2014 PROGRAM INFORMATION

This year’s program promises to be informative and inspiring as you hear from our CEO, Kurt Newman, MD, and other leading physicians about the state of pediatric oncology today and our hopes for the future. It will also be a time for you to mingle with friends over cocktails and make memories in a beautiful setting. We hope you will join us as we work to advance lasting solutions for children.

Kurt D. Newman, MD

President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Newman has been an integral part of the Children’s family for 28 years as a surgeon and administrator. In his role as president and CEO, Dr. Newman is focused on applying innovation in all aspects of care and research, forming creative connections, and always doing the right thing for children and families.

Dr. Newman began as a surgeon at Children’s National Health System in 1984, and became the surgeon-in-chief and senior vice president for the Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Center for Surgical Care in 2003. He was instrumental in creating the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation and served as its acting vice president when it was founded in 2009. He is an expert in clinical resource management and has served as a consultant to several children’s hospitals in conjunction with the Child Health Corporation of America. Dr. Newman is the author or co-author of more than 70 publications. He is a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Joint Commission and the Board of Governors of the American Pediatric Surgery Association. He also is chairman of the Surgery Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Jeffrey S. Dome, MD, PhD

Division Chief, Oncology
The Thomas Willson and Lenore Williams McKnew Professor of Pediatric Oncology 
Principal Investigator, Children’s Research Institute, Center for Cancer and Immunology
Professor, Pediatrics, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center

Dr. Dome specializes in pediatric solid tumors, with an emphasis on pediatric kidney tumors and bone tumors. He is Chair of the Renal Tumor Committee for the Children’s Oncology Group.  This multidisciplinary committee runs six international clinical trials with more than 600 patients annually and several major biology studies evaluating the genetics of pediatric renal tumors.  Dr. Dome’s active laboratory program has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, Children’s Oncology Group Translational Research Award, and the Children’s Cancer Foundation.  His lab focuses on the telomere biology of pediatric cancers, studying novel therapies that can limit the capacity of cancer cells to divide.

Dr. Dome has published more than 65 peer-reviewed research articles and letters, has written 16 chapters in prominent textbooks, and has edited three books.  He has been invited to speak at meetings around the world, most recently the Presidential Symposium Lecture at the Japanese Society of Pediatric Oncology.  He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his PhD in Medicine from Erasmus University in Rotterdam.  He completed a residency in Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital and a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he was selected to be the Herman and Walter Samuelson Fellow in Pediatric Oncology.  Dr. Dome was a faculty member at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for nine years and joined Children’s National in 2006.

David A. Jacobsohn, MD, ScM

Division Chief, Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT)

Dr. Jacobsohn oversees the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Children’s National, where he is working to further grow and enhance the nationally-recognized bone marrow transplant program, both in terms of delivering outstanding clinical care and advancing the state of science in BMT.  Areas that are rapidly expanding within BMT are transplants for sickle cell disease and transplants for high-risk leukemias. Dr. Jacobsohn continues to do clinical research in graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and has lectured widely on the topic, as well as authored a number of publications in the area.  Specifically, Dr. Jacobsohn is working on defining major risk factors for outcomes in pediatric chronic GvHD, as well as designing scales that will be used in clinical trials for chronic GvHD.

Dr. Jacobsohn previously worked at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he served as a member of the Stem Cell Transplant Program staff and as the Director of the Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease Clinic. He has lectured widely on GvHD/BMT in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. He received his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Jacobsohn completed his training in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology/BMT at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Catherine M. Bollard, MBChB, MD, FRACP, FRCPA

Senior Scientist, Center for Cancer and Immunology, Children’s Research Institute
Principal Investigator and Co-Director, Immunology Initiative, the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation

Dr. Bollard is a distinguished hematologist and immunotherapist. Her research interests focus on three different areas, including developing cell and gene therapies for patients with cancer and underlying immune deficiencies. She is also interested in stem cell and cord blood transplantation, and improving outcomes by decreasing infectious complications and preventing relapse. She has a specific interest in cell therapies for EBV-associated lymphomas and as head of the NHL committee of the Children’s Oncology Group, is moving cell therapies to the cooperative group setting.

As a national leader in the area of immunology and immunotherapy,
Dr. Bollard’s work expands our understanding of cancer in pediatric patients. She joins Children’s National from the Baylor College of Medicine where she was a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine and Immunology, at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Texas Children’s Hospital, The Methodist Hospital, and Baylor College of Medicine. She received her medical degree from Otago University Medical School in New Zealand.