Task Force

Dr. Nadine Barrett holds multiple leadership roles at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health. She serves as Professor of Social Science and Health Policy and Population Health Sciences, Senior Associate Dean for Community Engagement and Research Equity, Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement, and Chief Community Engagement Officer for the Cancer Service Line at Atrium Health Wake Forest Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to joining Wake Forest, she held senior leadership roles as CTSI Co-Director for Equity and Stakeholder Strategy at Duke University. 

A medical sociologist by training, Dr. Barrett is a health disparities researcher, expert equity strategist, and a nationally recognized leader in facilitating community/stakeholder and academic partnerships to advance health equity and developing training and methods to address implicit bias and structural and systemic racism that limits diverse participation in clinical and translational research and access to quality healthcare. Her goals are to integrate diverse stakeholder engagement in the research process and quality improvement in healthcare systems, enhance enrollment and retention of underrepresented groups in research through innovative interventions such as Just ASK™, a nationally recognized program adapted by ACCC and ASCO, and diversify the healthcare workforce, and advance health equity. 

Prior to her role at Wake Forest, Dr. Barrett was the founding director of the Duke Cancer Institute's Office of Health Equity, where for eight years she led a team to create a nationally awarded community engagement model to advance health equity through patient navigation, nationally funded pipeline training programs for underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and authentic community partnerships to inform and drive research and quality healthcare as advisors, experts, and participants. Her leadership in both nonprofit and academia spans local, national, and international partnerships to better serve and engage historically marginalized and underserved populations. 

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.

Christa Braun-Inglis is a nurse practitioner and an assistant researcher at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is also a clinical faculty member at the University of Hawaii School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, as well as a board-certified oncology nurse practitioner.

Ms. Braun-Inglis has 25 years of oncology nursing experience, with over 18 years as an oncology nurse practitioner. She has a wealth of clinical expertise and has been a huge proponent of cancer clinical trials in the community.  Her interests include increasing advanced practice provider involvement in clinical trials, cancer care delivery, breast and GI cancers, as well as providing quality cancer care to residents of Hawaii.

Dr. Marc Matrana is Director of the Ochsner Precision Cancer Therapies Program, the only dedicated Phase I cancer research program between Houston and Birmingham. He serves as a senior medical oncologist at Ochsner’s Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center in New Orleans and holds an Endowed Professorship at Ochsner Health System.  He also serves as Associate Director of Clinical Cancer Research at the Ochsner Cancer Institute, and as Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland School of Medicine in Brisbane, Australia.  Dr. Matrana is a ninth-generation native of New Orleans, where he earned a Master of Science degree in Human Genetics from Tulane University and received his medical degree from LSU School of Medicine. He served as Chief Resident at Ochsner, and Chief Fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.  He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed books, articles, chapters, and abstracts.  He has presented his research findings and educational programs at numerous national and international meetings.

Dr. Pal is an internationally recognized leader in the area of genitourinary cancers, including kidney, bladder, and prostate cancer. He is the co-director of City of Hope's Kidney Cancer Program, where he is also the head of the kidney and bladder cancer disease team. Dr. Pal entered college at the age of 13 and began medical school at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) at age 17. After completing his residency training at UCLA, Dr. Pal completed a fellowship program in medical oncology at City of Hope's comprehensive cancer center, where he has remained on faculty since 2009.

Dr. Pal sits on the editorial board for Kidney Cancer, and he is a reviewer for multiple journals, including The Lancet, The Journal of Clinical Oncology, The Journal of Urology, European Urology, and others. He has received grants from the National Institute of Health, the Comprehensive Cancer Network, SWOG Cancer Research Network, and multiple other leading entities in support of his research.

Dr. Peterson is the Director of Clinical Research and Sponsored Programs at Munson Healthcare. Dr. Peterson has spent 13 years as a Project Director at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, where she managed behavioral research studies in the areas of childhood cancer, doctor-patient communication, and health disparities. Dr. Peterson has a masters degree in health communication and a PhD in medical sociology.

Lawrence D. Wagman, MD, is currently the regional medical director and surgical oncologist for the City of Hope Inland Empire Program. This follows a 10-year hiatus from City of Hope when he served as executive medical director for the Center for Cancer Prevention and Treatment at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California (2008-2018). During that time, Dr. Wagman opened an independent surgical oncology practice that focused primarily on hepatopancreaticobiliary (70 percent), gastric, sarcoma, melanoma, and breast cancers.

Previously, during his initial 20-year experience at City of Hope, Dr. Wagman served as the chair of surgery, director of the surgical oncology training program, institutional and national cooperative group principal investigator for many clinical trials, and led a basic science laboratory investigating targetable receptors and liver regeneration.

Dr. Wagman has authored numerous peer-reviewed surgical oncology publications, guest edited Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America twice, and edited Cancer Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach.