David McConkey Named Director of Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute

To the School of Medicine faculty, staff and students

Dear Colleagues:

We are pleased to announce that David McConkey has been named director of the Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute. When David joins Johns Hopkins in late summer, he will bring a wealth of knowledge about the biology of bladder and genitourinary cancers, and proven leadership skills to the institute, whose members include experts from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the Brady Urological Institute, and the school of medicine's departments of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Surgery, and Pathology.

A faculty member at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for over 20 years, David most recently served as director of urological research, playing a leadership role in the center's multidisciplinary bladder cancer research program. He served as co-principal investigator of the MD Anderson Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Bladder Cancer, now in its third continuous cycle of funding from the National Cancer Institute. In addition, David was chair for translational medicine for the Genitourinary Cancers Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group. He has also been instrumental in setting agendas for the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network's clinical initiatives.

David earned his bachelor's degree in biochemistry and American history from Brown University, and his Ph.D. in biochemical toxicology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. After receiving his Ph.D., he completed a research fellowship in the Laboratory of Immunobiology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He joined MD Anderson in 1993 as an assistant professor in the Department of Cancer Biology and assistant professor at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He was promoted to associate professor in the Department of Cancer Biology and later professor in the departments of Cancer Biology and Urology before being named director of urological research in 2007.

David is a frequent speaker nationally and abroad. He has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, served on 90 advisory committees at MD Anderson, and has won numerous honors and awards, including an American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship, a Cancer Research Institute Fellowship and the John P. McGowen Outstanding Teacher Award from the University of Texas Health Science Center.

We would like to thank William Isaacs for so ably serving as interim director of the institute for the past 19 months. We also appreciate the diligence of the search committee, chaired by Bill, which conducted a nationwide search before enthusiastically recommending David.

As we continue to build our bladder cancer research program, David's experience and collaborative spirit will be instrumental in focusing our efforts on questions that will have substantial impact for our patients. Under his leadership, we are poised to set new standards for innovation, treatment and discovery in the field of bladder cancer. Please join us in welcoming David and his family to Baltimore and Johns Hopkins this summer.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D.
Marion I. Knott Professor and
Director, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Alan W. Partin, M.D., Ph.D.
Jakurski Family Director and
Director, The Brady Urological Institute

Theodore L. DeWeese, M.D.
The Sidney Kimmel Professor and
Director, Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences