Director, Eppley Institute, Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center

Joann B. Sweasy, PhD, an internationally recognized comprehensive cancer center director and an expert in the genetics, cell biology and biochemistry of DNA repair, serves as director of the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases and the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.

She previously served as director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson. As UACC director, she led the center to renewal of its National Cancer Institute-Comprehensive designation in 2022.

Dr. Sweasy is a member of the NCI-subcommittee A, the panel that reviews all NCI cancer centers, and is vice president/president-elect of the American Association of Cancer Institutes.

Her research has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health since 1994 for her research on the genetics, cell biology and biochemistry of DNA repair and the roles of aberrant DNA repair in cancer and autoimmunity. For this work, she was awarded the 2016 Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society Award, as well as many other national awards and recognitions.

Dr. Sweasy earned her bachelor’s degree from Arcadia University and her doctoral degree from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Dr. Sweasy was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington. She then was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, eventually earning tenure and serving as vice chair of the department and the Ensign Professor of Therapeutic Radiology. Dr. Sweasy joined the University of Arizona Cancer Center as director in 2019.