Advisory Committee

Natraj Reddy Ammakkanavar, MD, MBBS, is board certified in internal medicine and hematology/oncology and is an MD Anderson Cancer Network^® certified physician at Community Health Network in Indianapolis, IN. He is passionate about the application of cancer genomics, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy to get the best results for his patients with cancer. Additionally, Dr. Ammakkanavar is interested in early phase clinical trials. He is fluent in English, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada.

Dr. Ammakkanavar is a member of the American Society of Hematology and the American Medical Association. He graduated from Mysore Medical College and Research Institute in India. Dr. Ammakkanavar completed his residency in internal medicine at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New Yor, NY, and his hematology/oncology fellowship at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Robin B. Atkins, RN, is a registered nurse with specialty certification in oncology nursing (OCN®). She is currently working as a symptom management oncology triage nurse at Virginia Oncology Associates. In addition to critically assessing patient symptoms by phone, she educates patients and families on how to recognize and minimize toxicities, maintain and improve nutritional sustenance and general health, cope with uncertainty, and navigate unexpected experiences (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Helping patients understand complex oncology concepts and multimodality treatment options while meeting meaningful life goals along the cancer care trajectory and teaching them how to advocate for themselves or loved ones, are valued aspects of the holistic triage services Mrs. Atkins provides. Her top priorities include dedicated follow-up on response to symptom management strategies to ensure successful treatment outcomes for patients and reduction of unnecessary emergency department visits and hospitalizations by patients.

Robin Atkins is a veteran outpatient medical hematology-oncology nurse of 35 years, certified in the specialty through the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS). She graduated from Riverside School of Professional Nursing with honors in 1985. Her clinical interests include patient and staff education, professional development, and various volunteer roles within the ONS including being a member of the Oncology Certified Nurse Test Development Committee and being a peer editor/reviewer for the ONS Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing (CJON) and a chapter in the upcoming 4th edition of the ONS Safe Handling of Hazardous Drugs. Her additional volunteer roles within ACCC are priorities for her as well including authoring the ACCCBuzz Blog post Notes on Nursing, serving on various steering committees including ACCC Communication and ACCC Small Cell Lung Cancer committees. Lastly, she served as a career mentor twice with the American Nurses Association Mentorship program since 2016. She enjoys process improvement projects, coordinating care, and patient education. She lives in Gloucester County, VA with her husband of 35 years and two cats Gracie and Annie. They spend a lot of time off the grid camping and canoeing in the mountains of Virginia. Robin enjoys singing, binge watching British detective series, and cooking for her family.

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Marianne Davies, DNP, MSN, RN, APRN, CNS-BC, ACNP-BC, AOCNP, FAAN, is a board-certified acute care nurse practitioner. She is an associate professor at Yale School of Nursing, coordinating the Oncology Nurse Practitioner concentration. Her clinical practice is at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical Oncology Division with specialization in immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and management of associated toxicities.

Dr. Davies is a member of the Advanced Practitioner Society for Hematology and Oncology, Oncology Nursing Society, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, International Thoracic Oncology Nursing Forum, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), Association of Community Care Centers’ Institute for Clinical Immuno-Oncology, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and AIM with Immunotherapy Foundation. She serves on the Immunotherapy Guideline Development Board of the SITC, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and American Society of Clinical Oncology. She has published and presented extensively on the topics of lung cancer, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and symptom management. Dr. Davies was also recently inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2020.

She is a graduate of the Yale University School of Nursing. Dr. Davies received her Master of Science in Nursing of Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist and Post-Master's Certificate of Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. She then received her Doctor of Nursing Practice from MGH Institute of Health Professions.

Kavita Dharmarajan, MD, MSc, is an associate professor with dual appointments in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is a radiation oncologist focusing on improving care for patients with advanced cancer receiving radiation therapy as part of their oncologic treatment. Her scope of practice includes providing stereotactic radiation treatments for patients with metastatic cancers.

Dr. Sharmarajan earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, followed by a master’s degree in Health Population Science from the London School of Economics and medical degree from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed her residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She is a former recipient of an Association of Community Cancer Centers Innovator Award.

Kathryn Gold, MD, is a board-certified medical oncologist with a focus on lung and head and neck malignancies. Dr. Gold is currently a professor at the University of California San Diego Moores Cancer Center and the vice chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology. Her research is focused on targeted therapies and immunotherapies for lung and head and neck cancers. She is also the medical director for Cancer Quality at Moores Cancer Center and has been involved in several institutional quality improvement efforts. 

Dr. Gold is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. She serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Investigator Steering Committee and NCCN Small Cell Lung Cancer Panel.

Dr. Gold obtained her medical degree from Washington University in St Louis. She completed her internal medicine residency and medical oncology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, respectively.

