Members
SANTO M. DIFINO, M.D., Chair
M. SUZANNE HICKS, M.S.W.
RUSSELL HILF, Ph.D.
DIANA E. LAKE, M.D.
DEXTER A. MCKENZIE, M.D.
GARY R. MORROW, Ph.D
ARUN PURANIK, M.D.
ROBERT RITER
NEETA SHAH, M.D.
ELINOR SPRING-MILLS, Ph.D.
MARC WILKENFELD, M.D.
ANTHONY G. HAY, Ph.D.
EUGENE J. LEFF
Voting Members
SANTO M. DIFINO, M.D., Chair
Dr. DiFino is a clinician with Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York, P.C.; Chief of Internal Medicine, St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center; and Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York. He earned a B.S. degree in biology, magna cum laude, from Fordham University. Dr. DiFino was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and obtained his medical degree in 1974 from the New Jersey Medical School. Dr. DiFino interned and completed a residency in medicine at Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse. He is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hematology.
Since 1992, Dr. DiFino has been a principal investigator/associate investigator with the Community Clinical Oncology Program. Dr. DiFino is president of the Central New York Chapter of the Leukemia Society of America and was recipient of the Leukemia Society's "Man of the Half Century" Award. As a result of his active involvement in community service, he was nominated for Health Citizen of the Year and is a recipient of the President's Medallion from Catholic Charities of Syracuse. Dr. DiFino has served the Board as a gubernatorial appointee since April 1997 and is chair of the Board's Committee on Program Needs and Effectiveness.
Dr. DiFino has served the Board as a gubernatorial appointee since April 1997.
M. SUZANNE HICKS, M.S.W.
M. Suzanne Hicks is a seven-year melanoma survivor and a five-year breast cancer survivor. Ms. Hicks holds a B.S. in English education from the University of Tulsa, and an M.S.W. degree from the SUNY at Albany. She is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Albany Medical College and closed a 30-year psychotherapy practice in Albany, NY in 2005. Locally, she is a member of the Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer!, a community-based education and advocacy group. At the national level, she is very active in the NBCC, where she serves on the "KnowBreastCancer.org" Advisory Committee. Ms. Hicks has participated in the NBCC Fund's Project LEAD (Leadership, Education and Advocacy Development), an intensive course for advocates on the basic science of breast cancer and advocacy issues, and was a speaker at the NBCC Annual Advocacy Conference in 2008.
She has started a local breast cancer peer study group, and spends much of her time as a breast cancer advocate and as an artist with a studio in Albany, NY.
Ms. Hicks began serving the Board in July 2008.
RUSSELL HILF, Ph.D.
Dr. Hilf is professor of biochemistry and oncology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He earned a B.S. in chemistry from the City College of New York in 1952, and M.S. and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rutgers University. After serving in the US Army and briefly at the QM Food & Container Institute, he held the position of head of cancer endocrinology at the Squibb Institute for Medical Research for 11 years prior to joining the faculty at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1969.
Dr. Hilf's primary research interests lie in the field of hormone action, with emphasis on estrogen and anti-estrogen mechanisms, and on insulin and IGF-1, as they pertain to breast cancer. A second area of research deals with photodynamic therapy of neoplasms. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in professional journals and has written 40 invited book chapters. He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Endocrine Society, and the American Society for Photobiology. He has served as associate editor for Cancer Research for 20 years, was on the advisory board of Biochemical Pharmacology, and is currently a member of the editorial boards of Oncology Research and Cancer Biochemistry Biophysics. He was elected a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1966, has received the University of Rochester Alumni Award for Graduate Education in 1992, was a Wellcome Visiting Professor in 1994, and received the Davey Memorial Cancer Research Award from the University of Rochester Cancer Center, in 1998.
Dr. Hilf has served on: the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Breast Cancer Task Force; the Veterans Administration Merit Review Board of Oncology; the NCI Cancer Education Committee; the American Cancer Society's Biochemistry and Chemical Carcinogenesis Committee, and was chair of its Biochemistry and Endocrinology Committee. He has served three cycles on the U.S. Army Breast Cancer Review Program; and two terms on the NIH Reproductive Endocrinology Study Section, the last two years as Chairman. He currently serves as a member of a scientific review panel for The American Institute for Cancer Research, as a consultant to a program project at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and is on the Scientific Advisory Board to the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Hilf has served the Board as a gubernatorial appointee since April 1997.
DIANA E. LAKE, M.D.
Dr. Lake is a medical oncologist with a practice that is devoted solely to the care of breast cancer patients. Her research interests involve all areas of breast cancer but focus mainly on the development of new therapies, prevention of cancer recurrence following surgery, and treatment of recurrent disease. Working in conjunction with her colleagues on the Breast Cancer Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and as the liaison in breast medicine to Cancer and Leukemia Group B (a national clinical trial cooperative research group sponsored by the National Cancer Institute) she is involved in clinical trials to develop better hormonal therapies and improved approaches to treatment before surgery. In addition, she is a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Scientific Review Committee, and previously served on the NIH Cooperative Group Review and its Cancer Education committees.
Dr. Lake was appointed to the Board in September 2009.
DEXTER A. MCKENZIE, M.D.
Dr. McKenzie earned a medical degree from Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee, and holds undergraduate degrees in pharmaceutical sciences and chemistry. He completed residency training in combined internal medicine-pediatrics at Kings County Hospital and the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center, Brooklyn.
Dr. McKenzie is assistant professor of medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and teaches medical students and medical residents while conducting original research. His public health interests are further expressed in collaborations with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene initiatives in community participatory research, influenza vaccination and chronic disease abatement.
Dr. McKenzie has provided direct care —in both patient diagnosis and management — of numerous forms of childhood and adult illnesses for more than two decades in both private and hospital-based medical practices. He also serves on several scientific and philanthropic boards.
Dr. McKenzie began serving the Board in June 2010.
GARY R. MORROW, Ph.D., M.S.
Dr. Morrow is professor of radiation oncology and professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He also serves as an Associate Director for Cancer Control at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, University of Rochester. He holds undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and in English from the University of Notre Dame. Following college, he served in the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power Program for four years and completed patrols on the U.S.S. James K. Polk. He received a M.S. in psychology and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Rhode Island, prior to joining the University of Rochester, where he completed an internship in clinical psychology and a two-year postdoctoral training fellowship in psychosomatic medicine. He also has earned an M.S. in medical statistics from the University of Rochester.
Since 1982, Dr. Morrow has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in cancer control and been awarded continuous funding for his research in supportive cancer care and management of cancer and cancer treatment-related side effects. At present, he directs a research base for the NCI's Community Clinical Oncology Program that serves 25 affiliated collaborating institutions throughout the country and has referred more than 600 patients a year to Phase III cancer control clinical trials. His ongoing research expands upon investigations into better understanding and management of cancer-induced nausea and cancer-related fatigue. Dr. Morrow has chaired more than two dozen permanent and ad hoc grant-funded review committees for the American Cancer Society, NIH, NCI and the U.S. Department of Defense. He has served on the American Cancer Society Executive Council, as well as the Advisory Council to the National Institute of Nursing Research.
Dr. Morrow began serving the Board in December 2008.
ARUN PURANIK, M.D.
Dr. Puranik is director of radiation oncology, and co-chair of the prostate brachytherapy program at the Capital District Radiation Oncology, P.C., Cancer Treatment Center, Samaritan Hospital, Troy, New York. Dr. Puranik obtained a B.S. degree from Holkar Science College, Indore, India, and an M.B.B.S. and a medical degree in radiotherapy from M.G.M. Medical College, Indore. Dr. Puranik's postgraduate training included an internship in general medicine at M.R. Hospital, followed by appointment to resident and clinical demonstrator in the Department of Radiotherapy, M.G.M. Medical College. He served as a consultant radiation therapist at the N.P. Cancer Institute, Rajkot, India, and at Nanavati Hospital and Medical Research Center, Bombay, India.
