Dr. Laurie Glimcher, the dean of the medical college at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan will take over next year as president and chief executive of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The acclaimed cancer treatment and research center is in Boston, the city where Glimcher has spent most of her academic and professional career.
Before Weill Cornell, Glimcher was a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. She received her medical degree from Harvard and completed her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Last year, she was part of a team of investigators who discovered a potential new way to target ovarian cancer by activating the immune system. Glimcher will also be a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
“She has as a deep understanding of the latest developments in cancer research and care, and a clear vision of how Dana-Farber can most powerfully affect the fight against cancer,” Josh Bekenstein, chairman of the Dana-Farber board of trustees, said in a statement.
As president, she will replace Dr. Edward Benz Jr., a hematologist who has served in that role since 2000.
Glimcher has deep roots in the Boston area. She grew up in Brookline, Mass., and used to tag along with her father, Melvin, who was then chair of orthopedics at Mass General, as he worked in the lab and checked on patients. They would later become colleagues and collaborate on research at Harvard Medical School.
Glimcher has led Weill Cornell Medicine since 2012, overseeing the construction of the $650 million Belfer Research Building in 2014 and the acquisition of 40 medical practices in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. She was twice listed among Crain's Most Powerful Women in New York.
“While I am excited about returning home to Boston and the opportunities at Dana-Farber, I will dearly miss the faculty, staff and students at this great institution and look forward to hearing about all of Weill Cornell Medicine's future successes,” Glimcher said in a statement.
"Manhattan medical-school dean to leave for Boston" was originally published in Crain's New York Business.
