August 6, 2021

We are delighted to announce the appointments of Heather Wakelee, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division Chief of Medical Oncology, and Deputy Director of Stanford Cancer Institute, and Rondeep Brar, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in Hematology, to new roles within the Stanford Cancer Center (SCC).

Dr. Wakelee will serve as SCC’s Interim Medical Director, and Dr. Brar is being named Interim Medical Co-Director. They will begin in their respective positions on August 16 as Eben Rosenthal, MD, Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and of Radiology, transitions to his recent appointment as Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Since joining the School of Medicine faculty in 2003, Dr. Wakelee has proven herself a visionary leader, a committed mentor to dozens of trainees, and an innovative clinician-researcher who has published approximately 150 peer-reviewed articles. She is nationally recognized in the treatment of lung cancer, thymoma, and mesothelioma, with a focus on the potential of novel therapeutics. She also has extensive experience with clinical trials and translational and population science research.

Dr. Wakelee has held multiple national and international leadership roles, including with the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the ECOG-ACRN Cancer Research Group, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

Dr. Brar is an outstanding clinician and gifted scientist with extensive expertise in hematologic disorders, including anemia, clotting and bleeding disorders, and cancers of the blood. His research focuses on the advancement of personalized genomic medicine and developing targeted therapeutics for cancer therapy.

Upon completing his hematology and oncology fellowship at Stanford Medicine in 2012, Dr. Brar began building Stanford Health Care’s first combined hematology-oncology inpatient service. As the founding medical director of the Med 9 & 11 services, he has shown outstanding leadership as he oversees care for the majority of inpatient oncology and high-grade lymphoma patients. He has a successful track record of driving efficiency in the inpatient and outpatient settings.

We want to extend our deepest gratitude and best wishes to Dr. Rosenthal, who began his distinguished Stanford Medicine career in 2015. Among his many contributions to our health system, Dr. Rosenthal was instrumental in SCC earning the National Cancer Institute’s Comprehensive Cancer Center designation in 2016. We will miss his extraordinary leadership, mentorship, patient care, and scientific expertise.

A national search for a permanent Medical Director will launch soon. We are pleased that Drs. Wakelee and Brar will support this transition by accepting these interim positions. Please join us in congratulating them on their new roles and thanking them for their support.