{"id":18100,"date":"2023-10-09T10:02:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T14:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=18100"},"modified":"2023-10-09T10:02:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T14:02:38","slug":"dartmouth-cancer-center-director-steven-leach-elected-to-national-academy-of-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2023\/dartmouth-cancer-center-director-steven-leach-elected-to-national-academy-of-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Dartmouth Cancer Center Director Steven Leach Elected to National Academy of Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven D. Leach, MD, Director of the Dartmouth Cancer Center and the Preston T. and Virginia R. Kelsey Distinguished Chair in Cancer at Dartmouth\u2019s Geisel School of Medicine, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (NAM)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/a>
Steven D. Leach, MD. Photo by Eli Burakian D'00<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Election to the National Academy of Medicine is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. With its 100 new members (including 10 international members) announced this week at its annual meeting in Washington, DC, the NAM now has more than 2,400 members.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly meaningful to be recognized in this way\u2014an unexpected dream come true, really,\u201d says Leach, who is also a Professor of Molecular and Systems Biology, Surgery, and Medicine at Geisel and serves as Associate Dean for Cancer Programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as I feel honored, I\u2019m also very humbled when I think of all the people who contributed to this\u2014from early role models to my mentors and colleagues, and especially the more than 30 graduates of the Leach Laboratory<\/a> who did so much of the work that\u2019s being honored by my election.<\/p>\n

Leach was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for being an international leader in pancreatic cancer research, having made seminal research contributions in pancreatic cancer surgery, biology, genomics, and therapy over the past three decades. His research has run the gamut from very basic studies of pancreatic development using mouse and zebrafish, to more recent studies of human pancreatic cancer and how pancreatic cancer mutations engage the host immune system.<\/p>\n

NAM\u2019s new members are elected by current members through a process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, healthcare, and public health. A diversity of talent among NAM\u2019s membership is assured by its Articles of Organization, which stipulate that at least one-quarter of the membership is selected from fields outside the health professions\u2014for example, from such fields such as law, engineering, social sciences, and the humanities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my honor to welcome this truly exceptional class of new members to the National Academy of Medicine,\u201d says NAM President Victor J. Dzau. \u201cTheir contributions to health and medicine are unparalleled, and their leadership and expertise will be essential to helping the NAM tackle today\u2019s urgent health challenges, inform the future of healthcare, and ensure health equity for the benefit of all around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to joining Dartmouth Cancer Center, New Hampshire\u2019s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Leach held the David M. Rubenstein Chair and was the inaugural director of the Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.<\/p>\n

Among his many scientific contributions and professional honors, Leach was named a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in 2018, and was elected to the Board of the Association of American Cancer Institutes in 2022. He has also served as chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network\u2019s Scientific and Medical Advisory Board and as a member of the Princeton University Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n

Leach earned his AB in Biology at Princeton University and his medical degree from Emory University. He completed his residency in general surgery and a postdoctoral research fellowship at Yale University, followed by a surgical oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

About Dartmouth Cancer Center<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dartmouth Cancer Center<\/a>\u00a0combines advanced cancer research\u00a0at\u00a0Dartmouth<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Geisel School of Medicine<\/a>, with award-winning, personalized, and compassionate patient-centered cancer care and clinical trials based at the Norris Cotton Cancer Care Pavilion at Dartmouth Health's\u00a0Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center<\/a>.\u00a0With 14 locations around New Hampshire and Vermont, Dartmouth Cancer Center is one of only 54 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Each year the Dartmouth Cancer Center schedules 74,000 appointments seeing more than 4,500 newly diagnosed patients, and currently offers patients more than 240 active clinical trials. Celebrating its 50th\u00a0anniversary in 2022, Dartmouth Cancer Center remains committed to excellence, outreach and education. We strive to prevent and cure cancer, enhance survivorship and to promote cancer health equity through pioneering interdisciplinary research and collaborations. Learn more at\u00a0the\u00a0Dartmouth Cancer Center<\/a>\u00a0website.<\/p>\n

About the National Academy of Medicine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Established originally as the Institute of Medicine in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine addresses critical issues in health, science, medicine, and related policy and inspires positive actions across sectors. NAM works alongside the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine also encourage education and research, recognize outstanding contributions to knowledge, and increase public understanding of STEMM. With their election, NAM members make a commitment to volunteer their service in National Academies activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven D. Leach, MD, Director of the Dartmouth Cancer Center and the Preston T. and Virginia R. Kelsey Distinguished Chair in Cancer at Dartmouth\u2019s Geisel School of Medicine, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":18102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[929,1],"tags":[1173,919],"class_list":["post-18100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","category-news","tag-dartmouth-cancer","tag-steven-leach","author-26"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/10\/SteveLeach_featured.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-4HW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18104,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18100\/revisions\/18104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}