Conflict of Interest Disclosures

• COI Review Work Group Disclosures 2021
• Faculty Disclosures
• AUA Office of Education and Office of Research Staff have nothing to disclose.

Phillip Abbosh, MD, PhD
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Assistant Professor, Molecular Therapeutics; Member, Kidney, Bladder & Prostate Cancer Translational Research Disease Group

Dr. Abbosh is a urologic oncologist and GU translational scientist. His lab focuses on the achievement and identification of the pT0 state after neoadjvuant therapy with the long-term goal of reduction for the need for radical cystectomy.

Dr. Abbosh received both his Doctor of Medicine and his Doctorate in Cellular and Integrative Physiology from Indiana University. He completed his internship in urology and residency in general surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Abbosh continued his medical training with a fellowship in urologic oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Ongoing projects focus on novel diagnostic tests to detect bladder cancer with urine tests, novel mouse models on which to develop the basis for personalized medicine trials, annotation and experimental manipulation of the human bladder cancer microbiome and immune response to chemotherapy, and development of novel intravesical therapies to replace BCG. The Abbosh lab has been funded by the Urology Care Foundation, Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, National Cancer Institute, Kidney Cancer Association, and Department of Defense.

Brian Baumann, MD
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Chief Genitourinary Service; Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology

Brian C. Baumann, MD, is an assistant professor of radiation oncology at Washington University School of Medicine. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 2003 with a degree in Art & Archaeology and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He completed post-baccalaureate premedical studies at Columbia University before receiving his MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 2012. From 2012 until 2017, Dr. Baumann completed both his Internal Medicine internship and his residency in Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. He remains a fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is passionate about patient care and improving patient outcomes through cancer research. His clinical practice and academic focus include genitourinary cancers (prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular, and penile cancers) sarcomas, proton therapy, and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT).

Dr. Baumann’s principal clinical and academic focus is genitourinary oncology and sarcomas. His research interests include comparative effectiveness and outcomes research in oncology as well as translational research involving biomarkers and novel therapeutics. Dr. Baumann is also very interested in exploring the role of proton therapy in oncology and improving the treatment options for patients with limited metastases or relapsed disease. Dr. Baumann has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and he has been invited to serve as a peer review expert for eight oncology journals.

He has published extensively about bladder cancer, and his research provided the rationale for multi-institutional clinical trials in the United States, Europe and India. His publications have helped to define optimal radiation therapy treatment regimens for advanced bladder cancer.

Joaquim Bellmunt, MD, PhD
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School
Director, Bladder Cancer Program; Associate Professor of Medicine

Professor Joaquim Bellmunt is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA, and Director of the Bladder Cancer Program at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,also in Boston, MA. As a genitourinary medical oncologist, Prof. Bellmunt has acted as principle investigator on numerous clinical trials in his specialized field; his research efforts have primarily focused on the use of immunotherapy in the treatment of genitourinary malignancies, with a growing interest in the value of implementing prospective patient data into clinical trials to improve our understanding of the underlying genetic and biological mechanisms of response and resistance. Prof. Bellmunt is a founding member and past-president of Grupo Español de Tumores Genitourinarios, and has served on the Scientific Committee at the American Society of Clinical Oncology-Genitourinary Symposium. He has published extensively in his field (with more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and more than 100 book or congress contributions to his name), and, as an active member of numerous national and international oncology associations, has been instrumental in developing treatment guidelines for the European Association of Urology, the European Society of Medical Oncology, Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica, and the US Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Carolyn J.M. Best, PhD
American Urological Association
Director of Research

Dr. Best has dedicated her 25-year career to conducting and facilitating the research and scientific discovery needed to help people live healthier and happier lives. Dr. Best joined the AUA as Director of Research in 2014. The AUA promotes the highest standards of urological clinical care through education, research, and the formulation of health care policy. Dr. Best is responsible for all programs, events, and resources of the Office of Research, a major division of the AUA that is committed to supporting urologic research through funding, advocacy, and education. She also maintains collaborative relationships with federal and non-federal funding agencies, patient advocacy groups, AUA sections and subspecialty societies, and other urologic research stakeholders. Prior to joining the AUA, Dr. Best was Program Manager of the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), a component of the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. During her 8 years of service to the CDMRP, Dr. Best received the Department of the Army Commander’s Award for Civilian Service and the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Award for Exemplary Public Service and Outstanding Leadership. Dr. Best obtained her PhD in experimental pathology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and subsequently trained at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the Laboratory of Pathology, Laboratory of Biosystems and Cancer, and the Molecular Therapeutics Program. During her training at the NCI, Dr. Best was the inaugural recipient of the Sallie Rosen Kaplan Fellowship for Women Scientists in Cancer Research.

