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Board Of Directors

 
 


President
Valery Uhl, MD


Dr. Valery Uhl is a Board-Certified Radiation Oncologist who trained at UCSF. She utilizes both external beam and internal (brachytherapy) radiation treatment for cancer. She is one of the first specialists in California to use multiple forms of Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) and Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) to treat breast cancer. She also uses special techniques to minimize heart and lung doses when the left breast needs radiation. She has extensive experience in APBI, whether brachytherapy or photon radiation, as well as Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT).
Dr. Uhl is a board member and current President of the TARGIT Collaborative Group (TCG), a national organization of surgeons, radiation oncologists and medical physicists committed to improving cancer patient care through education, patient advocacy, mentorship, and collaborative research. She gives presentations at medical meetings and also trains and proctors radiation oncologists when they initiate their IORT programs. She developed the IORT program at Summit Medical Center in Oakland, CA and she with her team of dedicated breast surgeons participated in the TARGIT-R trial.

Dr. Uhl's practice philosophy is “The first time you have cancer is the time to cure it!” She believes that communicating with her patients is critical to an excellent outcome and believes in a team approach to cancer cure. She practices in Northern California and has multiple publications, including publications on the use of IORT in patients with breast cancer.

 
 

Treasurer
Maged Ghaly, MD


I am an associate professor at Radiation Medicine at Northwell Health's main radiation oncology program at the Center for Advanced Medicine (CFAM). My focus as a physician has been pushing novel technologies forward, and providing index measures for quality care. I have dedicated my time to further the expertise of a large interdisciplinary team - with a mission of clinical, research and teaching expertise - in the management of Head and Neck (H&N) and Central Nerves System (CNS) malignancies. 

In recent years, I collaborated with our neurosurgeons in building an interdisciplinary spine oncology program, introducing spine radiosurgery technology. In the fall of 2017, at the ASTRO annual meeting, I presented on Norwell Health's approach on the use of Kypho-Intra Operative Radiation Therapy (Kypho-IORT) for patients with pathologic spine fractures. This is a novel treatment modality we are implementing under supervision of the IRB with our neurosurgical and medical oncology colleagues and we are one of the very first programs in the U.S. utilizing this technique. 

Our curiosity has yielded several abstract presentations, research awards, and publications. 

My goals are to continue to innovate, promote research, and provide the best, most compassionate and highest quality patient care possible.

 


William Small, MD, FACRO, FACR, FASTRO

 

Dr. Small joined the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine in July 2013 as Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology. Prior to joining Stritch, Dr. Small was the vice chair of radiation oncology at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. He completed medical school and residency training at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. He has been an active researcher, teacher and clinician for over 25 years.

Dr. Small has an international reputation for research and treatment of gynecological malignancies, and he specializes in treating gastrointestinal and breast cancers. He is co-chair of the NRG Oncology Gynecologic Committee, former chair of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) Gynecologic Working Group, and the past chair of the Gynecologic Cancer InterGroup. Dr. Small is a fellow in the American College of Radiation Oncology, the American College of Radiology and the American Society for Radiation Oncology. The author of over 245 publications, 34 invited book chapters, and 7 books, he has been the president of the Council of Affiliated Regional Radiation Oncology Societies and the Chicago Radiological Society. Dr. Small currently serves on the Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiology and is the Chair of the Radiation Oncology Commission. He has long been a proponent of IORT and has spoken on the use of IORT at national professional society meetings as well as at international IORT User Meetings. He is a National Co-Chair of the TARGIT US Registry clinical trial, and a member of the TARGIT Collaborative Group Board of Directors.

 
 

Anil Sethi, PhD, FAAPM


Anil Sethi, PhD is a Professor of Medical Physics and Director of Medical Physics Residency Program at Loyola University Medical Center and Loyola University Chicago, USA.   He is actively involved in education, clinical service and research.

He has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and presented more than 100 abstracts and invited talks at national and international conferences. Dr. Sethi’s research interests are in the fields of MR Guided Radiation Therapy (MRgRT), Intra-Operative Radiation Therapy (IORT), Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS), and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT). 

Dr. Sethi has been board certified in Radiation Oncology Physics and Therapeutic Radiological Physics by the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP) and the American Board of Radiology (ABR). 

Dr. Sethi is a fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).  He is also the recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award given by the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO).  He was selected a member of the ACR Commission on Medical Physics, a member of the American Board of Radiology, and a reviewer for the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and ABR.  He has been a past member of the AAPM working groups on Radiation Dosimetry and Treatment Planning. 

Dr. Sethi is a reviewer for a number of scientific journals, including, Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB), Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics (JACMP), Physica Medica (PM), Radiation Oncology (RO), and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics (IJROBP).  He is also on the editorial boards of Medical Physics & Medical Dosimetry journals and a member of the Asia and Oceanic Affairs Committee and the Awards and Honors Committee of the AAPM.

 

 


Lisa Bailey, MD, FACS



Dr. Lisa Bailey is a Breast Surgeon who has served patients in Oakland, California for forty years. She graduated from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and did her surgical residency training at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. Her Surgical Oncology Fellowship was an ANS sponsored fellowship at Evanston Hospital. She is the co-founder of the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center and served as its medical director for several years at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center where she instituted several clinical and quality programs there. She co-founded the Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) program at ABSMC with Dr. Valery Uhl. She has many publications including participation in the TARGIT-R study. She is a Board member of the TARGIT Collaborative Group (TCG), and served as the chair of the Conference Planning Committee for the 2022 annual conference.

