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Paul J Hesketh, MD, FASCO Paul J Hesketh, MD, FASCO, wears many hats – among them Director of the Lahey Health Cancer Institute, Director of the Sophia Gordon Cancer Center, Director of Thoracic Oncology at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. But as an oncologist, his role as a provider is a special one. “Cancer care is an area of extraordinary advances,” he says. “It’s gratifying to develop patient relationships and to be able to offer hope and opportunities. Cancer is not always curable, but we are increasingly making cancer a chronic disease that people are living with, and with a good quality of life.” Dr. Hesketh has a broad interest in research, with a particular focus on new treatment approaches for lung cancer and support for patients who are living with cancer. Even for people with stage 4 cancer, who in the past may have had just months to live, exciting new treatment options are extending their lives by years. “Cancer is not a single disease, but rather hundreds of diseases that are genetically different,” he explains. “We now have specific therapies to put many of these diseases into remission and keep them there for a number of years.” Dr. Hesketh holds leadership roles on various national committees dedicated to improving cancer survival and establishing treatment guidelines for cancer specialists. He, has lectured nationally and internationally, and has authored more than 225 scientific manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters. He also serves as a member of the leadership team of the Lung Committee of SWOG, a nationwide clinical trials group sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, and is the Principal Investigator for SWOG at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center. What he especially enjoys about his work at Lahey, he says, is the ability to offer patients the best of both worlds – personal attention from experienced community-based providers, along with access to national and worldwide clinical trials and connections to some of the top minds in the field of oncology. “At Lahey our patients benefit from our clinical model, where they are cared for by experienced physicians who are employed by the same health system and are connected to each other,” he points out. “So our patients have access to any area of medicine they may need in a timely fashion and to physicians who work collegially toward a common goal.” Dr. Hesketh’s interest in oncology was sparked in his fourth year of medical school, when he recognized the impact he could have on the lives of others while using a broad range of skills as a physician. He is sometimes asked why he focused on an area of medicine where lives are threatened or lost. “Obviously it’s very sad at times, and you need to be appropriately honest with people,” he says. “But it also can be extraordinarily gratifying, such as when you do an analysis of someone’s type of cancer and find a specific mutation that we can target.” Recent insight into the role of the body’s immune system has led to new biologic therapies which, instead of targeting the cancer cells, target the immune system to attack cancer directly. These types of therapies tend to have fewer side effects and are less likely to impact a person’s quality of life as they go through treatment. In fact, there has been so much success in retraining and recalibrating patients’ immune system, he says, that with many people with previously incurable cancer surviving for so much longer, “we’re wondering whether some of them could be considered cured.” |
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Barbara L. Jones, Ph.D., MSW University Distinguished Teaching Professor Josleen and Frances Lockhart Memorial Professor of Direct Practice in Social Work Dr. Barbara Jones is University Distinguished Teaching Professor and The Josleen and Frances Lockhart Memorial Professor of Direct Social Work Practice at the University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She is also Associate Dean for Health Affairs at the School and Co-Director of the Institute for Collaborative Health Research and Practice. At Dell Medical School, she has appointments as Chair of the Social Work Department, Associate Director of Social Sciences and Community Based Research at the LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes and Professor of Oncology, Population Health and Psychiatry. She is a Founding Steering Committee Member of the UT Austin Center for Health Interprofessional Practice and Education (IPE). Dr. Jones is a Distinguished Scholar and Fellow of the National Academies of Practice and immediate past Vice-Chair of the Social Work Academy. She is the Past President of APOSW and 2013 APOSW Social Worker of the Year. Dr. Jones was co-investigator on ExCEL in Social Work, an NCI-funded project to train oncology social workers, for which she received the 2014 APOS Outstanding Training and Education Award. She is a PDIA Social Work Scholar, and recipient of the PDIA Social Work Leadership Award. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholars Leadership Program, on the National Pediatric Palliative Care Research Network and on the Board of the Social Work in Hospice and Palliative Care Network. Dr. Jones’ research focuses on improving care for children, adolescents and young adults with cancer and their families. Her current research focuses on palliative care, pediatric oncology social work interventions, and adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors. Her work has been funded by National Institutes of Health, Palliative Care Research Network, Seton Healthcare System, Texas State Department of Health and various foundations resulting in publications in top tier journals, including Pediatrics, Cancer, Pediatric Blood and Cancer, andJournal of Cancer Survivorship. Dr. Jones is a previous Associate Editor of the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology. |
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Linton T. Evans, MD Assistant Professor of Surgery, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Dr. Evans is a neurosurgical oncologist who strives to provide technically advanced and tailored care to patients with brain and spine tumors. Dr. Evans MD, received his medical degree from Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, completing his neurosurgery residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and his neurosurgical oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. |
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Deborah L. Ornstein, MD, MS Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center |
