VOICES FOR VICTORY
Event time: Breakfast – 8:00 – 9:30 a.m. | Program – 9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Dress Code: Business Casual
Jeans and slacks are acceptable. Men can wear sweaters or sport coats. Women can wear spring dresses, blouses and blazers.
Salamander Resort & Spa »
500 N Pendleton St.
Middleburg, VA 20117
HOSTS
Host of the Sports Panel
Terry Gannon is one of NBC Sports’ most versatile voices, serving as a play-by-play announcer and host for the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Olympic figure skating and gymnastics, as well as college basketball and other major events. Gannon was a member of the 1983 North Carolina State National Championship Basketball team. During his illustrious four-year career for Jim Valvano’s Wolfpack (1981-1985), he was a two-time Academic All-America and the school’s leading free throw shooter. In 1983, with an experimental three-point line adopted by several conferences, he was the number one three-point shooter in the nation.
Host of the Scientific Panel
Dr. Nelson is the Marion I. Knott Professor of Oncology and Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. He currently holds Professorships in oncology, medicine, pharmacology, pathology, radiation oncology, urology and environmental health sciences, as well as adjunct appointments at the Howard University School of Medicine and the Taipei Medical College.
Outside of Johns Hopkins, Nelson is a recognized leader in cancer research, organizing national and international meetings in cancer health disparities, cancer prevention and prostate cancer. He serves on the board of directors of the V Foundation and is the former chair of the V Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee. Nelson is also on the Board of the Break Through Cancer Foundation, as a Scientific Co-Chair for Stand Up 2 Cancer, and he is on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. He also works as executive editor of Cancer Today, and as a senior editor of Cancer Research and of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Owner of eleven issued patents, he is a co-founder of Digital Harmonics, Brahm Astra Therapeutics, and DH Cytoacoustics, and a board member of Armis Biopharma.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PANELISTS
Ashwani Rajput, M.D., specializes in the surgical treatment of melanoma as well as colorectal, pancreas and liver cancers. Rajput is a member of the Johns Hopkins Melanoma Program.
Rajput’s research is focused on key signal transduction regulators of cancer metastases. He is the author of numerous scientific journal articles. In addition to his clinical practice, Rajput oversees cancer services at Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Sibley Memorial Hospital and Suburban Hospital, as well as Johns Hopkins’ collaborative programs with Howard University and Unity Health that are designed to improve access for patients living in wards 7 and 8 in Washington. He is also responsible for the expansion of cancer clinical trials offered in the Great Washington Area, and the development of a laboratory research enterprise — in connection with the National Cancer Institute — focusing on bringing new treatments to patients.
Mohammad Fallahi-Sichani is currently an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA) and a core member of the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center.
His laboratory’s research goals are directed toward developing new experimental and computational tools to understand the fundamental mechanisms of human cell responses to environmental and therapeutic perturbations. In this direction, a major effort in the Fallahi-Sichani lab is focused on the understanding of mechanisms that control heterogeneous responses of tumor cells to cancer therapies and the underlying causes of therapy resistance.
Joseph Landry, Ph.D.is currently an Associate Professor of Human and Molecular Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University and a full member of the VCU Massey Cancer Center.
His research interests focus on both cancer cell epigenetics and the anti-cancer immune response. He has a long-standing research interest in studying how cancer cells manipulate chromatin structure to become invisible to the immune system. He also studies how cancer cells utilize epigenetics to achieve tolerance to chemotherapies and establish dormancy post therapy exposure. Recent research interests focus on studying how the immune system contributes to lung cancer disparities.
SPORTS PANELISTS
Curtis Strange, a Virginia native and Wake Forest University alum, is a 17-time PGA Tour winner and back-to-back U.S. Open champion (1988-89). He played golf for the Demon Deacons and was part of the NCAA Championship team that Golf World has labeled “the greatest of all time”. Strange has been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and southeastern Virginia’s Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame.
As President of the Washington Commanders, Jason Wright is responsible for leading the organization’s business divisions, including operations, finance, sales, and marketing. He is the first Black team president in the history of the NFL and currently is the youngest team president in the League. He is the fourth former NFL player to become president of a team.
Prior to joining the Washington Commanders, Jason was a partner in McKinsey & Company’s Washington DC office. He co-founded the Black Economic Institute, a research entity that analyzes the racial wealth gap, and is a prominent voice in public discussions regarding racial equity in corporate America. Jason spent seven years as a running back in the NFL and was team captain and NFLPA player representative for the Arizona Cardinals during the 2011 NFL Lockout.