Trinity Bivalacqua, MD, PhD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Director of Urologic Oncology, Associate Professor of Urology

Trinity J. Bivalacqua, M.D., Ph.D., is the R. Christian B. Evensen Professor of Urology and Oncology and Director of Urologic Oncology at the James Buchanan Brady Urologic Institute. He joined the Johns Hopkins Urology department after completing his General Surgery and Urology training at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also completed an American Urological Association (AUA) Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the AUA Care Foundation.

Dr. Bivalacqua has an active clinical practice in Urologic Oncology and Sexual Dysfunction. As a member of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Bivalacqua participates in multidisciplinary approaches to the treatment of a variety of genitourinary cancers. He has a special interest in cancers of the prostate and bladder with an emphasis on organ sparing therapies, minimally invasive techniques (nerve-sparing robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy) and orthotopic bladder substitution (neobladder).

A major focus of his research lab is the development of pre-clinical models of urothelial carcinoma to test systemic and intravesical immunotherapies and nano-particular based chemotherapies. Also, he heads the tissue-engineering lab which focuses on regenerative approaches to enhance autonomic nerve function and development of tissue-engineered urinary tissue with the ultimate goal of production of a neo-urinary conduit and bladder. He has recently been acknowledged for his accomplishments in research with several grants including a Career Development Award from the National Institute of Health (NIH), Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute, and the AUA “Rising Star” Award.

Peter Black, MD
University of British Columbia
Khosrowshahi Family Chair; Professor, Department of Urologic Sciences

Dr. Black is a Urologic Oncologist at Vancouver General Hospital, a Senior Research Scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre, and a Professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He completed his urologic training at the University of Washington in Seattle and fellowship in Urologic Oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He has a clinical subspecialty interest in prostate and bladder cancer and also a translational research program related primarily to bladder cancer.

Otis Webb Brawley, MD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor; Professor of Oncology

Dr. Brawley is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University. His prior appointments included chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society and director of the Georgia Cancer Center at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. At the American Cancer Society, he was responsible for promoting the goals of cancer prevention, early detection, and quality treatment through cancer research and education. He championed efforts to decrease smoking and implement other lifestyle risk reduction programs, as well as to provide critical support to cancer patients, and concentrate cancer control efforts in areas where they could be most effective.

Dr. Brawley is a graduate of the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency at University Hospitals of Cleveland, Case-Western Reserve University and a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Brawley is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and recently received the Martin D. Abeloff Award for Excellence in Public Health and Cancer Control from the Maryland State Council of Cancer Control.

Elaine Chang, MD
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Genitourinary Team, Division of Oncology 1, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research

Dr. Chang is a medical oncologist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She completed medical oncology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and subsequently joined FDA in 2018. She is a part of a team of 10 oncologists who review trial protocols, drug development proposals, expedited designation requests, and marketing applications for genitourinary malignancies. Her research has focused on novel endpoints and regulatory uses of real-world data in renal, bladder, and prostate cancer.

Stephanie Chisolm, PhD
Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network
Director of Education and Research

Dr. Chisolm is the Director of Education and Research at the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN), bringing many years of experience in urology and education for patients and health care providers. She received her PhD in Health Education/Health Promotion from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2000. She has been a university professor, a public health educator and an advocate for patients. Dr. Chisolm collaborated on patient education projects in the early years of BCAN. Now, as the Director of Education and Research, she works to help raise bladder cancer awareness in the general public and to support efforts to advance research to improve the lives of those touched by bladder cancer.

Jonathan Coleman, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medicine
Associate Professor of Urology

Dr. Coleman is a urologic surgeon with expertise in minimally invasive techniques for the treatment of kidney, adrenal, and prostate cancers. Using laparoscopic, robotic, and image-guided therapies, the goal of his team is to provide appropriate curative therapeutic interventions through the organ-sparing approaches of less-invasive surgery. Dr. Coleman's team is interested in the application and careful study of techniques such as robotic (da Vinci) prostatectomy, laparoscopic partial nephrectomy, partial adrenalectomy, cryo- and radiofrequency ablation, and MRI-guided prostate interventions using state-of-the-art instrumentation and imaging technology. He is also coupling these approaches with basic science research investigations of human cancers to discover optimal therapeutic strategies that can be tailored to each of our patients.

