Advisory Committee

Lily Shahied Arruda, PhD, is a Medical Director on the U.S. Women’s Oncology team at Pfizer, Inc. She obtained her doctorate in molecular biology at Vanderbilt University upon completion of her bachelor's in chemistry at Furman University. She then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia where her research focused on the design and testing of genetically engineered bispecific antibodies for the HER2 and CD16 receptors in breast cancer models. Since then, Dr. Arruda has spent the last 15 years building expertise in oncology in the pharmaceutical industry setting. She has held roles within both the R&D and medical affairs sectors which have allowed her to build and apply her medical knowledge across the oncology drug development process.

Robert R. Buras, MD, general surgeon at the DeCesaris Cancer Institute at the Anne Arundal Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland. Dr Buras has 20 years of prior experience in the management of breast cancer and benign breast conditions. Prior to joining AAMC, Dr Buras served as the director of breast surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center. ​

His interest in breast cancer and cellular biology led to a faculty position at Georgetown University where he practiced surgical oncology primarily focused on the treatment of breast cancer.  During this time, he developed and ran a basic science research laboratory and secured NIH and American Cancer Society research grant funding to study the biology of breast cancer under the mentorship of Dr. Marc Lippman.

Dr. Buras received his medical degree from the University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences at the Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed a surgery residency from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, and completed a fellowship in complex general surgery for oncology at the City of Hope National Medical Center.

Dr. Gralow is the Jill Bennett Endowed Professor of Breast Medical Oncology and Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a member of the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She is director of Breast Medical Oncology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Dr. Gralow is actively involved in clinical care, education, and research, and is the PI on numerous local and national clinical trials related to breast cancer treatment, prevention, and survivorship. Her area of research specialization is the relationship between breast cancer and the bone. She serves as SWOG Executive Officer for Breast and Lung Cancer and is a member of SWOG’s International Working Group. Previously, she served for 13 years as Vice Chair of the SWOG Breast Cancer Committee.

Dr. Gralow is current chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Academic Global Oncology Task Force and the co-chair of the ASCO Resource Stratified Guideline Advisory Group, and serves as a member of the ASCO Breast Cancer Advisory Guideline Group and Cancer Education Committee in the Global Health track. She received an ASCO Statesman Award in 2008 and will receive the 2018 ASCO Humanitarian Award.

Dr. Gralow is committed to improving the quality of life for breast cancer patients through education, exercise, and diet, and to promoting breast cancer awareness in the community. She is Medical Director and Team Physician for Team Survivor Northwest, aimed at helping female cancer survivors improve their health through fitness and exercise. She is founder of the Women’s Empowerment Cancer Advocacy Network (WE CAN), a group dedicated to empowering women cancer patient advocates in low and middle income countries and Co-Chair of the Secretariat of the Breast Cancer Initiative 2.5 (BCI2.5), a Global Campaign to reduce disparities in breast cancer care globally.

Joy Larsen Haidle, MS, CGC, is a genetic counselor at the North Memorial Health Cancer Center in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. She is a board-certified genetic counselor with more than 23 years of experience in counseling hereditary cancer genetics. She is also a policy and peer review consultant for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and an expert resource for other Minnesota payers.

Haidle is a clinical preceptor in the Genetic, Cell Biology, and Development Department at the University of Minnesota. She has authored several practice guidelines and published articles on topics such as Lynch syndrome and juvenile polyposis. She has a special interest in public policy, appropriate utilization of genetic tests, and identifying individuals/families at increased cancer risk that might benefit from heightened surveillance or risk reduction.

Haidle received a master’s degree in human genetics from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, and a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Timothy J. Pluard, MD, is the medical director for Saint Luke’s Cancer Institute, and the Koontz Endowed Chair of Breast Disease at University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine.  Prior to joining Saint Luke’s, Health System and UMKC, Dr. Pluard served as associate professor of Medicine at Washington University and clinical director, section of breast oncology at Siteman Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, at Washington University/Barnes Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis, MO.

Dr. Pluard is also the founder and director of the Saint Luke’s Koontz Center for Advanced Breast Cancer,  one of the only comprehensive centers in the nation focused exclusively on the needs of patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Dr. Pluard is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. He graduated from Washington University and received his fellowship training from Harvard Medical School at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.

Lillian D. Shockney, RN, MAS, ONN-CG, is the co-founder and program director at the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+) and is a university distinguished service professor of breast cancer and professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. A two-time breast cancer survivor, originally diagnosed in her 30s, Lillie has worked tirelessly to improve the care of breast cancer patients around the world.

Shockney serves on 28 medical advisory boards currently. She has authored 30 books and more than 350 articles on breast cancer, oncology navigation, survivorship, patient advocacy, communicating bad news, end of life, and most recently, chronic illness and complex care. She has received 61 awards—55 national awards and 6 state awards including being inducted into the Maryland Women Hall of Fame, Women in Business Healthcare Trailblazer Award, Johnson & Johnson’s Most Amazing Nurse in America award, National Komen for the Cure’s Professor of Survivorship award, and several national lifetime achievement awards. Her research area of focus is preservation of quality of life for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Shockney received a master's degree in business administration from the Johns Hopkins University, a Bachelor of Science degree in healthcare administration from St. Joseph’s College, and a nursing diploma from MacQueens Gibbs Willis School of Nursing.

Imee Unto, RN, MSN, OCN, is the regional administrator of the Florida Hospital, Central Division, North Region, Oncology Service Line. In this capacity she is responsible for the management and supervision of oncology operations in six campuses, including radiation oncology, radiation nursing, and the radiation business office. Ms. Unto oversees clinical research, nurse navigation, genetic counseling, and psychosocial support programs. Additionally is oversees American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and NQMBC program accreditation  coordination, planning, and execution.

Previously she served as director of the University of Illinois Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center, an outpatient academic oncology center and a Level 1 Trauma Center on the west side of Chicago, part of the University of Illinois academic and healthcare system. She was senior director of clinical operations for Seasons Hospice and Palliative in Illinois. Ms. Unto also served as director of cancer care and palliative care services at Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Kari Wisinski, an associate professor of Medicine, joined the University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health and the UW Carbone Cancer Center in 2008. Her clinical practice centers on the treatment of patients with breast cancer or at high risk for developing breast cancer. She is the physician lead for the breast high-risk clinic and medical director for the inpatient medical oncology service.

Dr. Wisinski’s research focuses on early-phase clinical trials for new agents for breast cancer.  She currently serves as the principal investigator (PI) or study chair on multiple clinical trials, including a CTEP-sponsored investigator-initiated phase I trial, two sub-protocols of the NCI MATCH study, and a R01 funded window-of-opportunity trial.  Since 2012, she has been co-director of the Wisconsin Oncology Network. This is a research network of academic and private practice oncology groups throughout Wisconsin. In 2014, she became co-leader of the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium Breast Cancer Working Group and helped steer this network’s first breast cancer trials to activation.

She earned her medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She then completed her residency at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a hematology and medical oncology fellowship at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University in Chicago.