Dr. Puranik completed a residency at the Department of Radiology, Radiation Oncology Division, SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York, for which he was awarded a Fellowship in Radiation Oncology from the American Cancer Society. He was also a fellow in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Albany Regional Radiation Oncology Program and Albany Medical College, Albany. Prior to joining the Samaritan Hospital Cancer Treatment Center he was an assistant professor, Department of Radiation Oncology; and chief at the Albany Area Radiation Therapy Center, Albany Medical College. Dr. Puranik is board certified in radiology and therapeutic radiology, and in 1997 was awarded the Physician of the Year award by the Capital District chapter of the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Puranik has served the Board as an Assembly Minority Leader appointee since July 1998.
ROBERT RITER
Robert Riter's involvement with the breast cancer community began in 1996 when he was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 40. Unlike many men with breast cancer, Mr. Riter decided to go public about his diagnosis and did so by writing an essay about his experiences that appeared in the July 17, 1997, issue of Newsweek magazine.
Since 2000, Mr. Riter has been associate director of the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes (formerly known as the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance). He provides direct client services, offering information and support to people with all types of cancer. He also writes a regular column about living with cancer for the Ithaca Journal.
At the national level, Mr. Riter has served on scientific review panels at the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Program. He has participated in Project LEAD and Project LEAD Quality Care training, sponsored by the NBCC, as well as the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Prior to his work in cancer education and advocacy, Mr. Riter received an M.S. in hospital administration from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, and worked as a health care administrator before teaching health policy and health administration at Ithaca College.
Mr. Riter began serving the Board in July 2008.
NEETA SHAH, M.D.
Dr. Shah is vice president of women's health services at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, overseeing coordination and expansion of services to ensure that the health system offers a range of clinical programs to meet women's life-long health care needs. A board-certified internist, she has served as vice chair of medicine and director of the internal medicine residency training program at Forest Hills Hospital, Queens, NY.
Dr. Shah also is adjunct clinical associate professor of medicine at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, and has worked as clinical instructor in medicine at Cornell University Medical College.
Dr. Shah is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and a member of the American Medical Association, Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine, and Association of Chairs and Chiefs of Medicine (ACCM). At present, she serves as president, New York State Program Directors in Internal Medicine; district president, Nassau East, New York Chapter, ACP; counselor, ACCM; and member, Residency Program Requirements Task Force and Workshop Selection Task Force, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine.
At North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Dr. Shah is a member of the Institutional Review Board, Clinical Information Systems Steering Committee, Education Committee, and Academic Awards Committee, among other committee responsibilities. She has been accorded many honors, including The City of New York Certificate of Recognition, Citation of Honor from the Queens Borough President, New York State Assembly Citation, Certificate of Recognition and Gratitude from the New York City Council, 2008 Top Women in Queens Business Award, and the Physician Mentor Recognition Award from the American Medical Association Women's Physician Congress.
Dr. Shah received her medical education at J. N. Medical College, Belgaum, India; and completed her residency at Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Queens, NY.
Dr. Shah began serving the Board in December 2008.
ELINOR SPRING-MILLS, Ph.D.
Dr. Spring-Mills is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, and professor of cell and developmental biology, and of urology at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York. She holds an A.B. degree in physiology from Vassar College, an M.A. in physiology from Mount Holyoke College and a Ph.D. in medical sciences (anatomy, biochemistry, and pathology) from Harvard Medical School. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH Division of Arthritis, Metabolic and Digestive Diseases and then moved to San Francisco, where for seven years, she was the assistant chief of cell biology at the Veteran's Administration Hospital, assistant and, subsequently, associate professor of anatomy at the University of California at San Francisco Medical School.
She has served as a member and chairperson of the Breast Cancer Working Group/Breast Cancer Task Force of the NCI; a founding member of the first Pan American Congress of Andrology; a member of the Educational Policies Committee, American Association of Anatomists; and interim chair of the Department of Anatomy at Upstate Medical School. In addition to research papers and abstracts, she has co-edited three books on the accessory glands of the male reproductive tract and human prostatic cancer.