Dr. Coleman's research interests include patients with hereditary urologic cancer syndromes, including von Hipple-Lindau, Birt-Hogg-Dube, hereditary papillary kidney cancer, and hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer.

Manjiri Dighe, MD, MBBS
University of Washington Medical Center
Professor of Radiology; Medical Director of Ultrasound

Manjiri Dighe, M.D., is a board certified radiologist, chief of Body Imaging and director of Ultrasound at UW Medical Center and a UW professor of Radiology. Dr. Dighe especially likes to work with patients who are actively involved in their care. She also likes bringing new technology to the forefront to benefit patients.

Dr. Dighe earned her M.D. at Topiwala National Medical College in India. She is a fellow of the Society of Abdominal Radiology and Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound. In addition to body imaging, she is an expert in obstetric and thyroid imaging. Dr. Dighe conducts research on thyroid nodules using non-invasive ways to diagnose malignancy, including ultrasound elastography. She also has a long interest and expertise in obstetric imaging.

Bishoy Faltas, MD
Weill Cornell Medicine
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology; Assistant Attending, Genitourinary Oncology Division

Dr. Bishoy Morris Faltas is the Director of Bladder Cancer Research at the Englander Institute of Precision Medicine Institute at Weill-Cornell. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Cell, and Developmental Biology. He is also the Gellert Family-John P. Leonard, MD Research Scholar in Hematology and Medical Oncology.

Dr. Faltas is a physician-scientist who focuses his research and clinical practice on the urothelial carcinoma of the bladder and the upper urinary tract. His laboratory is dedicated to studying bladder cancer as a model disease for dissecting the fundamental biological mechanisms that drive the evolution of human cancers. He is investigating the role of the APOBEC3 mutagenic enzymes, which edit the genome of cancer cells. His work aims to improve the lives of bladder cancer patients by translating our discoveries to early-phase and first-in-human clinical trials. Dr. Faltas has authored several peer-reviewed publications in high impact journals including Nature Genetics and Nature Communications. He has received several awards, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) NextGen star award. He received funding from the NIH, the Department of Defense, and the STARR Cancer Consortium.

Matthew Galsky, MD
Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai
Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology; Director of Genitourinary Medical Oncology; Director of the Novel Therapeutics Unit; Co-Director of the Center of Excellence for Bladder Cancer; The Tisch Cancer Institute

Dr. Galsky is a medical oncologist focused on the care of patients with bladder cancer. He received his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and subsequently completed training in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. He completed medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center where he served as Chief Fellow. During his fellowship, Dr. Galsky was fortunate to be mentored by leaders in the field on bladder cancerresearch and treatment and after completing training, he joined the faculty at Sloan-Kettering to pursue work in this area. In 2010, he was recruited to the Tisch Cancer Institute/Mount Sinai School of Medicine as Director of Genitourinary Medical Oncology where he is currently a Professor of Medicine.

Dr. Galsky’s research has focused on the clinical development of novel therapies for bladder cancer, dissecting the clinical basis for heterogeneity in patient outcomes, and understanding the disconnect between the efficacy and effectiveness of available treatments. His current research extends these efforts to team science-based approaches focused on dissecting the mechanistic underpinnings of response and resistance to novel bladder cancer therapies with a particular focus on immunotherapeutic approaches.

Noah Hahn, MD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Associate Professor, Departments of Oncology and Urology; Director, Medical Oncology Bladder Cancer Program; Deputy Director, Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute; Johns Hopkins University Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center; The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute

Noah M. Hahn, MD, is Associate Professor of Oncology and Urology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. Before joining Johns Hopkins, Dr. Hahn was the Director of the Genitourinary Medical Oncology Program at Indiana University, the chief scientific and chief medical officer for the Hoosier Oncology Group (HOG), co-chair of the HOG genitourinary oncology clinical trials working group, and co-founder of the HOG Bladder Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium. He was an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine with an appointment in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. He attended medical school at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana where he received his MD degree in 2000. He completed a transitional year internship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in 2001. He served as an internal medicine resident at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina from 2001-2003. He returned to Indiana and received his fellowship training at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center (IUSCC) from 2003 through 2006. He joined the IUSCC clinical research faculty in July 2006 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in July 2012. He currently serves as the genitourinary medical oncology director for the IUSCC, In addition, Dr. Hahn serves on the genitourinary oncology trials steering committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Bladder Cancer Task Force. Dr. Hahn’s clinical and translational research interests focus on the: 1) The identification and validation of predictive biomarkers relevant to GU cancers, and 2) The identification of novel therapeutic and preventative targets for GU cancer patients. Dr. Hahn currently serves as the IUSCC lead investigator on multiple clinical trials of emerging prostate and bladder cancer therapeutic agents as well as novel imaging techniques.

