President Barack Obama has nominated Scott Hiebert, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and associate professor of Medicine, to serve as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB).
Hiebert is the Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and is associate director of Basic Research and of Shared Resources at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). He is among six people nominated to the federal board.
The NCAB Board consists of 18 members appointed by the president to advise the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Individuals are selected from among leading representatives in health and science, along with members of the general public, including leaders in public policy, law, health policy, economics, management and the environment. Members are appointed to serve for overlapping terms of six years.
“I am honored and humbled to be nominated for service on the NCAB, which plays an invaluable role in cancer policy and research support,” said Hiebert, who runs the Hiebert Laboratory for Cancer Research at VICC. “I am looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with other board members in support of the mission of the NCI.”
Among other activities, the NCAB reviews grant applications for research, training, health care information and programs for cancer patients and their families.
“Scott Hiebert is a remarkable scientist who has made significant contributions to cancer research as well as held leadership roles at VICC and nationally. He is highly qualified to serve in this national role,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., executive vice president for Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and director of VICC. “We are all proud of Scott’s appointment to this advisory board which helps shape policy for cancer research and support programs in the U.S.”
Pietenpol is an alumna of the NCAB, having recently completed service on the cancer board. She was appointed by former president George W. Bush.
Hiebert received his Bachelor of Science from Bethel College, N. Newton, Kansas, and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He pursued postdoctoral studies at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, as an American Cancer Society fellow and Howard Hughes Research Associate.
In 1991 he moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he served as an assistant member of the Department of Tumor Cell Biology.
He joined the Vanderbilt University faculty in 1997, where his laboratory research focuses on the molecular basis for leukemia development while testing new “epigenetic” therapies for blood-related cancers.
In his role as associate director of VICC’s Basic Research and Shared Resources efforts, Hiebert oversees programs that include more than 100 faculty members and more than $50 million in research funding from public and private sources.
Hiebert also serves as chair of the scientific advisory board of the Edward P. Evans Foundation. He is highly published in the cancer field and currently has three research grants from the NCI as well as a grant to support the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
