Dr Vokes is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Thoracic/Head and Neck Oncology and Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her research focuses on applying computational approaches to genomic and molecular datasets to understand the biology underlying response and resistance the therapy, with a particular focus on immunotherapies.

Dr. Liza Villaruz is an Associate Professor of Medicine and clinical and translational investigator in lung cancer, with active involvement in current clinical trials and a strong track record of successful development of institutional clinical trials through the NCI and industry. She has a specialty in the use of molecular profiling in the identification of genomic alterations that are amenable to personalized lung cancer therapies. Dr. Villaruz conducts numerous clinical trials evaluating novel targeted therapeutic approaches in lung cancer. She also conducts clinical trials optimizing the incorporation of immunotherapy into lung cancer treatment. Dr. Villaruz has a thoracic oncology outpatient clinic at the Hillman Cancer Center. She works at the multidisciplinary level to ensure comprehensive care of all lung cancer patients. Dr. Villaruz is a graduate of University of Notre Dame (BS, 2001) and the University of Maryland School of Medicine (MD, 2005). She completed her internal medicine residency and Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Cancer Institute.

Dr. Rajwanth Veluswamy is an assistant professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who specializes in the treatment of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. Dr. Veluswamy is a translational researcher focused on understanding the factors responsible for clinical outcomes in lung cancer patients, from the study of predictive biomarkers to identifying targets for novel combination trials. He currently leads a clinical trial and translational research program for KRAS mutated NSCLCs at Mount Sinai. He is the recipient of an ASCO Young Investigator Award (2016), KL2 Scholars Award (2017), and a LCRF grant (2019) to support his research.

Dr. Velcheti is a thoracic medical oncologist at New York University. He is the medical director of the thoracic oncology program at NYU.

Peter Ujhazy is the Deputy Associate Director of the Translational Research Program, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute. He has received his Medical Degree at the Comenius University, and his Ph.D. at the Cancer Research Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he started his career in the Department of Tumor Immunology. He was involved in the development of diagnostics in blood malignancies, he studied natural immunity in lymphoid malignancies, and gained clinical experience in the adjacent Cancer Center. He worked for 6 years as a scientist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and published on chemo-immunotherapy and multidrug resistance. After a short stay in the biotech company Biotech Research Laboratories, he accepted a position in the Department of Physiology, Tufts University, where he studied the physiologic role of ATP-dependent transporters. In 2001, he accepted a position in the National Cancer Institute to managed Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs). He has served as the Program Director for Lung, Leukemia, Lymphoma, Myeloma, Sarcoma, GI, Pancreas, Head & Neck, and Brain Tumor SPOREs. Currently, he oversees SPOREs in Lung, Sarcoma, and Myeloma. His other duties include serving on various NCI committees and working groups.

Diane Tseng M.D. Ph.D. is a thoracic oncologist at the University of Washington with expertise in T cell immunology and immunotherapy. She completed internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and medical oncology fellowship at Stanford University. During her postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Dr. Crystal Mackall and Dr. Mark Davis at Stanford, she developed an approach for identifying disease-relevant T cells and their antigens in human lung cancer. Her current research focuses on studying T cells in lung cancer and the relationship between anti-tumor and anti-viral immunity.

I am a Professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. I currently serve as the Director of the Mesothelioma Program and the Director of the Thoracic Chemo-Radiation Program at MDACC. I am a clinician scientist and an expert in the treatment of patients with both thoracic and head and neck cancers. I conduct both clinical and translational laboratory research and is focused on identifying new therapeutic targets and developing novel strategies for the treatment of aerodigestive cancers and mesothelioma. My research is focused on individualizing cancer therapy through understanding the molecular mechanisms of disease.  My laboratory research efforts have recently identified Src kinase as a new target for therapy (Molecular Cancer Therapeutics) and have also shown that N-cadherin is upregulated in mesothelioma (AACR 2008, ASCO 2008). I am the principle investigator of several active clinical trials at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. I have been extremely successful with numerous awards and publications. I have also received an ASCO Merit Award, M.D. Anderson Achievement in Research Award, ASCO Young Investigator Award, ASCO Career Development Award, NIH Clinician Scientist K12 Award, and Head and Neck SPORE Career Development Award. I serve as Program Project Leader on several large grants, including the Department of Defense PROSPECT grant. I have written several first author publications in Journal of Clinical Oncology, CA Cancer, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (CEBP), Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Cancer, Nature Medicine Clinical Oncology and Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Im also serving on the SWOG Mesothelioma Steering Committee, SWOG Lung Executive Committee, RTOG Lung Executive Committee, and is on the Scientific Board of the American Radium Society. I serve as the Chair of the MDACC Clinical Research Committee. I also lecture on both a national and international level on novel therapies in the aerodigestive malignancies

Portia Thomas is an M.D./Ph.D. student in the Department of Physiology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN. Her current research conducted under the mentorship of Christine Lovly, M.D., Ph.D., at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, focuses on auditing the immune microenvironment of small cell lung cancer in efforts to better stratify patients for immunotherapies. Ms. Thomas's work also focuses on identifying racial/ethnic immunogenetic differences that affect response to treatment, especially immunotherapies. Her career aspiration is to become a physician-scientist, specializing in pediatric oncology. As a pediatric oncologist, she aims to focus on immunotherapies to treat pediatric neurological tumors.

I am a thoracic oncologist with a focus on clinical trials

Dr. Brendon Stiles is an Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Stiles’ expertise is in minimally invasive, targeted surgical management of lung cancer, neoadjuvant trials, and in translational lung cancer research. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, a member of the Lung-RADS Steering Committee, and a member of numerous other professional organizations.  Dr. Stiles is also an active advocate for lung cancer research and for patients on social media.