Amir Horowitz, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Principal Investigator; Assistant Professor of Oncological Sciences; Precision Immunology Institute/Tisch Cancer Institute

Amir Horowitz, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Oncological Sciences and a member of the Precision Immunology Institute and the Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Horowitz’s work has contributed to developing an understanding of adaptive NK cells and their roles in cancers, microbial infections, and following vaccination and transplantation. He pioneered the first studies of human NK cells by mass cytometry (CyTOFTM) and demonstrated an enormous breadth of phenotypic diversity and functions associated with specific HLA class I and KIR backgrounds. This research has led to the identification and characterization of numerous NK cell subset populations with unique activity and immunotherapeutic potential. This work and related future research will address his long-term career goal of understanding how immunogenetic variation governs the development and education of NK cells and their ability to function within dynamic environments.

Max Kates, MD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Director, Bladder Cancer Program; Assistant Professor of Urology

Dr. Max Kates is an Assistant Professor of Urology and Oncology in the Brady Urological Institute. Dr. Kates received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. During that time he completed a Doris Duke clinical research fellowship in Urologic Oncology at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Kates has expertise in all areas of urologic oncology, including prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular, and genital cancers. With training in open, laparoscopic, and robotic surgical approaches, Dr. Kates’ surgical philosophy is to assess the unique needs of each patient, and develop the right treatment plan for their malignancy. He is very hands on in his approach in the clinic and the operating room, and believes open communication with the patient, the patient’s family, and referring providers is key to ensuring a speedy recovery. As the clinical director of the bladder cancer multidisciplinary clinic, Dr. Kates works with the team at the Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute to deliver a personalized approach to bladder cancer utilizing cutting edge precision medicine approaches.

Dr. Kates’ research interest parallel his clinical practice, with an emphasis on novel treatments for cancers of the urinary tract. He has a particular interest in developing novel therapies for bladder cancer, and currently has a provisional patent for a novel intravesical chemotherapy he developed with nano-engineer collaborators. Additionally, Dr. Kates has made important discoveries into the mechanism of action of intravesical BCG, the most common treatment for bladder cancer. Dr. Kates has authored more than 70 journal articles in the fields of bladder, prostate, and kidney cancer. He has won numerous awards, including the American Urologic Association (AUA) Russell Scott Award, best poster awards from the society of urologic oncology and AUA, and best reviewer from the journal Urologic Oncology.

Seth Lerner, MD
Baylor College of Medicine
Professor of Urology; Beth and Dave Swalm Chair in Urologic Oncology; Director of Urologic Oncology; Director of the Multidisciplinary Bladder Cancer Program

Seth P. Lerner, M.D., is Professor of Urology and holds the Beth and Dave Swalm Chair in Urologic Oncology and is Vice-chair for faculty affairs in the Scott Department of Urology, Baylor College of Medicine. He earned his M.D. degree from Baylor College of Medicine and completed two years of General Surgery training at Virginia Mason Clinic in Seattle before returning to Baylor to complete his residency training in Urology. After a one-year AFUD/National Kidney Foundation fellowship and a one-year American Cancer Society fellowship in urologic oncology at the University of Southern California, he returned to Houston in 1992 to join the faculty of the Scott Department of Urology.

Scholar and teacher, author of more than 210 peer-reviewed articles, and co-editor of a widely used comprehensive Textbook of Bladder Cancer, Dr. Lerner is an active member of the prestigious American Association of Genitourinary surgeons and is listed routinely among “America’s Top Doctors” and “Best Doctors in America.” He is co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Genitourinary Cancer Steering Committee and bladder cancer disease working group for The Cancer Genome Atlas Project. He chairs the Local Bladder Committee of SWOG and serves on the Board of Directors for the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network. He is active in international CME programs for the AUA, SUO, and ASCO and has served as Visiting Professor in places as varied as China, Australia, Germany, Korea, and Turkey. He is the founding co-editor-in-chief of the Bladder Cancer Journal and directs the Multi-disciplinary bladder cancer research program at Baylor. His research interests include use of selective estrogen receptor modulators for treatment of bladder cancer, gene therapy, targeted molecular therapeutics, and outcomes of radical cystectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy. He has 28 years of experience as a clinical investigator for both NCI and industry funded clinical trials and currently serves as principle investigator for multiple clinical trials related to bladder cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Yair Lotan, MD
UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Professor and Chief of Urologic Oncology; Jane and John Justin Distinguished Chair in Urology, In Honor of Claus G. Roehrborn, MD; Department of Urology

Yair Lotan, M.D., is Professor of Urology, Chief of Urologic Oncology, the Jane and John Justin Distinguished Chair in Urology, In Honor of Claus G. Roehrborn, M.D.and holder of the Helen J. and Robert S. Strauss Professorship in Urology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He is also the Medical Director of the Urology Clinic at UT Southwestern and Parkland Health and Hospital System. He was class valedictorian in high school and graduated with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He trained in general surgery and urology at UT Southwestern and joined the faculty in 2003.

As a Professor of the Department of Urology at UT Southwestern, his practice focuses on oncology and endourology. His research is focused on the areas of bladder cancer screening, biomarkers, decision analysis, and health economics. He has participated in multiple collaborative studies involving early detection of bladder cancer. The goal is to improve diagnosis and management of bladder cancer as well as identify patients at risk for recurrence and progression. He is a co-investigator on several NIH funded trials evaluating urine-based tumor markers. He is the PI on several investigator-initiated studies evaluating the role of urine and tissue markers in the management of bladder cancer. He has also been involved in writing guidelines for the management of bladder cancer and chairing meetings focused on bladder cancer. He published over 450 peer-reviewed papers and multiple reviews and book chapters. Dr. Lotan is the co-chair of the NCI designated Simmon’s Cancer Center disease-oriented team for urologic cancers, UT Southwestern’s Clinical Research Planning Group, Tissue Bank Steering, and cancer committees. He is a frequent guest speaker at medical conferences around the world and belongs to numerous professional organizations, including the American Urological Association, Society of Urologic Oncology, and the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network. He also serves as editorial reviewer for medical periodicals such as the Journal of Urology, European Urology, Cancer, Urologic Oncology, and the British Journal of Urology International.

Vitaly Margulis, MD
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Professor of Urology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center

Vitaly Margulis, M.D., Professor of Urology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and UT Southwestern Medical School. He trained in the urology residency program at UT Southwestern and completed a fellowship in urologic oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he was previously a Clinical Specialist in Urologic Oncology. He joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2009. Dr. Margulis uses minimally invasive techniques to treat patients with soft-tissue tumors and kidney, prostate, bladder, testicular, penile, and adrenal cancers. His research projects include clinical and lab research focused on the biology of kidney cancer, the genetic changes that occur and cause it to spread, and how to stop it. Dr. Margulis serves as Co-Leader for Project 3 - Renal Cell Carcinoma Metabolomics: Identifying Clinically Actionable Biomarkers from Metabolic Reprogramming – to carry out a prospective clinical study in patients with incidentally-diagnosed small renal masses to identify biomarkers that may predict aggressive growth. The study involves multi-parametric MR imaging approaches, coupled with metabolomics of tissue, blood and urine. Dr. Margulis travels frequently to lecture on urologic care and procedures. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the Society of Urologic Oncology, Endourologic Society, American Urological Association, American Medical Association, Texas Medical Association, Texas Urologic Association, Dallas County Medical Society, and Harris County Medical Society.

He has authored several book chapters and published research in a variety of medical journals, including the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Urologic Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Oncogene, Cancer, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Urology, Journal of Urology, and British Journal of Urology. He also serves as a reviewer for those publications.

Surena Matin, MD
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Professor, Department of Urology, Division of Surgery

Dr. Surena F. Matin is the Monteleone Family Foundation Professor in the Department of Urology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas. He attended Old Dominion University on a full scholarship, and obtained his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College. He then went to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation for his internship, urology residency, research fellowship under a scholarship from the American Foundation of Urologic Disease (now known as the AUA Foundation), and finally a clinical fellowship in minimally invasive surgery. He has an active clinical practice treating patients with renal cell carcinoma and upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) in a multidisciplinary setting. His primary research efforts are based on clinical research in these 2 disease states, with a focus on UTUC translational, clinical outcome, and clinical trial avenues of research. He also has an appointment in the Division of Surgery as Medical Director of the Minimally Invasive New Technology in Oncologic Surgery (MINTOS) Collaborative Program which administers the robotic surgery program and organizes multidisciplinary courses for surgical trainees at no cost to the institution.