Dr. Spring-Mills has served the Board as a gubernatorial appointee since May 2006 and is chair of the Board's Committee on Funding and Outreach.
MARC WILKENFELD, M.D.
Dr. Wilkenfeld is a board certified occupational/environmental physician in New York City. He is assistant professor in clinical medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, where he also acts as occupational medicine consultant to the Department of Environmental Health and Safety. He has lectured and trained internal medicine and family practice physicians on aspects of occupational/environmental medicine. Dr. Wilkenfeld is an attending physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Center. He has served as occupational medicine consultant to corporations, government agencies and other organizations in the U.S. and Europe. He is past-president of the New York Occupational Medicine Association, and has lectured extensively in the field of occupational and environmental medicine.
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Dr. Wilkenfeld served as consultant to a number of government agencies, corporations and community groups on the environmental health impact of the disaster. In this role, he reviewed pre- and post-clean-up data and addressed questions regarding potential health effects of contamination with World Trade Center dust. He has moderated and participated in community forums designed to answer the health questions of residents and workers. He also has evaluated cases of illness related to the disaster. Dr. Wilkenfeld serves as medical advisor to New York City Councilmember Alan Gerson, whose district includes Lower Manhattan. In this role, he continues to assist the Lower Manhattan Community with questions related to the health impact of September 11.
Dr. Wilkenfeld has served the Board as an Assembly Speaker appointee since September 2004.
Non-voting Members
BEVERLY CANIN
Beverly Canin is a two-time breast cancer survivor. She is president of Breast Cancer Options, Inc. (BCO), a survivor-driven, community-based breast cancer support, education and advocacy organization in the Mid-Hudson Valley. She is a graduate of the NBCC Fund's Project LEAD, an intensive course for advocates on the basic science of breast cancer and on advocacy issues. She participates annually in the NBCC's Advocacy Training Conference and Lobby Day in Washington, D.C. Ms. Canin is the alternate representative from BCO to the Board of Directors of the New York State Breast Cancer Network, and the New York State Breast Cancer Support and Education Network, where she has chaired the Procedures Committee and is a member of the Access to Care Committee.
Ms. Canin has served as a consumer reviewer for the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program since 2001 at both the peer-review and the programmatic review levels. She also has worked as an advocate reviewer for the California Breast Cancer Research Program. She is a member of Breast Cancer Action and of the Mid-Hudson Valley affiliate chapter of Sisters' Network, Inc.
Ms. Canin is retired, after having worked many years in non-profit administration, including as a consultant for program development and evaluation.
Ms. Canin began serving the Board in July 2008.
Ex-Officio Members
ANTHONY G. HAY Ph.D.
Anthony G. Hay, Ph.D. is director of the Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology (ICET), a center for toxicological research, education, and outreach located at Cornell University. Dr. Hay is also Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Cornell. He earned a Ph.D. in Soil Microbiology at the University of California, Riverside in 1997. Work in his lab focuses on the ability of microorganisms to degrade xenobiotics. Dr. Hay's research interests include the molecular biology, biochemistry, and ecology of pollutant degradation.
EUGENE J. LEFF
Eugene Leff is a Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. He supervises three Divisions: Environmental Remediation, Materials Management and Mineral Resources. Before joining DEC in 2011, he spent many years in the Office of the Attorney General, serving in the Environmental Protection Bureau under six different Attorneys General. He was the Acting Chief of that Bureau’s New York City Office and its Deputy Bureau Chief before that. He was lead counsel for the State in the Love Canal Litigation, the Greenpoint (Brooklyn) Oil Pollution Litigation and a recent challenge to the State Superfund Program cleanup goal, as well as in the preparation of a Hudson River PCBs Natural Resource Damages Case. He also represented the Attorney General’s Office in the State Superfund Working Group. Mr. Leff is a graduate of Yale Law School, Yale Graduate School and Columbia College.