Timothy W. Mullett, MD, MBA, FACS

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.