Academic Mentoring Council
At MD Anderson, we believe mentorship is pillar of academic and professional success. Whether it's given or received, we recognize effective mentoring is not an innate ability but rather a skill that is cultivated through intentional and evidence-based support.
Our Academic Mentoring Council works to advance the practice, education, application, and recognition of academic mentorship at MD Anderson through an all-encompassing lens. The council leads several interprofessional initiatives across the institution to achieve these goals.
Mentoring Resources
The council is responsible for assessing the needs of our faculty and trainees and creating education courses and pilot programs to cultivate those mentoring skills and competencies. It also is working to maintain a robust hub of mentoring resources for faculty, trainees and staff to reference as they explore or expound on mentoring topics related to navigating careers, scholarship development, grant writing, etc.
Advocacy & Recognition
The Academic Mentoring Council works to elevate the role of mentoring across the institution and foster a culture where mentoring is both recognized and rewarded. The council sponsors the institution's Distinguished Mentoring Faculty Award, which recognizes and celebrates exemplary faculty mentors, and leads other initiatives to further substantiate the importance and impact of mentoring across the academic community.
Our Academic Mentoring Council
About the council
The Academic Mentoring Council comprises representative faculty, staff and trainees from across the institution, including research and clinical areas, MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Graduate Medical Education, postdoctoral research, Leadership Institute, the School of Health Professions and Human Resources.
The council is sponsored by Carin Hagberg, M.D., Chief Academic Officer; Diane Bodurka, M.D., Chief Education & Training Officer; and Julie Izzo, M.D., Executive Director, HR Faculty & Academic Professorships; it also has two operational dyads: Suezen Salinas, Program Manager, Education & Training and Michelle Hildebrandt, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Lymphoma & Myeloma.
Executive Committee
Carin Hagberg, M.D.
Chief Academic Officer
Diane Bodurka, M.D.
Vice President and Chief Education & Training Officer
Julie Izzo, M.D.
Executive Director, HR Faculty & Academic Partnerships
Michelle Hildebrandt, Ph.D., Leadership Dyad - Associate Professor, Lymphoma/Myeloma
Suezen Salinas, Leadership Dyad - Program Manager, Education & Training
Anne Tsao, M.D., VP, Academic Affairs
Christopher Flowers, M.D., Division Head, Cancer Medicine, Chair, Lymphoma/Myeloma
Liz Travis, Ph.D., Professor, Experimental Radiation Oncology
Robert Bast, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Experimental Therapeutics
Mark Chambers, D.M.D., Professor, Head & Neck Surgery
Dimitrios Kontoyiannis, M.D., Professor, Infectious Diseases
Ching-Wei Tzeng, M.D., Associate Professor, Surgery
Ann Killary, Ph.D., Professor, Translational Molecular Pathology
Courtney Holladay, Ph.D., AVP, Leadership Institute
Paolo Mangahas, Ph.D., Director, Education & Training
Raquel Salinas, Ph.D., Director, Student Affairs & Career Development, GSBS
Pam Sharma, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, GU Medical Oncology
Working Groups
Michelle Hildebrandt, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Lymphoma/Myeloma
Suezen Salinas, Program Manager, Education & Training
Ashley Aaroe, M.D., Assistant Professor, Neuro-oncology
Bhargavi Brahmendra Barathi, GSBS Association of Minority Biomedical Researchers
Clifton Dave Fuller, M.D., Professor, Radiation Oncology
Didem Ağaç Çobanoğlu, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Association Executive Committee co-Chair
Dimitrios Kontoyiannis, M.D., Professor, Infectious Diseases
George Eisenhoffer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Genetics
Jessica McCann, Leadership Institute
Jillian Gunther, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Jolyn Taylor, M.D., Assistant Professor, Gynecology Oncology
Mary Zavala, M.D., Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Julianne Pollard-Larkin, M.D., Associate Professor, Radiation Physics
Priti Tewari, M.D., Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Melody Becnel, M.D., Assistant Professor, Lymphoma/Myeloma
Monica Wattana, M.D., Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Noha Abdelwahab Hassan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, General Internal Medicine - Research
Eleanor Fallon, M.D., Surgical Oncology Fellow
Scherezade Mama, Dr.PH., Assistant Professor, Health Disparities Research
Suhendan Ekmekcioglu, Ph.D., Professor, Melanoma Medical Oncology
Timothy Yap, MBBS, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics
Yuan Pan, Ph.D., Assitant Professor, Symptoms Research