Guest Speakers
Scott Hamilton
Scott Scovell Hamilton is a retired American figure skater and Olympic gold medalist. He won four consecutive U.S. championships, four consecutive World Championships, and a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. Scott has also received many awards and honors including an Emmy Award nomination, introduction into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and is a privileged member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
In 1984, Scott captured the attention of the world with his Olympic Gold medal performances in Sarajevo and since has shared his love and enthusiasm for the sport as an analyst/commentator, performer, producer and best-selling author (Landing It, 1999, the Great Eight, 2009). He further inspires others as a speaker humanitarian, and as a cancer and pituitary brain tumor survivor.
After losing his mother to cancer, then becoming a survivor himself, Scott turned activist, launching the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation (Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship). He has founded several education and survivorship programs including Chemocare.com and the Angel Mentoring Program. Events such as Sk8 50 Elimin8 Cancer and An Evening with Scott Hamilton & Friends galas fund research into treatments that treat the cancer and spare the patient.
Douglas B. Johnson, MD, MSCI
Douglas Johnson, MD, MSCI received his MD from the University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed internal medicine residency at Duke University before coming to Vanderbilt for hematology/oncology fellowship. He has been on faculty at Vanderbilt since 2014 as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and is now the director of the melanoma clinical and research program.
Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on optimizing and extending the use of novel immune and targeted therapies in melanoma, to identify markers of response and resistance, to understand and more effectively manage the side effects of these new therapies, and to develop new treatment options for melanoma. He is the local and national principal investigator for numerous clinical trials and his research is funded by individual philanthropy, National Cancer Institute, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and the Melanoma Research Foundation. He also has national leadership positions, including membership in the NCCN Melanoma Guidelines Committee.
Steven J. Kovach, III, MD
Dr. Kovach is Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Presbyterian Medical Center of Philadelphia, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Co-Director of Penn Hernia Center, and Member and Co-director of the Penn Orthoplastic Limb Salvage Center.
He is also an attending surgeon in the Hand Transplantation Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Combining the expertise of the Penn Transplant Institute and the Hospital’s Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Division of Orthopedics, the Hand Transplantation program aims to help children who have undergone unilateral or bilateral amputation of arms or hands to regain function and independence. Hand transplantation, or vascularized composite allotransplantation, is a rare procedure performed by only a few surgical teams around the world.
Prior to joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty, Dr. Kovach completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and medical school at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. He completed his general surgery training and basic science research fellowship at the University of Rochester Medical Center and is board-certified in General Surgery. Dr. Kovach went on to complete his plastic surgery training at Duke University Medical Center.
Jason G. Newman, MD
Dr. Newman serves as Co-Director of the Cranial Base Center and Director or Head & Neck Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital, as well as Associate Professor of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Hospital.
Dr. Newman received his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University Medical School and completed residencies in otolaryngology at Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital, New York Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Following residency, Dr. Newman completed his fellowship in Head and Neck Surgery/Oncology and Microvascular Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
His areas of expertise include head and neck cancer surgery, anterior cranial base surgery and thyroid surgery with special interest in minimally invasive approaches and endoscopic cranial base surgery. His expertise in the treatment of cranial base tumors as well as tumors of the head and neck makes him uniquely qualified to treat patients with these ailments. Dr. Newman also is actively involved in research focused on head and neck cancer clinical trials, injectable cytokines for head and neck cancer, and quality of life for head and neck cancer and cranial base patients.
Kenneth B. Niermann, MD
Dr. Niermann received his medical degree and Master of Science in Clinical Investigation from Vanderbilt University, and did his post-Doctoral Fellowship in Cancer Imaging at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science.
As a graduate of the post-doctoral fellowship in cancer imaging at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Dr. Niermann is currently conducting phase I clinical research for radiosensitizing biologic agents administered concurrently with radiation therapy. His research interests include using novel imaging techniques to quantify treatment response.
