Leadership

A team of senior brain cancer experts acting as the Strategic Scientific Advisory Council (SSAC) will oversee the Defeat Pediatric Brain Tumors Research Collaborative to ensure goal attainment and overall success. Any additional projects will be evaluated on their scientific potential, as well as their ability to support the patient-centric and outcome-driven goals of Defeat Pediatric Brain Tumors. With this lens, the Advisors will help to ensure that only the most promising science is included.

Scientific Director

Dr. Roger Packer, MDM

Senior Vice-President, Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine, Gilbert Distinguished Professor of Neurofibromatosis, and is Director of both the Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Institute and the Brain Tumor Institute of Children’s National Health System; Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at George Washington University and Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

 

 

 

 

 

Strategic Scientific Advisory Council

Susan Blaney, MD

Deputy Director of the Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers; Executive Vice Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM); Vice President, Clinical and Translational Research, BCM.

Richard Gilbertson, MD, PhD

Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology and Director of the Cambridge Cancer Centre, England. (A Cancer Research UK Major Centre and OECI Comprehensive Cancer Centre)

Scott Pomeroy, MD, PhD

Neurologist-in-Chief and Chairman, Department of Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital; Consultant, Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Bronson Crothers Prof. of Neurology,
Harvard Medical School.

Raphael Rousseau, MD, PhD

Chief Medical Officer, Gritstone Oncology (formerly Group Medical Director/Global Franchise Head, Pediatrics Genentech, a member of the Roche Group)

Robert Wechsler-Reya, PhD

Director and Professor, Tumor Initiation and Maintenance Program, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute; Adjunct Professor, University of California, SD; Member, Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Research Advisory Network