Dedicated GOC Team and Affiliated Professionals
Howard McLeod
Clinical Project Manager
Steve Huber has more than 20 years of oncology experience, including 16 years at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) as Deputy Division Head of Pharmacy and Director of Pharmacoeconomics. He is a nationally recognized speaker on biotechnology, reimbursement, pharmacoeconomics, and strategic planning in health care. He has contributed to such journals as Hospital Formulary, American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, Pharmacotherapy, Annals of Internal Medicine, Seminars in Oncology, and Cancer. In addition, he has developed and managed Pharmacoeconomics, Reimbursement Assistance, and Clinical Pharmacy Programs at MDACC, where he maintains a research appointment to the Department of Symptom Management and Palliative Care.
Steve previously has served as president of Cortex Communications, president and CEO of the medical education division of HealthAnswers, president of Medical and Scientific Affairs for Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, and was a founding partner of StratCommPartners, LLC.
Steve holds a bachelor's degree in Pharmacy and a master's degree in Hospital Pharmacy from the University of Houston. In addition, he completed a 2-year American Society of Hospital Pharmacists–accredited residency in hospital pharmacy at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Houston.
Jody Simon, MS, RPh
Founder, CEO
DEDICATED TEAM MEMBERS
THE GOC TEAM
Jody Simon earned his pharmacy degree from the University of Florida College of Pharmacy in 1983. Jody founded and is currently CEO of The Geriatric Oncology Consortium (GOC). As a nonprofit agency, the GOC strives to improve care for the elderly population with cancer through clinical research and education.
In addition to serving as CEO of The GOC, Jody co-founded Cortex Communications, a medical education company, in 1995. Cortex was later acquired by HealthAnswers, Inc., in 1999. Jody then founded CommGeniX, LLC, a full-service medical communications company along with several partners in the year 2000.
Harvey Jay Cohen, MD
Professor of Medicine
Walter Kempner Professor of Medicine, in the School of Medicine
Director, Center for the Study of Aging & Human Development in the Department of Medicine
Duke University School of Medicine
Durham, NC
Martine Extermann, MD, PhD
Moffitt Cancer Center
Tampa, FL
Stuart Lichtman, MD, FACP
Medical Oncologist
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Rob Hauser, PharmD
Vice President, Clinical Analytics
Cancer Treatment Centers of America
Boca Raton, FL
Jim Koeller, MS
Professor, Center for Pharmacoeconomic Studies
College of Pharmacy
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
Louise Morrell, MD
Lynn Cancer Institute
Boca Raton Regional Hospital
Boca Raton, FL
Hyman B. Muss, MD
Director, Geriatric Oncology
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC
The GOC team is comprised of researchers, clinicians, and dedicated program managers working in tandem.
Dr. Hyman Muss is an experienced clinician-scientist, a Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and the Director of the Geriatric Oncology Program at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Program. He has a major interest and research expertise in the care of women with breast cancer and has developed and been PI of multiple clinical and translational trials. He was the lead author of a CALGB trial and seminal NEJM article that compared standard with oral chemotherapy in older women with early stage breast cancer. In addition, he has previously chaired the Breast Committee of the CALGB and currently is co-chair of the Alliance (NCI Cooperative Group) Committee on Cancer in the Elderly. He has been Medical Oncology Chair and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Conquerer Cancer Foundation. He was awarded the B.J. Kennedy Award in Geriatric Oncology by ASCO, and was awarded the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Clinical Research in 2012. He served in the US Army in Vietnam where he was awarded the Bronze Star medal. His current research focuses on geriatric oncology and breast cancer, with a special interest in breast cancer in older women.
Jim Plumb
Director, Information Technology
Lodovico Balducci, MD
Internal Medicine
Health Outcomes and Behavior Program
Cancer Chemoprevention Research Interest Group
Moffitt Cancer Center
Tampa, FL
Jim Koeller is Professor at the Center for Pharmacoeconomics Studies and holds the Eli Lilly/CR Sublett Endowed Fellowship in Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. He is Adjoint Professor of Medicine and Oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He previously worked in the Department of Human Oncology at Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, Madison, where he coordinated the Phase I Drug Development Program. Jim has published more than 250 articles, abstracts, and book chapters in the areas of oncology practice, pharmacoeconomics, new drug development, and supportive care for the cancer patient. In addition, he has made more than 500 presentations related to oncology, supportive care, pharmacoeconomics, cancer disease management, pathway development and management, and healthcare economics.
Rob is Vice President, Clinical Analytics for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). Before joining CTCA, he worked at the Amercian Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) as the Senior Director of External Relations and Business Development for CancerLinQ, and as the Senior Director of the Quality Department. He managed a staff of 36 in developing oncology quality measures, ASCO Guidelines, the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI), QOPI Certification Program, and the CancerLinQ Program. He has more than 18 years of progressively responsible experience in health economic and strategy planning services related to clinical trials development, oncology registries, EMR systems, informatics, and business development. Before joining ASCO, he was the Director of Operations and Informatics at the International Oncology Network.
