Ruben A. Mesa, M.D., FACP

Dr. Ruben A. Mesa is president, Atrium Health Levine Cancer; executive director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)- designated Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center; vice dean for cancer programs and professor of medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine; and senior vice president for Atrium Health. He has been involved in MPN research for more than 20 years. Mesa’s research focuses on MPN biology, novel therapeutics and over 100 phase I-III clinical trials, symptom assessment tools (led the development of the globally utilized MPN Symptom Assessment Form and Myelofibrosis Symptom Assessment Form) and non-pharmacological interventions to alleviate MPN symptoms. He has over 800-lifetime medical publications, with more than 400 peer- reviewed manuscripts, 15 book chapters and two edited books. He has over 600 lectures and visiting professorships, nationally and internationally. Mesa has led or co-led the development of six drugs that have been FDA approved. Mesa was the inaugural panel chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s (NCCN) guideline panel for the first U.S. guidelines for MPNS. Mesa is an NCI-funded investigator on several projects in myeloproliferative neoplasms and has been appointed to the NCI Clinical Trial Advisory Committee. He plays a range of leadership roles with the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) and is currently elected to the Board of the American Association of Cancer Institutes (AACI) and is an executive officer of the board for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In addition, Dr. Mesa has helped implement a mandate that each new trial at the Mays Cancer Center had a Minority Accrual Plan. He is involved in numerous national initiatives to increase clinical trial diversity, including being a member of the Genentech Health Disparities Task Force, Bristol Myers Squibb Health Disparities Task Force and the Janssen Health Disparities Task Force. In March 2022, he testified on the importance of clinical trial diversity before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.