer Research Board of Directors, served as co-Leader of the SU2C Lung Cancer Dream Team, and was a standing member of the US FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee.
Kimberly Stegmaier, MD
Chair, Department of Pediatric Oncology; Associate Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children’s Hospital
Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, is Chair of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber. She is also the Associate Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), and the David G. Nathan Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She has been on the faculty at Dana-Farber, BCH, and HMS since 2002, and an independent investigator since 2006.
Stegmaier is dedicated to advancing precision pediatric oncology and has pioneered genomic approaches to identify new therapies for childhood cancer. Her research focuses on acute leukemias and pediatric solid tumors — particularly those driven by fusion oncoproteins. Her lab has discovered novel technologies, concepts, and therapeutic targets with translational impact. Stegmaier received her undergraduate degree from Duke University, her medical degree from HMS, and completed training in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology at BCH and Dana-Farber.
James Tulsky, MD
Chair, Department of Supportive Oncology
James Tulsky, MD, is Chair of the Department of Supportive Oncology at Dana-Farber. He joined the Institute in 2015. His research focuses on clinician-patient communication and quality of life in serious illness.
Tulsky was on the faculty of Duke University from 1993 to 2015, lastly as professor of medicine and nursing, and Chief of Duke Palliative Care. He received his AB from Cornell University, his MD from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, and completed internal medicine training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He continued at UCSF as Chief Medical Resident and subsequently as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.
Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology
Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology at Dana-Farber. He is also Co-leader of the Cancer Immunology Program of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Professor of Neurology and Immunology at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the role of cytotoxic T cells and NK cells in cancer immunotherapy. His lab has defined negative regulators of T cell function in the tumor microenvironment as novel therapeutic targets and discovered mechanisms of cancer cell resistance to T cell-mediated cytotoxicity.
Wucherpfennig was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2006, the Henry Kunkel Society at Rockefeller University in 2007, and as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009. He received his MD and PhD from the University of Göttingen in Germany and completed postdoctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard College.
Academic Leadership
Scott A. Armstrong, MD, PhD
Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery and Chief Research Strategy Officer
Scott A. Armstrong, MD, PhD, is Senior Vice President for Drug Discovery, Chief Research Strategy Officer, and Ted Williams Chair at Dana-Farber, where he leads research strategy focusing on therapeutic discovery efforts. His major career focus has been on delineating the biology of leukemia and other childhood cancers and developing new therapeutic approaches for children and adults with cancer. Armstrong served as Chairman of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber from 2016 to 2025 and was President of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center from 2019 to 2025. He is also the David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Armstrong earned his MD and PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He completed his internship and residency with the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital, and a hematology/oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Hospital.
George D. Demetri, MD
Senior Vice President, Experimental Therapeutics
George D. Demetri, MD, is Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics at Dana-Farber. He also serves as Co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School, which is made up of more than 30 investigative teams collaborating across Harvard-affiliated institutions to understand, overcome, and prevent resistance of cancers to therapeutic interventions.
Demetri advances institutional efforts through the discovery and development of novel anticancer therapies based on experience gained from his leadership in several drug development efforts. This includes imatinib (Gleevec) — one of the first examples of targeted cancer therapy for a treatment-resistant solid tumor — in patients with the sarcoma known as gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). He trained at Harvard College and Stanford University School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle, Washington.
Irene Ghobrial, MD
Senior Vice President, Experimental Medicine
Irene Ghobrial, MD, is Senior Vice President for Experimental Medicine and Director of the Center for Early Detection and Interception of Blood Cancers. She is also the Lavine Family Chair for Preventative Cancer Therapies; Co-leader of the Lymphoma/Myeloma Cancer Center Program; and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She joined Dana-Farber in 2005.
The Ghobrial Laboratory focuses on researching early screening, identification of biomarkers of disease progression, and therapeutic interception in pre-malignant conditions. Ghobrial leads translational studies to define genomic and immune mechanisms driving progression from precursor myeloma and runs clinical trials to intercept disease development. Her accomplishments include numerous honors, most notably the William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology. Ghobrial earned her medical degree from Cairo University School of Medicine, finished an internal medicine residency at Wayne State University, and completed a hematology/oncology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.
Kevin M. Haigis, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Kevin M. Haigis, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer at Dana-Farber. Haigis joined Dana-Farber in 2020. He has a longstanding interest in intestinal biology and the molecular pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. His laboratory combines computational and informatic approaches with experimental approaches in genetically engineered mice to study the relationship among Ras oncogene signaling, colorectal cancer, and inflammation.
Previously, Haigis was Director of Cancer Genetics at Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center. He received his PhD in genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Robert Black Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD
Senior Vice President, Translational Medicine
Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD, is the Senior Vice President for Translational Medicine and the Scientific Director of the Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science at Dana-Farber. His main research interests include studying the therapeutic relevance of oncogenic alterations in lung cancer. Jänne was one of the co-discoverers of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and has led the development of therapeutic strategies for patients with EGFR-mutant lung cancer.
Jänne received his MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed postgraduate training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and in medical oncology at Dana-Farber in 2001.
Joel T. Katz, MD
Senior Vice President, Education
Joel T. Katz, MD, joined Dana-Farber in 2024 in the new role of Senior Vice President for Education. He is also the Designated Institutional Official for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). Katz serves as the liaison between Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School for student educational matters, and oversees Dana-Farber’s residency and fellowship programs, including those at affiliate institutions. He also manages continuing medical education activities to keep global providers and scientists on cutting-edge developments in cancer care.
Previously, Katz served as Internal Medicine Residency Director and Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned a BA from Earlham College, and an MA in biomedical illustration and MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Longwood Infectious Diseases Fellowship, which included Dana-Farber.
Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, FASCO
Chief Clinical Research Officer
Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, FASCO, is the Chief Clinical Research Officer at Dana-Farber and the Associate Director of Clinical Research at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. He is also a Senior Physician in the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment Center. He holds the Douglas Gray Woodruff Chair in Colorectal Cancer Research and is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Meyerhardt earned his MD from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed an internship and residency in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber and Massachusetts General Hospital. Meyerhardt also holds an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health.
Robert J. Soiffer, MD
Chair, Executive Committee for Clinical Programs
Robert J. Soiffer, MD, is Chief of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies, Vice-Chairman of Medical Oncology, and Co-Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Dana-Farber. He is also a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He serves on the Executive Committee for Clinical Practice, the Executive Committee for Clinical Research, and the Executive Patient Safety Oversight Group.
Soiffer is a former president of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He previously served on the advisory board for the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. He is a member of the executive steering committees for the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network, and serves on the boards for the National Marrow Donor Program Be the Match Registry and the Massachusetts chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Mary‐Ellen Taplin, MD
Chair, Executive Committee for Clinical Research
Mary-Ellen Taplin, MD, is the Director of Clinical Research for the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology and Chair of the Executive Committee for Clinical Research. She is also a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Taplin is an investigator on many projects including the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trial Consortium, Dana-Farber SPORE grant, Stand Up 2 Cancer, and several Prostate Cancer Foundation Challenge Grants. She is dedicated to clinical and translational investigations that focus on novel approaches to treating localized high-risk prostate cancer and secondary hormone therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. She has described molecular and physiologic alterations in the androgen receptor pathway in the context of prostate cancer resistance. Taplin received her MD from the University of Massachusetts, Worcester. She completed a residency in internal medicine and chief residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and an oncology-hematology fellowship at Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
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