Special Services
If you require special assistance to attend this event, please call Melissa Darsey at (859) 323-4573.
An Equal Opportunity University.
Speakers
Val Adams, Allissa Anderson, Deborah Carey, B Mark Evers, Douglas Flora, Charles Griffith III, Timothy Mullett, Reema Patel, Cheri Tolle
Val Adams, Pharm.D
Associate Professor
Pharmacy Practice and Science
University of Kentucky
College of Pharmacy
Lexington, Kentucky
Dr. Adams is an Associate Professor in the department of Pharmacy Practice and Science in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky. He co-chairs the protocol review and monitoring committee for the Markey Cancer Center. He received his B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Utah and received his doctor of pharmacy from the University of Texas. He did an oncology residency at the Audie Murphy VA in San Antonio and an immunology fellowship at the University of Florida.
Allissa Anderson, MJ, CTR
Quality Program Manager
Markey Cancer Center Affiliate Network
University of Kentucky
Clinical Oncology Pharmacy Speciality
Baptist Health Lexington
Lexington, Kentucky
Allissa D. Anderson, MJ, CTR received her bachelor’s degree from Eastern Kentucky University in 2008 in Health Services Administration. She then received her Master’s Degree in Jurisprudence of Health Law from Loyola University in Chicago is 2015. Allissa also holds a Certified Tumor Registrar certification, sitting for and passing the exam in 2012.
Allissa is currently working for the University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center Affiliate Network as a Quality Program Manager. In this role, Allissa supervises the Quality Improvement Team and works closely with the affiliate hospitals to ensure Commission on Cancer standards (the gold standard for hospital cancer programs) are being met.
Deborah Carey
Quality Coordinator
Markey Cancer Center
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Debbie Carey is a certified oncology social worker with over 25 years of social work experience in childrens mental health Hospice care and oncology She works for the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center Affiliate Network as a Quality Coordinator providing support and education to central Kentucky MCCAN affiliates Debbie obtained her Masters of Social Work from the University of Kentucky in 1997 and is currently a doctoral student in social work at UK She is an active Association of Oncology Social Work AOSW member serving on the Advocacy Committee and the Awards Committee She also serves on Markey Cancer Centers Survivorship Committee Her current research interests include optimization of the social work role in oncology and methods to increase diversity in oncology clinical research studies
B Mark Evers, MD, FACS
Director, Markey Cancer Center
Physician in Chief of Oncology Service
Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Surgery
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
At the University of Kentucky, Dr. Evers is the Markey Cancer Foundation Endowed Chair, Director of the Lucille P. Markey Cancer Center, and Professor and Vice-chair for Research in the Department of Surgery. He also serves as the Physician-in-chief of the Oncology Service Line for UK HealthCare.
Dr. Evers graduated summa cum laude (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Tennessee in 1979 and summa cum laude (Alpha Omega Alpha) from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 1983. He completed his surgical training at the University of Louisville and then performed a research fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston from 1988-1990. Prior to joining UK in 2009, Dr. Evers was Professor and Robertson-Poth Distinguished Chair in General Surgery and the Director of the UTMB Sealy Center for Cancer Cell Biology.
Dr. Evers’ research has been continuously funded by the NIH for more than 20 years, including an NIH MERIT Award, multiple R01s, and training grants. He has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and reviews. Throughout his career, he has received more than 30 awards, including the prestigious Flance-Karl Award from the American Surgical Association, and held numerous leadership positions in national and international organizations. These include the Society for Surgical Oncology, American College of Surgeons, and the American Gastroenterological Association. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Evers has held the positions of President of the Society of University Surgeons, Secretary and President the Southern Surgical Association, and Senior Director of the American Board of Surgery. He is currently Treasurer of the American Surgical Association. Dr. Evers serves on the editorial boards of three journals, is a past member of two NIH study sections, and acts as Associate Editor of the Sabiston Textbook of Surgery. In 2015, he was honored with an “Outstanding Alumnus” award from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. Dr. Evers has been listed in “Best Doctors in America” since 2004. At the state level, Dr. Evers is a member of the Kentucky Lung Cancer Research Program Governance Board and a member of the Kentucky Colon Cancer Screening Program Advisory Committee. In 2013, he was elected to the Mid-South Board of Directors for the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Evers led efforts to achieve National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation for the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center in 2013. The Markey Cancer Center is one of only 69 cancer centers designated by the NCI and the only one in Kentucky. Dr. Evers is currently leading preparation of the 2017 renewal application to the NCI.