David McConkey, PhD
Director, Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute
The Erwin and Stephanie Greenberg Professor of Urology; Professor, Department of Urology; The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute

Dr. David J. McConkey is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute. Prior to taking this position he was a Professor of Urology and Cancer Biology, Director for Urological Research, and Deputy Division Head for Research (Surgery) at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. McConkey was born in Buffalo, New York but moved to Minneapolis soon afterward. He received his BA in Biochemistry and American History from Brown University and his PhD from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He performed postdoctoral studies in immunobiology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before accepting a tenure-track position at MD Anderson in 1993. He has been studying the biochemistry and molecular regulation of apoptosis since he was a graduate student, but more recently his work has focused on translational cancer research and the mechanisms of action of experimental therapeutics, particularly inhibitors of the proteasome and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL). Dr. McConkey has published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is a Project Leader on two Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grants (in bladder and pancreatic cancer). Dr. McConkey is on the editorial boards of Clinical Cancer Research and the Journal of Biological Chemistry and serves as a regular member of peer review panels for NCI and the Damon-Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. He is a member of several professional organizations including the American Urological Association, the Society for Basic Urological Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and he is co-chair for translational research in the genitourinary tumors subgroup of the Southwest Oncology Group.

Aria F. Olumi, MD
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School
Chief of Urologic Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Janet & William DeWolf Professor of Urologic Surgery; AUA Chair of Research

Dr. Olumi serves as the Chair of Research for the American Urological Association. A physician scientist, Dr. Olumi is the Chief of Urologic Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center & Janet and William DeWolf endowed Professor at Harvard Medical School. His clinical activities are focused on urologic oncology and surgical management of kidney, bladder and prostate cancer. Previously, he served as the Residency Program Director at Massachusetts General Hospital and the director of the Combined Harvard Urologic Oncology Fellowship Program.

Dr. Olumi’s NIH-funded laboratory is focused on providing personalized care for prostatic diseases. His lab has learned that the 5-alpha reductase 2 gene, an important gene that is responsible for normal prostatic development and growth, and a target of the commonly used 5-alpha reductase inhibitors (finasteride or dutasteride), is not expressed in 30% of adult men. His lab has defined the epigenetic mechanism that leads to variable expression of the gene in adult prostates. Their findings have broad implications that can explain the variable growth patterns of the prostate gland and the reason for resistance to the therapeutic effects of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors.

As Chair of the AUA Research Council, Dr. Olumi’s goal is to enhance the research activities for the urologic community and increase the educated workforce of urologic researchers who can effectively study urologic diseases with the ultimate goal of reducing burden of disease for our patients. Through advocacy, education and promotion of grant funding mechanisms for new and established investigators, the AUA is hard at work for its constituents, and he feels privileged to be part of that mission.

Adam Palmer, PhD
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology

Adam Palmer is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a member of the Computational Medicine Program and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Adam received his Ph.D. in Systems Biology at Harvard University for research on antibiotic resistance with Prof. Roy Kishony, and trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Systems Pharmacology with Prof. Peter Sorger at Harvard Medical School.

The Palmer laboratory investigates the mechanistic basis for the clinical efficacy of combinations of cancer therapies, using experiments, computation, and theory. Particular interests in Adam’s group are the clinical implications of inter-patient and intra-tumor heterogeneity, understanding and optimizing curative regimens for aggressive lymphomas, and predicting the clinical activity of novel combination therapies. Recently, Adam devised a computational method that accurately predicted the efficacy in clinical trials of nearly all FDA-approved combinations of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors with other forms of cancer therapy, using clinical monotherapy response data as inputs.

