Advisory Committee

Dr. Ailawadhi is a Professor with the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and joined the Division in 2014 when he moved from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles where he was an academic faculty with Hematology. His career focus has been on treatment of plasma cell disorders, namely multiple myeloma and Waldenström’ macroglobulinemia, and& chronic lymphocytic leukemia. His research has focused on understanding the epidemiology and pathophysiology of these disorders, evaluating the benefit of various therapeutic strategies in different populations based on racial-ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, as well as developing novel therapeutics by means of conducting several regional and national clinical trials.  These have included phase 1 through phase 3 clinical trials for novel drugs including cellular therapy such as car T-cell treatment.  Dr. Ailawadhi has a special interest in understanding the disparities in care of cancer patients and their outcomes with a special focus on patients from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.  To achieve this, he has done several extensive analyses from large national databases and is focused on improving clinical trial accrual across the country, especially for patients from racial and ethnic minorities.

Dr. Hill is the Director of the Lymphoid Malignancies Program at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute.  He received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and earned his Ph.D. in genetics through work done at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.  He received his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine where he also completed his residency in Internal Medicine.  He conducted his hematology/oncology fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic.   His clinical and research focus is in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and lymphoma.  He is the principal investigator of multiple on-going clinical trials of new cancer treatments including novel cellular therapies.  He serves as the Chairman of the Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Committee within the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, co-director of the Lymphoid Malignancies Center of Excellence and serves on the editorial board of several peer reviewed journals. He is Associate Professor of Medicine of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine is an active member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, American Society of Hematology (ASH), National Cancer Institute (NCI) cooperative groups in leukemia and lymphoma, the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) as well as a committee member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).

Murali Janakiram, MD, MS, is a hematologist-oncologist and associate professor of medicine at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. His clinical expertise is in multiple myeloma and aggressive lymphomas and his research interests include cellular and immune-based therapies (including chimeric antigen receptor [CAR] T-cell therapy and natural killer [NK] cell therapy) and developing risk-based approaches for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

Dr. Janakiram is a clinical trialist and investigator with over 50 peer-reviewed publications, reviews, and book chapters. Before joining City of Hope, he was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, where he made significant contributions to T-cell lymphoma and adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.

Dr. Janakiram earned his medical degree from Madras Medical College in Chennai, India. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University and a fellowship in oncology/hematology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he also received a master's degree in clinical research.

Nga Pham, Pharm.D. is a Clinical Oncology Pharmacist at the Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.  She is a contributing member of the Oncology Formulary Subcommittee.  Her involvement includes policy and protocol development, medication utilization review, and cost savings analysis.  She also served on the Hematology Steering Committee during which time she helped lead efforts to move all outpatient chemotherapy out of the hospital and into the outpatient setting.  She is also involved in the provision of investigational drug services for clinical trials.  She received her pharmacy degree at Temple University School of Pharmacy and her post-graduate training at Northeastern University.  

Robb Richards, MS, MBA is the corporate director of the Cell Therapy and Transplant program at Penn Medicine, with oversight of both commercial and research work, as well as a focus on expansion into community hospitals within the Penn system. With over 20 years of experience in oncology (including bone marrow transplant and CAR T-cell therapy), oncology analytics, EMR integration, information technology, business management of oncology practices, he has been the lead in overseeing the implementation and operations of CAR T-cell therapy for commercial use.

Richards earned his MS and MBA from St. Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania, specializing in oncology informatics, and his bachelor’s degree from Drexel University.

Kelly Terrell is a registered nurse at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital & Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri. She received a Bachelor of Science degree at Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College, Saint Louis, in 2011, and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Webster University, Saint Louis, in March of 2017. Her previous experience as a BMT Staff Nurse, Nursing Supervisor, Transplant Coordinator, and Clinical Nurse Manager led to her current role as Clinical Program Manager with the Division of Leukemia, Lymphoma, Cell Therapy & Stem Cell Transplantation. She currently resides in Saint Louis with her husband Charlie and their three children.