Presenters

American Cancer Society

Cleveland Clinic

Brandie Heald Leach, MS, is a licensed genetic counselor in the Genomic Medicine Institute and Sanford R Weiss Center for Hereditary Colorectal Neoplasia at Cleveland Clinic. She has been practicing there since 2006 upon graduating from the University of Cincinnati Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling. Ms. Leach counsels patients with or at risk for hereditary cancer syndromes, with a particular interest in hereditary colorectal cancer conditions. In 2007 she established genetic counseling services within the Digestive Disease Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. She coordinates the Cleveland Clinic universal Lynch syndrome screening program and conducts research on the hamartomatous polyposis syndromes. She has served in various leadership positions within the National Society of Genetic Counselors, was on the board for Hereditary Colon Cancer Takes Guts, and is the past president of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer Council.

Memorial Sloan Kettering

Dr. Julio Garcia-Aguilar is the Chief of the Colorectal surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York. He has lectured extensively on the advances in colorectal surgery both nationally and around the world.

Dr. Garcia-Agular left his native country of Spain in 1985, after earning his medical degree and completing his surgery residency at the Complutense University in Madrid. He completed his training in general surgery at Harvard University’s Beth Israel Hospital and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He also did a clinical fellowship in colorectal surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical Center.

Medical College of Wisconsin

Mayo Clinic

Dr. Alberts, M.D., is a professor of oncology in the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and a consultant in the Division of Medical Oncology. He is also the medical director for the Clinical Research Office in the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and serves as co-chair for the pancreatic cancer subcommittee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.

Dr. Alberts also serves as a member of the National Cancer Institute-sponsored Gastrointestinal Intergroup GI Steering Committee, Pancreas Cancer Task Force, and Colon Cancer Task Force to help coordinate clinical trials through the national cooperative groups.

Dr. Alberts received his medical degree from the University of Washington. He completed his residency at Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. He also holds an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Hawaii.

University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Soulen is a professor of radiology at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency at Johns Hopkins University Hospital and a fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. His areas of interest include image-guided cancer therapy, embolization, tumor ablation and ultrasound mediated drug delivery.