Program Leadership

Message from the Program Director, Anna Marie Kenney, PhD 

The Cancer Biology PhD program is one of eight programs in the GDBBS.  Our faculty are drawn from many departments at Emory, including but not limited to Pediatrics, Radiation Oncology, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Pathology and Lab Medicine, Biochemistry, and Endocrinology.  Many of our faculty have labs that are located within the Winship Cancer Institute, Georgia’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.  What we have in common is a drive to understand all the mechanisms in play that drive cancer development, growth, treatment response, metastasis, and treatment resistance, so that our research can lead to identification of new cures for all types of cancer and improve the lives of all cancer patients.  Faculty in our program perform research running from the most basic cell and molecular biology to the most highly translational, working with genetically engineered animal models and even samples from patients being treated at Winship.  The inherently inter-disciplinary nature of cancer research leads to high levels of collaboration between cancer biology program labs, promoting exposure of students to a broad variety of research experiences and enriching the overall quality of training; Emory also has close ties to Georgia Institute of Technology, granting students access to biomedical engineering opportunities.  Students also gain experience with presenting their work, traveling to conferences, grant and paper writing, and networking to prepare for their post-graduate careers.  The cancer biology program attracts students from a variety of training backgrounds and disciplines and we believe that every student brings knowledge and life experience with them that are essential contributions to the environment of the program and the cancer research community as a whole.    

Program Leadership

Executive Committee

• Mohamed Abdel Hakeem, PhD (Director of Recruitment) (2024)
• Chrystal Paulos, PhD (Curriculum Chair) (2025)
• David Frank, MD, PhD (Faculty Membership Chair) (2026)
• Mala Shanmugam, PhD (Oral Exam Chair) (2026)
• Andy Hong, MD (DEI Chair) (2026)
• Greg Lesinski, PhD, MPH (2026)
• Carlos Moreno, PhD, Winship Assistant Director of Training and Education

Student Representative

Edward Henderson (2025)

Program Administrator

Holley Butkovich | Email: hbutkov@emory.edu