Sima Porten, MD, MPH
University of California, San Francisco
Associate Professor, Department of Urology, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Sima Porten received her undergraduate, doctoral and public health degrees from Northwestern University completing her education in June 2006. She was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society during medical school and also completed a Howard Hughes Medical Institute-NIH Research Scholars fellowship during that time. She then completed her urology residency training at the University of California, San Francisco where she received the Julius R. Krevans Award for Clinical Excellence. She then completed her Urologic Oncology Fellowship at The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center. During her fellowship, she was awarded the John Quale Travel Fellowship for her research in Bladder Cancer. Currently, she is part of the multidisciplinary urologic oncology team of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center where she continues to pursue her clinical and research interests in bladder cancer, upper tract urothelial cancer, and high-risk prostate cancer. Dr. Porten’s clinical interests include the diagnosis and treatment of genitourinary malignancy, including minimally invasive approaches to cancer treatment. She is an active member of the American Urological Association (AUA), American Society of Clinical Oncology, Society of Women in Urology, and the Society of Urologic Oncology.

Dr. Porten’s research interests focus mainly in the diagnosis and management of urothelial carcinoma (bladder and upper tract). In studying the biologic basis of urothelial carcinoma using genomic techniques, Dr. Porten hopes to develop new tests and novel therapeutics to bring personalized medicine to patients with bladder cancer.

Sarah Psutka, MD, MSc
University of Washington School of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Urology

Sarah Psutka MD, MSc is a urologic oncologist and Assistant Professor of Urology at the University of Washington. She received her AB in Biology from Harvard College and her MD from Harvard Medical School. She then completed an internship in General Surgery and Residency in Urology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. During this time, she completed the Clinical Effectiveness Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health. She subsequently completed a Society of Urologic Oncology Fellowship in Urologic Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, and concurrently obtained her Masters in Clinical and Translational Science from the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education. She joined the staff of Cook County Hospital in Chicago where she served as the Director of Urologic Oncology. During this time, Dr. Psutka also was named Assistant Professor of Urology at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. In 2018, she was recruited to join the faculty of the University of Washington, where she is an Assistant Professor. Her clinical practice is focused on the treatment of bladder, renal cell, and testis cancers. From a research standpoint, her main area of interest is in the study and development of personalized, comprehensive risk stratification measures in patients with urologic malignancies, particularly bladder cancer. She is focused on developing comprehensive risk stratification programs that will help patients better choose the optimal therapy for them, with the goal of not only improving personalized oncologic outcomes, but also patient-reported outcomes such as quality of life.

John Sfakianos, MD
Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai
Assistant Professor of Urology and Urologic Oncology

John Sfakianos, MD, is Assistant Professor of Urology and Urologic Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His clinical focus includes treating patients with urothelial cancers of the upper urinary tract and bladder. He offers patients treatment options through his expertise in treating urologic conditions using open, laparoscopic and robotic techniques. He performs both robotic and open nephroureterectomies, partial cystectomies and cystectomies and forms urinary diversions including ileal conduits, continent catherizable pouches, and continent urinary diversions (ileal neobladder). His clinical interests and skills also include surgical treatment of patients with kidney, prostate, testicular and penile cancers.

Dr. Sfakianos is a firm believer in a multidisciplinary approach to cancer care. He works closely with his colleagues in medical oncology and radiation oncology to provide a customized, integrated and innovative approach to treatment of patients with urologic cancers. His research focuses on the approach to treating urothelial and prostate cancers in personalized medicine, including genomic analyses of tumors, to predict risk and response to therapy. In laboratory research, he is using mouse models in prostate and bladder cancer to identify novel treatments. Dr. Sfakianos has published over 20 research articles in peer-reviewed publications, written book chapters on urothelial carcinoma and is a reviewer for the Journal of Urology and Urologic Oncology.

Dr. Sfakianos received his medical degree from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Buffalo and completed his internship and residency at the State University of New York at Downstate Medical Center. He went on to complete a fellowship in Urologic Oncology accredited by the Society of Urologic Oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Angela Smith, MD, MS
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Associate Professor of Urology; Vice Chair of Academic Affairs; Director of Urologic Oncology; UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

Angela Smith received her medical degree and Masters of Science in Clinical Research from the University of North Carolina, where she also completed her urology residency. She is the Director of Urologic Oncology at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center where she treats GU malignancies, including bladder, prostate and kidney cancer.

Dr. Smith has a background in health services research and biostatistics with particular interests in patient-centered outcomes research, risk stratification, and quality of care for invasive bladder cancer. She is the co-PI for a PCORI large pragmatic trial in BCG refractory bladder cancer, PI for a PCORI Engagement Award with the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network to engage patients in the research process, and has been funded by an AHRQ K08 grant that integrates patient-reported outcomes into post-cystectomy care through mobile health technology. She has previously served on the PCORI Advisory Panel for the Assessment of Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment Options, representing clinicians. Dr. Smith also serves as the Assistant Secretary of the American Urological Association and is on the AUA Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Committee, Scientific Advisory Board for the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, Journal of Urology Editorial Board, and chair of the Urology Care Foundation Bladder Health Committee.

