Allyson Kinzel, J.D., Named Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer

MD Anderson News Release October 31, 2019

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has named Allyson Hancock Kinzel, J.D., as senior vice president and chief legal officer, effective Nov. 1.

Kinzel takes on this important role leading legal and regulatory affairs after serving as chief legal officer since 2018. She now will report to the president and will be a member of the institution’s executive leadership team.

As senior vice president, Kinzel will oversee three legal and regulatory departments: Legal Services, Internal Audit and the Office of Institutional Compliance. Kinzel will be responsible for identifying and managing risk across the institution, leading auditing and monitoring efforts and ensuring the institution’s compliance with federal and state laws. As chief legal officer, she has guided responses to hospital-wide federal regulatory surveys, established MD Anderson’s institutional conflict of interest policy and program structure and led the institution’s response to the Office for Civil Rights regarding federal enforcement provisions.

“Throughout her time at MD Anderson, Allyson has consistently displayed strong leadership skills, including integrity, accountability, emotional intelligence and drive, and she is widely known to be an exceptional collaborator,” said Peter WT Pisters, M.D., president of MD Anderson. “In her new appointment, she will advance our institutional objectives by providing expert legal guidance. We are pleased to welcome Allyson to our executive leadership team.”

Before serving as chief legal officer, Kinzel worked for 10 years in Institutional Compliance at MD Anderson and was vice president and chief compliance and ethics officer from 2014 to 2018. Prior to coming to MD Anderson, Kinzel represented health care providers as a partner at Baker Hostetler, LLP, and as an attorney at Vinson and Elkins, LLP. She holds a bachelor’s in art history from Trinity University, and she earned her law degree at Tulane Law School, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif, an honor society for U.S. law school graduates who graduate in the top 10% of their class. She formerly was president of the Houston Bar Association’s Health Law Section.

“I am honored to be promoted to this role and to have this opportunity to further serve MD Anderson and the patients we care for,” said Kinzel. “I look forward to continuing to contribute to the institution, to growing our legal and regulatory expertise and to advancing our ambitious vision for the future of MD Anderson.”