Douglas Flora, MD, LSSBB
Executive Medical Director
Oncology Services
St. Elizabeth Healthcare
The Robert and Dell Ann Sathe Endowed Chair
Oncology
Edgewood, Kentucky
Dr. Flora serves as the Executive Medical Director of Oncology Services and The Robert and Dell Ann Sathe Endowed Chair in Oncology at St. Elizabeth Healthcare. He was born and raised in Cincinnati, graduating from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1999. He has been named a Cincinnati Magazine Top Doctor in Hematology and Oncology for consecutive years since 2005.
Dr. Flora is a Board Member of the American Cancer Society, the Association of Community Cancer Centers, and the Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief for the pioneering per-reviewed journal AI in Precision Oncology.
Charles Griffith III, MD, MSPH, FACP
Vice Dean, Education
Emery Wilson MD Dean’s Professorship
Professor, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics
University of Kentucky College of Medicine
Lexington, Kentucky
Dr. Griffith earned an MD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. He completed residency at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington.
He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Pediatrics, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
As Vice Dean for Education, his responsibilities included all medical student programs, residency and fellowship programs, graduate student programs, and continuing education at the University of Kentucky.
Research interests are outcomes of medical education, both learner outcomes and patient outcomes when cared for by learners.
Timothy Mullett, MD, MBA, FACS
Professor, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
University of Kentucky College of Medicine
Medical Director, Network Operations
UK Markey Cancer Center
Lexington, Kentucky
Chair, Commission on Cancer
American College of Surgeons
Timothy Wm. Mullett, MD, MBA, FACS, is a professor of surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Kentucky (UK). He received his medical degree and surgical training at the University of Florida, and has served on faculty at UK for the past 25 years. Although he has experience in cardiac surgery and transplantation, Dr. Mullett’s clinical practice and research focuses on the overwhelming burden of lung cancer in Kentucky. He is a member of the UK Markey Cancer Center – Kentucky’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center – and is chair of UK’s cancer committee. This Commission on Cancer program achieved an Outstanding Achievement Award in 2017. He served as CoC state chair for six years and was awarded Outstanding State Chair in 2019. In October of 2019, Dr. Mullett was elected to serve as the next national Chair of the CoC, a role he assumed in November 2020.
Currently, Dr. Mullett is the medical director of the Markey Cancer Center Affiliate Network, a program that provides high-quality cancer care closer to home at collaborating centers through specialty services, education and outreach programs. He also serves as medical director of the Markey Cancer Center Research Network, a collaborative network of sites that conducts a portfolio of high priority trials including therapeutic oncology trials and interventional and non-interventional studies appropriate for community centers.
Dr. Mullett’s research interests include studying quality implementation of lung cancer screening. He is principal investigator of the Kentucky LEADS Collaborative, a portfolio of studies to reduce the burden of lung cancer in Kentucky. For three years, he has been the clinical champion for the L.A.U.N.C.H. Collaborative, working with the NCI, the Federal Communications Commission, Amgen, and other stakeholders to study barriers to cancer care and the impact of limited broadband access.
In addition to his medical career, Dr. Mullett is a retired colonel with 27 years in the US Army Reserves Medical Corps, with tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and with Homeland Security in response to terrorist threats. He is also an eight-year cancer survivor, having been treated successfully with targeted therapy for a metastatic sarcoma.
Reema Patel, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Hematology and Oncology
University of Kentucky College of Medicine
Lexington, Kentucky
Dr. Reema Patel graduated from Quillen College of Medicine and completed her Internal Medicine residency and Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University of Kentucky. She is the associate program director of the Hematology & Medical Oncology Fellowship at UK and holds a faculty appointment as an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology. She specializes in the treatment of bone and soft-tissue sarcomas, and gastrointestinal malignancies in the setting of a multidisplinary cancer center.
Cheri Tolle, MAEd, CHES
Administrative Director
Markey Cancer Center Affiliate Network
Markey Cancer Center
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Cheri Tolle is the administrative director for the Markey Cancer Center Affiliate Network at the University of Kentucky, a position she has held since the Network’s inception in 2006. Ms. Tolle and her staff have developed successful collaborations with 19 community hospitals across Kentucky to offer high-quality cancer care close to home for cancer patients. During the past 35 years at UK, she has served as deputy director for the CDC-funded UK Prevention Research Center and Partnership Program Manager/Assistant Project Director for NCI’s Cancer Information Service of the Mid-South. Ms. Tolle has a master’s degree in education from Eastern Kentucky University and is a Certified Health Education Specialist.