Robert Svatek, MD
UT Health San Antonio
Professor and Chair, Department of Urology

Dr. Robert Svatek was born and raised in Wharton, a small town approximately 60 miles southwest of Houston in the gulf coast region of Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin for undergraduate training and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for medical school. He then completed his urology residency training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Following residency, he completed a 3-year fellowship in urologic oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. While there, he also earned his master of science in clinical research investigation at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Center for Clinical Research and Evidence-Based Medicine. He was then recruited to the department of urology at UT Health San Antonio in 2010, to build a bladder cancer center of excellence.

Dr. Svatek is recognized nationally as an expert in the management of superficial and advanced bladder cancer. Treatment of superficial bladder cancer requires careful, meticulous detail and adherence to surveillance regimens. It requires diligence in the administration of proper standardized therapy, but treatment regimens must also be individualized. Expertise in the management of advanced bladder cancer requires proper timing and coordination of multiple treatment modalities available to treat the disease including surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Thus, Dr. Svatek works closely with other subspecialists to provide the optimal therapy for patients.

Dr. Svatek is one of the top five highest-volume bladder cancer surgeons in the United States, performing over 60 bladder removal procedures (cystectomies) yearly. He provides state-of-the-art surgical options, including robotic-assisted and open approaches, as well as all available urinary diversion options, including ileal conduit and continent diversions (Indiana pouch and neobladder). Dr. Svatek has developed a collaborative care pathway here in San Antonio with exceptional precision in the pre-operative and post-operative management of patients. Dr. Svatek aims to provide the people of south and southwest Texas with the highest level of expertise and compassionate care.

Dr. Robert Svatek is a surgeon-scientist with clinical expertise in early and late-phase clinical trials and urologic cancers. His laboratory expertise is in cancer immunology with an emphasis on understanding the immunopathologic basis of urothelial carcinoma and development of novel immunotherapeutic agents. Research conducted in his lab is rapidly translated into novel clinical trials. Current projects include chemokine signaling mechanisms driving bladder cancer growth and response to immunotherapy, role of innate immune cells including natural killer cells and gamma delta T cells in tumor immunology, significance of regulatory T cells in bladder cancer pathology, and mechanisms underlying BCG immunotherapy.

Jennifer Taylor, MD, MPH
Baylor College of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Urology

Dr. Taylor is an Assistant Professor of Urology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She also serves as the Director of Preclinical and Clinical Urology Courses for medical students and is a member of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor. She currently practices urologic oncology at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. Dr. Taylor received her undergraduate education from Barnard College in New York City. She went on to earn her MD from the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, and completed a fellowship in urologic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She also earned an MPH from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston. Dr. Taylor is involved in clinical research in multiple GU malignancies, with a focus on bladder cancer, as well as research in medical education. Dr. Taylor is involved in the national medical community and is a member of the American Urological Association, the Society of Urologic Oncology, the Society of Women in Urology, and the American College of Surgeons.

Chana Weinstock, MD
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Team Leader, Genitourinary Cancers Team, Division of Oncology I; Attending Oncologist, Baltimore VA Medical Center

Chana Weinstock, MD is a medical oncologist and hematologist who has been a genitourinary oncology team lead at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 2017, where she leads a team of oncologists in the review and approval of cancer drugs. She graduated with high distinction from the University of Toronto before completing her medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Medical Center and her medical oncology and hematology fellowship at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She then practiced thoracic and genitourinary oncology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and at the Baltimore Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center; she remains on staff at the Baltimore VA.

Her original oncology research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of Urology, and Clinical Cancer Research, and she has presented at national meetings including ASCO, ASTRO, RSNA, SABCS, and CAMO, including oral presentations at ASCO, ASCO’s GU symposium, and at ASTRO workshops. She serves as the current track leader of ASCO’s GU oncology kidney and bladder cancer educational committee, on the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) Annual Meeting planning committee, as an FDA observer on the National Cancer Institute NCTN Scientific Steering Committee in Genitourinary Oncology, and has presented before the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. She has recently been involved in organizing several workshops on clinical trial design and endpoint definition in genitourinary oncology. She is also a founding vice president of the Jewish Orthodox Women’s Medical Association and is active in mentorship for those aspiring to careers in medicine.