He spent six years as Vice President and COO for the nonprofit Geriatric Oncology Consortium. He also spent two years with the research/consulting firm ABT Associates. While working on his doctorate, Rob had clinical responsibilities at Southwest Regional Cancer Center an Owen Heathcare (now Cardinal Healthcare.)
Rob serves on the board of directors for the Geriatric Oncology Consortium and on the advisory board of Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Healthcare. In 2010-2011, he helped shape oncology EHR use with the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology Oncology Work Group.
Dr. Extermann's work seeks to understand how general health of the older patient interacts with cancer behavior, and conduct and outcomes of their cancer treatment. She works on designing models that intertwine geriatric assessment and oncology decision tools. She has designed a model for estimating the benefit from adjuvant therapy in older breast cancer patients, adjusting for comorbidity. She has also devised an index that allows assessing the individual risk of severe toxicity from chemotherapy: the Chemotherapy Risk Assessment Scale for High-age patients (CRASH) score. She is conducting studies to explore the interaction of comorbidity with cancer behavior and treatment.
Stephen Huber, MS
Medical Director
Dr. Balducci's research focuses on cancer and aging, which has extended to three other areas: determination of life expectancy and active life expectancy, polypharmacy in older cancer patients, and support of the caregiver. In addition, Dr. Balducci has been involved in cooperative trials involving management of breast, lung, colorectal, and prostate cancer.
Dr. Cohen's research program at the Duke University School of Medicine includes research relating to aspects of the pathways to functional decline with aging, geriatric assessment, and cancer in the elderly.
Geriatric assessment approaches have been studied in a number of randomized and controlled studies and work is now concentrating on the application of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment tools to the evaluation and treatment of elderly patients with cancer. This is an extension and continuation of a long standing interest in geriatric oncology. Previous studies have elucidated age-related patterns of disease presentation, treatment approaches, clinical trials, survivorship, quality of life, impact of comorbidities and functional outcomes. Dr. Cohen is co-chair of the Cancer in the Elderly Committee of Cancer and Acute Leukemia Group B (CALGB). A number of active studies and ongoing databases are being utilized to address these questions.
Stuart Lichtman, MD, FACP, is a medical oncologist and member of the Gynecologic Oncology Disease Management team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He primarily treats gynecologic cancers but also sees solid-tumor patients with melanoma and sarcoma. He is interested in the treatment of older cancer patients and participates in the 65+ Clinical Geriatrics Program.
Dr. Lichtman is also involved in a number of research organizations including the Elderly Taskforce of the Gynecologic Group and the Cancer in the Elderly Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. He has been on the Board of Directors and served as Treasurer of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) since 2010 and has participated in multiple taskforces (Chemotherapy, Geriatric Assessment, Renal Dysfunction, Lymphoma, and Oral Chemotherapy) and as the US National Representative and Scientific Chair of the 2011 annual meeting.
Dr. Lichtman serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Geriatric Oncology, External Advisory Board of the University of Iowa Cancer Center, Governing Board Cancer, and the Kidney International Network. As a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), he has been on the Clinical Practice Committee and Scientific Program Committee and is currently in the Geriatric Oncology Special Interest Group. He has been a guest editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology on a special edition devoted to geriatric oncology in 2007 and 2014. Also in 2014, he received the ASCO B.J. Kennedy Award for Scientific Excellence in Geriatric Oncology and is the President-Elect of SIOG.
In Memorium
Dr. Morrell is board certified in internal medicine. Her specialties include internal medicine and medical oncology. She is a graduate of The Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO.
Arti Hurria, MD
1970-2018
Jim Plumb plans, implements, manages and supports all internal computer and networking technologies as well as telephone and related equipment for all full time associates. Additionally, his responsibilities include budgeting and purchasing, development of technical support documents, program management assistance, and overall facilities management.
Jim's experience in the healthcare education industry spans over 20 years, beginning in 1993 when he joined Power-Pak Publications as a marketing assistant. In 1995 he because a founding associate of Cortex Communications, Inc., where he worked as a technology assistant.
A native of Florida, Jim has also provided voiceover talent for web sites, multimedia applications, public service announcements, and private voice messaging systems.
Dr. Howard McLeod is the Medical Director for Precision Medicine at the Geriatric Oncology Consortium. He is an internationally recognized expert in pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine, having made contributions at the discovery, translation, implementation, and policy levels. He is a Professor at the University of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy. He was previously the Medical Director of the DeBartolo Family Personalized Medicine Institute at the Moffitt Cancer Center. He also chaired the Department of Individualized Cancer Management, was a Senior Member in the Department of Cancer Epidemiology, and a State of Florida Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. McLeod chaired the NHGRI eMERGE network external scientific panel for the past decade and was a recent member of both the FDA committee on Clinical Pharmacology and the NIH Human Genome Advisory Council.
Since 2002, Dr. McLeod has been vice chair for Pharmacogenomics for the major NCI clinical trials group, overseeing the largest oncology pharmacogenomics portfolio in the world. Dr. McLeod is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. Howard has published over 560 peer reviewed papers on pharmacogenomics, applied therapeutics, or clinical pharmacology and continues to work to advance individualized medicine.