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Nicole Messier, BSN, RN, OCN, ONN-CG University of Vermont Medical Center Nicole is the Clinical Program Coordinator/Nurse Navigator for the Upper and Lower Gastrointestinal (GI) and Genitourinary (GU) Multidisciplinary Care Cancer Clinics at The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, VT. Nicole graduated from the University of Vermont in 1998 with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Nursing and since then has worked as an oncology nurse at The University of Vermont Medical Center in a variety of roles, including staff nurse on the in-patient oncology unit and as a primary nurse in the Department of Surgical Oncology. She has been in her current role as the Clinical Program Coordinator/Nurse Navigator of the GI Multidisciplinary Care Cancer Clinic since 2007 and for the GU Multidisciplinary Care Cancer Clinic since 2012. Nicole obtained certification as an Oncology Certified Nurse (OCN) in 2015 and as an Oncology Nurse Navigator-Certified Generalist (ONN-CG) in 2016. She has previously served as a Leadership Council member of the Academy of Oncology Nurse Navigators (AONN) and participated on the AONN+ Evidence Into Practice Standardized Navigation Metrics Project Team. Nicole currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society (NNECOS) and serves as co-chair for the Nursing & Allied Health Professional Advisory Committee (NAHPAC) of NNECOS. In addition to speaking at national conferences, Nicole has contributed to the Cancer Site-Specific Navigation chapter in the Oncology Nursing Society's 2014 publication, Oncology Nurse Navigation: Delivering Patient-Centered Care Across the Continuum Oncology, as well as a contributor to the companion publication by ONS, Oncology Nurse Navigation Case Studies, in 2017. Nicole was a nominee for Cure Magazine’s 2013 Extraordinary Healers Award for Oncology Nursing. |
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Philip E. Schaner, MD, PhD Assistant Professor of Medicine Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth |
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Elise Cushman RD, LD Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center |
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Michelle Coogan RN Dartmouth-Hitchcock A 1998 graduate of Cornell University with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, Michelle Coogan pursued a second bachelor’s degree in nursing from Utica College. After establishing her career in inpatient bedside nursing caring for post-operative head and neck oncology patients, Ms. Coogan began working closely with the surgical providers as their Clinical Nurse Coordinator. When the Head and Neck Oncology Nurse Navigator role was first established at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in November of 2018, Michelle was asked to step into that position lending her the opportunity to work with patients across the cancer care continuum. |
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Christina M. Mimikos, DO Maine Medical Partners Otolaryngology Dr. Mimikos is board certified in otolaryngology/facial plastic surgery. She received her medical education at at Touro University of Nevada, completing her Otolaryngology residency at McLaren Oakland Regional Medical Center, and her fellowship in head and neck surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. |
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Zoe Kennedy, MA, CCC-SLP Zoe completed her graduate education in communication sciences and disorders at the University of Maine. Since then, Zoe has made national presentations to various professional groups. Zoe has received advanced training in swallowing assessment using fiberoptic imaging, rediographic imaging, and manometry. She is nationally certified in the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, a standardized treatment program for voice disorders secondary to Parkinson's disease. At WCGH, Zoe provides in-person and telepractice service to adults with swallowing, voice, cognitive, and speech and language disorders. |
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Heather, Wright, MD - DHMC Heather is originally from Oxford, MA, a small town in central Massachusetts. After graduating high school, she studied biomedical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 2008. After graduation she moved to Boston where she spent three years working in a research laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. In 2011 she started medical school at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM) in Biddeford, Maine where she learned to approach health from a ‘whole body’ perspective and was naturally drawn to Internal Medicine. She completed residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Vermont where she gained an appreciation for the diagnosis and management of both hematologic and oncologic disorders. After graduating from Internal Medicine residency in 2018, she stayed on for a chief resident year and is now a first year fellow in Hematology/Oncology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. In her free time she enjoys hiking, biking as well as spending time with family which now includes her husband, a new baby and two rather energetic dogs (who also love to hike)! |
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Whitney Hammond Director, Chronic Disease Prevention and Screening Whitney Hammond is the Director of the Chronic Disease Prevention and Screening Section which includes the Cancer Programs at the Department of Health and Human Services in New Hampshire. She has worked in this position for the past 8 years overseeing the state’s free cancer screening programs, the state’s cancer registry, and the state cancer control plan. She has Masters degrees in Social Work and Public Health and is passionate about addressing population health through clinical and community strategies. |
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Allison Smith, MD, MPH - DHMC Allison Smith is currently a second year hematology/oncology fellow at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She attended Dartmouth College as an undergraduate, receiving a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. She went on to obtain an M.P.H. from the Yale School of Public Health with a focus on chronic disease and cancer epidemiology, as well as an M.S. in biomedical sciences from Tufts University. She worked as an epidemiologist for the Arizona Department of Health Services before turning her focus to clinical medicine and attending medical school at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. She completed her internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona then returned to New England for her hematology/oncology fellowship at DHMC. When she is not working she enjoys spending time with her friends and family (including her two adorable dogs), traveling, reading, and exploring the charm and beauty of New England.
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Timothy L. Fitzgerald, MD Director of Surgical Oncology Maine Medical Center Professor of Surgery Tufts University School of Medicine-Maine Medical Center Associate Medical Director of Surgical Oncology MaineHealth |
Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society
P.O. Box 643
Sandown, NH 03873-0643
Telephone (603) 887-1948
info@nnecos.org
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