Third finalist for cancer center director on campus Aug. 8

Joann Sweasy, PhD

A finalist in UNMC’s search for the new director of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer will be on campus Tuesday, Aug. 8.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to hear from Joann Sweasy, PhD, director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, Arizona, during an open campus forum Tuesday. The forum will be from noon to 12:45 p.m. in in the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, Room 0.12101, and also be available via Zoom. Attendees can access the Zoom link via this intranet page and ask questions during the forum.

Dr. Sweasy also serves as a member of the National Cancer Institute-subcommittee A, the panel that reviews all NCI cancer centers, and is a member of the board of directors of the American Association of Cancer Institutes. She is a tenured professor in the departments of cellular and molecular medicine, chemistry and biochemistry, and radiation oncology at the University of Arizona.

As UACC director, Dr. Sweasy led the center to renewal of its NCI-Comprehensive designation in 2022. She continuously has been funded 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.

Find candidate bios and the dates/times for each campus presentation

During each campus visit, candidates will meet with campus and community stakeholders, as well as participate in an open campus presentation, in which they will make an introduction to the UNMC community, share their vision for the cancer center and institute and answer questions from participants. 

Zoom links for each candidate’s presentation will be available via the finalist intranet page; links will be added on the day of their visit.

Provide feedback on Dr. Sweasy’s presentation via a confidential survey form that will be added to the search webpage as finalists are introduced to the UNMC community.

The candidate selected will succeed Ken Cowan, MD, PhD, who will step down from his roles but remain a full-time faculty member and continue to see patients. Dr. Cowan joined the medical center in 1999 and, in 2021, led the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center to a successful renewal of its National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant.