Advisory Committee

Al B. Benson III, MD, FACP, FASCO, is a professor of medicine in the division of hematology/oncology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He is also the associate director for cooperative groups at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Benson is a recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Statesman Award (fellow of ASCO) and has served on a number of committees, including as member of the Quality of Cancer Care Task Force, co-chair of ASCO’s Colorectal Cancer Guidelines Subcommittee, the Stage II Colon Cancer Guidelines Panel, and the Guidelines Panel for use of Radiofrequency Ablation for Colorectal Cancer. In addition, he served as ACCC President (2010-2011), and most recently as as chair of the ACCC Clinical Affairs Committee. He is also a  past president of the Illinois Medical Oncology Society. Dr. Benson He is on the editorial board of the ASCO Connection (term completed), Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, American Health and Drug Benefits, Personalized Medicine in Oncology, Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, and Gastrointestinal Cancer Research, among others. 

Dr. Benson’s research is primarily in the areas of gastrointestinal cancer clinical trials, biologic therapies, phase I cancer clinical trials, health services research, and cancer guideline development. He has authored or coauthored numerous reports, reviews, and book chapters focusing on these topics. His research in biologics, cancer therapy, and cancer prevention has been awarded funding from a variety of sources including the National Institutes of Health. His most recent national awards include the NCCN Rodger J. Winn Award and the ACCC Clinical Research Award.

Stacey A. Cohen, MD is an Associate Professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at University of Washington School of Medicine, Associate Professor in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and a gastrointestinal oncology physician at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Dr. Cohen’s research focuses on inherited genetic syndromes, such as Lynch syndrome, that put people at high risk of developing colorectal and other gastrointestinal cancers and on molecular markers of disease risk and cancer outcomes that help tailor individual treatment plans.

John M. Kelton, Pharm.D.,is US Medical Director, Oncology Biosimilars, Biomarkers for Pfizer, Inc. and has 25 plus years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  Since 2000, John’s focus has been on Medical Affairs, serving in a variety of capacities, including management of Medical Communications and Training, Medical Review, Medical Education, Medical Science Liaisons, and Investigator Initiated Trials.

For the past seven years, John has been actively involved in biosimilar development and educational efforts in the United States and Europe.  John has collaborated with biosimilars experts that have expertise ranging from bench to bedside in Nephrology, Inflammation, and Oncology in order to capture and communicate the unique aspects of biosimilars and their development programs.  Recently John has assumed US Medical Affairs responsibility for biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer. 

Prior to his roles in Medical Affairs, John functioned as Regional Pharmacy Manager for Abbott where he managed pharmacy operations for parenteral and nutritional products as well as key clinical relationships with major healthcare systems.  John received his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Southern California.  Before joining industry, John practiced as a clinical pharmacist, specializing in parenteral nutrition and oncology. 

Bridget O’Brien, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, AOCNP, is Assistant Professor at Rush University College of Nursing in Chicago, IL. She is the Director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program at Rush. She is also certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner with dual certification as an Advanced Oncology Nurse Practitioner. She has practiced as a nurse practitioner for 20+ years, with a specialty in gastrointestinal oncology (GI), most recently at Northwestern Medicine.

She has also chaired the Oncology Nursing Committee of ECOG-ACRIN since 2006, and has been an active member of the GI Oncology Committee. Her focus with the support of the nursing committee has been to increase accrual to clinical trials, promote education, and evaluate trials for feasibility and nursing implications.

Dr. O’Brien has published in the field of GI oncology and has lectured extensively on this and many topics. 

Dr. Philip is a Kathryn Cramer MD Endowed Professor in Cancer Research at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the leader of the GI and neuroendocrine multidisciplinary team and Vice President of medical affairs at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. He is also a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in the UK and Chair of the pancreatic cancer committee at the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG). An internationally-recognized lecturer, Dr. Philip is known for his research in the development of new therapies for gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine cancers.

Antonia R. Sepulveda, MD, PhD, is the chair of the Department of Pathologyat the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She also serves as the Ralph E. Lowey Professor of Oncology, as well as chief of pathology service and clinical laboratory director at GW Hospital.

Dr. Sepulveda is an expert in gastrointestinal pathology and molecular diagnostic pathology of cancer and a leader in personalized genomics for precision medicine. She has held many leadership positions and is currently the president-elect of the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) and was recently the lead co-chair for the AMP’s Multi-society Molecular Testing Guidelines for Colorectal Cancer.  She was most recently the vice chair for translational research and director of the Division of Gastrointestinal Pancreas and Liver Pathology in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York. At Columbia, she spearheaded clinical and research programs for genomic and biomarker testing of gastrointestinal cancers.

Sepulveda’s research laboratory and translational research program receives National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding and utilizes innovative genomics, transcriptomics, and computational image analyses to discover novel regulatory pathways and early biomarkers of cancer and precancer lesions of the esophagus, stomach, colorectum, and pancreas. She has authored over 160 publications, including 122 original peer-reviewed papers, and over 40 reviews, editorials, guidelines, book chapters, and books. Sepulveda has been invited to lecture and share her expertise in pathology and biomarker testing in cancer around the world.

In addition to her leadership at the AMP, Sepulveda participates in a number of professional organizations and associations, including as a member of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Gastroenterological Association, and a fellow of the College of American Pathologists. She serves on the Colon Task Force of the NCI Gastrointestinal Steering Committee and as editor of the Gastrointestinal Pathology Section for the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. She has been honored to receive a number of awards for her achievements in research, clinical operations and scholar contributions.  In 2018, she received the Verna Stembridge MD Lectureship Award from the Texas Society of Pathologists.

Randolph M. Steinhagen, MD is a Professor in the Department of Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. He also serves as Chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery and the Program Director of the Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship Program. His current research interests concern sphincter preserving surgery for rectal cancer and clinical studies of nonsurgical treatment of anal fissures. At Mount Sinai, Dr. Steinhagen was the first surgeon to use a "colon J-pouch" to reestablish intestinal continuity after radical surgery for distal rectal cancer. He continues to actively evaluate the role for "local excision" in the surgical treatment of selected cases of rectal carcinoma, and has presented his data on that subject in Korea and in India.

Within Mount Sinai, Dr. Steinhagen is a member of the Surgery Education Committee, the Medical School Admissions Committee, and the Executive Curriculum Committee. He also serves on the Endoscopy Steering Committee. He is an adjunct member of the Department of Anatomy and Functional Morphology, and assists in teaching first-year students in Gross Anatomy lab.