Dr. Bailey served as the President of the American Cancer Society California Division, as well as on national ACS committees including the ACS National Assembly. She has been a member of the Commission on Cancer and served as Vice Chair of the Education Committee there and served as the State Chair for northern California for the Commission on Cancer, traveling throughout the state to evaluate the cancer programs of participating hospitals. She served on the Patient Safety and Quality Committee for the ASBrS. She is Principal Investigator of the Bay Area Tumor Institute, one of the NCORP programs of NCI, bringing NCI clinical programs to the patients of the East Bay, including many minority and underserved patients there. She attends national research meetings throughout the country. She is on the Board of Directors of the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners and is involved in projects with them that address risks and prevention of breast cancer.

Her practice philosophy, until we can prevent breast cancer, is that it is important to respect patients, giving them the knowledge that they need so that they can make the best decisions for their care, with personal attention to each person's needs.

 


Eileen Connolly, MD, PhD


I joined the faculty of Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) in 2011 as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology specializing in breast malignancies. I was recruited as a physician scientist and have a translational research laboratory in the Center for Radiological Research (CRR). This enables me to pursue my research interests in understanding the response of the tumor microenvironment to high dose radiation (HDRT). Specifically, my research focuses on how HDRT affects the tumor microvasculature and what impact that has on immune cell recruitment. Clinically, I have developed a number of collaborations with both the breast medical oncologists and breast surgeons to improve both the delivery and efficacy of radiation to our shared patients. These include the development of an intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) program for early breast cancer patients, as well as investigating more intensive therapies for locally advanced breast cancer patients who have less than a complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).
In 2014, I received a KL2 Mentored Career Development Award; through this award, I received a MS in biostatistics, in the patient orientated research (POR) track at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. In addition to the KL2 award I have received a number of small pilot grants including in 2017 an AVON grant to open an investigator initiated prospective study of the use of IORT for DCIS. In 2016, I also received a research grant from Merck for an investigator initiated “window of opportunity trial” of pembrolizumab plus IORT in early stage triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) from which we hope to investigate biomarkers of response to immune therapy in TNBC.
In addition to my own investigator initiated trials, I am the CUIMC site PI for a number of ALLIANCE and NRG breast cancer trials as well as the TARGIT US registry trial of IORT for early breast cancer. I am a member of the Breast Cancer Translational Research and Radiation Oncology Committees of SWOG, as well as a member of the NRG Breast Cancer Translational Research Subcommittee, as the Scientific Research Committee of ASTRO and the TARGIT Collaborative Group Research Committees.


 
 
 

Christopher P. Cifarelli MD, PhD, MMM, FAANS, FACS




Dr. Cifarelli completed his doctoral degrees at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA, earning a Ph.D. in Developmental Biology & Teratology focused on cancer cell migration mechanisms, followed by his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College.  He subsequently completed his residency in Neurological Surgery at the University of Virginia, including a fellowship at Auckland City Hospital in New Zealand.

Since 2014, Dr. Cifarelli has served as the Director of the West Virginia University Gamma Knife Radiosurgery program and is currently an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery & Radiation Oncology.  An active member of the International Radiosurgery Research Foundation, Dr. Cifarelli and his team have published over 50 manuscripts on radiation management in neuro-oncology and radiosurgery.  In 2017, the WVU IORT Program, developed under his direction, enrolled the first U.S. patient in the INTRAGO II Clinical Trial for the treatment of newly diagnosed Glioblastoma.  Subsequently, Dr. Cifarelli has expanded the use of IORT to management of surgically resected metastatic brain tumors, creating an international collaborative group and patient registry dedicated to IORT in brain metastases. 

Dr. Cifarelli is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Neuro-oncology and a member of the Tumor Section Executive Committee of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons & Congress of Neurological Surgeons, where serves the Section’s liaison with ASTRO.  In addition to his clinical and service roles, Dr. Cifarelli runs a basic science research program dedicated to the identification of mechanisms for increasing radiation sensitivity in tumor models, having received funding support through the NIGMS at the NIH.  Beyond the bench, Dr. Cifarelli’s clinical operations research has focused on optimization of patient length of stay related to elective surgery and expansion of telemedicine services for cancer patients, including those receiving IORT.   

 



Calvin Ridgeway, MD, FACS


Dr. Ridgeway grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. He completed his undergraduate studies at Wabash College. He then went on to medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans. After that, he did his residency in general surgery in Kansas City at the University of Missouri-Truman Medical Center program. From there, he participated in the very first matching program for Surgical Oncology. This sent him to the University of Illinois @ Chicago for two years to complete his fellowship training in complex Surgical Oncology. Following his training, he went to Albuquerque, New Mexico to repay his medical school scholarship obligation to the Air Force. He has been practicing in Albuquerque ever since. During this time he has established the first NAPBC accredited breast care center in New Mexico. He also serves on the board of the New Mexico Cancer Research Alliance which facilitates bringing cooperative group clinical trials to the state. His investigations focus on new techniques and technologies that improve surgical precision and decrease treatment burden for cancer patients. 

 

Executive Director

Jeff Milde, CAE

A Team of 3 Surgeons, 4 Radiation Oncologists and 1 Medical Physicist working together
National effort representing the 5 Regions of the United States:
Pacific Northwest: California
Southwest: New Mexico
Mid West:  Illinois 
South East:  West Virginia
East:  New York