Debra Friedman, M.D.
Friedman named interim director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Debra Friedman, M.D., has been named interim director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
She succeeds Jim Whitlock, M.D., Craig-Weaver Professor of Pediatrics, who served as director of the division for 11 years. Whitlock earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt School of Medicine in 1984, and completed his residency and fellowship training here. He joined the faculty of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology in 1991.
Friedman is the E. Bronson Ingram Chair in Pediatric Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics, leader of the Cancer Control and Prevention Program at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and director of the REACH (Resources, Research, Education, Clinical Care, Health Promotion) for Survivorship Program, a collaborative venture between the Department of Pediatrics, the Children's Hospital and the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
“I am very pleased that Deb has taken on this challenge during a period of transition. She is a dedicated physician and an established investigator who has already distinguished herself through leadership of the Cancer Survivorship program,” said Jonathan Gitlin, M.D., chair of the Department of Pediatrics, assistant vice chancellor for Maternal and Child Health Affairs and associate dean for Clinical Affairs in the School of Medicine.
“Jim Whitlock is an extraordinary clinician who led the division with distinction for more than a decade, and we have now begun an international search for a physician-scientist to lead the division into the future,” Gitlin said.
Friedman came to Vanderbilt in 2008 from Seattle where she was director of the LiveStrong Survivorship Center of Excellence at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and director of the Cancer Survivorship Program at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center.
She earned her medical degree from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She completed a residency in General Pediatrics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and fellowships in Hematology-Oncology at the Children's Hospital and Cancer Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.