Jacob K. Kettle, PharmD, BCOP, is currently the pharmacy manager for the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center and ambulatory infusion unit at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. Prior to his administrative work, Dr. Kettle spent more than a decade in oncology clinical practice both at the University of Missouri and the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Kettle also serves as an adjunct clinical professor for the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Pharmacy, is a member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers’ Clinical Affairs Committee and serves as Chair of the Health Network of Missouri’s Oncology Task Force.  

Dr. Kettle received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2007, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Pharmacy. He completed a pharmacy practice residency at the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a hematology/oncology pharmacy residency at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

 Dr. Kettle has published original research in multiple peer-reviewed journals, and he was the 2011 recipient of the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association Basic Science and Clinical Research Literature Award. In addition, Dr. Kettle has spoken nationally on emerging hematology and oncology topics, including oral antineoplastics and immunotherapy.

George Miranda, MDiv, MBA, is the director of the Russell Medical Cancer center in Alexander City, a joint venture between the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Health Sciences Foundation and Russell Medical. He oversees administrative functions related to outpatient cancer services. Prior to this position, Mr. Miranda was cancer center director at DeKalb Medical in Decatur, GA, for six years, including the year when DeKalb Medical was integrated into the Emory Healthcare system.

Dr. Cumbo Nacheli is the Interventional Pulmonologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Spectrum Health/Michigan State University in Grand Rapids Michigan. He received his medical degree at the University of Rosario, in Argentina and completed my residency in Wayne State University, and fellowship at the Cleveland clinic. Dr. Nacheli has 10 years of experience working within the realm of clinical and procedural aspects of lung cancer.

Jenny Rodriguez, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, has worked as an oncology social worker at one of the top cancer hospitals in the country since 2012. Her current appointment is at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (PIH) Health Hospital in Whittier, CA. Ms. Rodriquez is a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in psycho-oncology and program development, and she is currently appointed as the psychosocial services coordinator for monitoring psychosocial distress screening and referral of psychosocial care for the cancer program. She is highly motivated to provide exceptional patient-centered care to patients with cancer and their families and to both build and enhance programs with high research acumen.

Ms. Rodriguez provides strength-based education and support; multiple intervention modalities, including education on gender strengths and differences in stress and coping; problem solving skills for effective medical management; and psychosocial coping. The interventions empower patients and their families to become active members of the medical team. Ms. Rodriquez has demonstrated strong research leadership by measuring adherence, responsiveness, and interventions applied of psychosocial distress via the distress screening program, SupportScreen at City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, CA. She is passionate about broadening cultural competency in practice and work and about conducting research within under-served populations.

Amir Sajadian, MD, MA, HMDC, has been the medical director MercyOne North Iowa Hospice since 2016, and he is a palliative care physician in the Palliative Medicine Department at MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center. Furthermore, Dr. Sajadian serves in the MercyOne North Iowa Ethics Committee.  He is a board-certified family medicine physician and hospice medical director. Dr. Sajadian has also been an adjunct assistant professor at Des Moines University as well as an adjunct clinical assistant professor at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. He has contributed to the education and training of medical students, residents, and fellows.

Dr. Sajadian completed his family medicine residency program prior to completing his hospice and palliative medicine fellowship. He holds a Master of Arts in Health Services Management.

Anil Vachani, MD, is a pulmonary physician at the University of Pennsylvania with expertise in epidemiology, clinical trials, and cancer care delivery. His research program uses observational and experimental approaches to study the implementation and optimization of lung cancer screening, management of incidental pulmonary nodules, and validation and utility analyses of novel technologies for early detection and cancer screening. Dr. Vachani directs the Lung Nodule Program and co-directs the Lung Cancer Screening Program at the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In these roles, Dr. Vachani led efforts to implement lung cancer screening protocols that utilize hybrid and fully centralized approaches to care delivery across two different care systems. These efforts have included research design elements to understand and adopt optimal approaches to cancer screening care, care pathway creation, and electronic health record system modification.

Lauren Welch, MSN, is a board-certified nurse practitioner and an advanced oncology nurse practitioner. She is currently working as a sub-investigator and nurse practitioner in the Drug Development Unit at Tennessee Oncology/Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, TN. Ms. Welch works primarily with patients with lung cancer, caring for those on early- and late-phase clinical trials as well as those receiving standard-of-care therapies. She works collaboratively with her supervising physician to provide empathetic and comprehensive cancer care. She enjoys patient and staff education and is skilled in symptom management. 

Ms. Welch is a Board Member for the Tennessee Oncology Practice Society and is part of the Appalachia Community Cancer Alliance that is advancing lung cancer screening across the Appalachian region. She serves on the Avanced Practice Provicer (APP) Executive Committee within Tennessee Oncology and is also on the OneOncology APP OneCouncil. Ms. Welch has chaired multiple lung cancer advisory boards for nurses and has presented at multiple conferences, including the Advanced Practice Providers Oncology Summit in 2020.

Ms. Welch earned her master's degree in nursing from Middle Tennessee State University and previously worked as a registered nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center Emergency Department and Trauma Intensive Care Unit.