Director of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health seeks a visionary and distinguished academic leader to serve as Director of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC), Wisconsin's only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. This is an exceptional opportunity for an innovative director to coalesce an internationally recognized group of scientists and clinicians around a new and bold strategic plan.

With roots dating to the 1930s and awarding of its first National Cancer Center (NCI) grant in 1946, UWCCC was established in 1973 as one of the original NCI-designated centers. The center is a premier hub for cancer research, education, community engagement, and clinical care. The center unites more than 244 researchers across 38 academic departments and 9 schools and colleges at UW-Madison. Each year, UWCCC serves more than 33,000 patients and oversees patient accrual to over 250 clinical trials, underscoring its profound commitment to translating scientific discovery into impactful, patient-centered care.

This leadership opportunity is situated within one of the nation's leading public universities, home to more than $1.7 billion in annual research expenditures and a long-standing commitment to the Wisconsin Idea-the principle that the university should improve lives throughout the state and beyond. The center's statewide and national impact is further amplified through its partnership with UW Health and the Wisconsin Community Advisory Board, as well as its role in the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium, and as part of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

The new Director will join a nationally respected academic medical center and lead a multidisciplinary enterprise with a strong tradition of innovation in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. UWCCC's scientific mission spans six key research areas and encompasses the full translational continuum including basic science to population health, and clinical science. Major initiatives include advanced diagnostic imaging, theranostics, precision oncology, biomarker-driven clinical interventions, oncogenesis, survivorship, and immunotherapy. The Director will lead an outstanding team of associate directors, faculty, and staff to advance the center's mission and ensure continued success in its core pillars of research, clinical care, education and community partnership.

Reporting to Dr. Nita Ahuja, MD, MBA, the Dean of the School of Medicine and Public Health and Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs at UW-Madison, the Director will oversee UWCCC's strategic vision and operations, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration across the UW-Madison campus and beyond. The Director will sit on the Dean's senior leadership team. There is a strong relationship between the School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health. Both envision the UWCCC as a major area of excellence, as a regional and national destination center, and one where there is a symbiosis of excellence in clinical care and research. As such, the Director will have a dotted line reporting relationship and open access to UWHealth CEO Alan Kaplan, MD, demonstrating a strongly shared vision for excellence in cancer prevention, care and research in partnership with the Director.

The successful candidate will be a nationally recognized physician-scientist or investigator with a strong record of NCI-funded research, academic achievement, and collaborative leadership. Applicants must hold an MD, MD/PhD, DO, PhD or equivalent degree and possess qualifications for a tenured faculty appointment at the rank of full professor.

This is a defining moment to lead a well-established, mission-driven cancer center into its next era of growth and impact. The next Director will have the opportunity to build on UWCCC's rich legacy and further elevate its standing as a national leader in cancer research and care.

• Oversees operational infrastructure, resource allocation, and financial health of UWCCC, ensuring compliance with institutional, state, and federal requirements.

• Works in partnership with School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health leadership to secure institutional investment, philanthropic support, and strategic external funding.

• Utilizes data and metrics to evaluate performance, inform decision-making, and drive continuous improvement across the cancer center's missions.

• Establishes goals and to drive continuous improvement across all domains of the UWCCC.

• Fosters a culture of excellence, transparency, and collaboration across all UWCCC programs, departments, and affiliated entities.

• Builds and supports multidisciplinary teams across the university, School of Medicine and Public Health, and broader campus partners.

• Develops future leaders in oncology through mentorship, faculty development, and robust training programs.

• Collaborates closely with UW Health and affiliated systems to expand access to high-quality, research-driven cancer care across Wisconsin.

• Encourages the development and adoption of innovative clinical trials, therapies, and models of care that distinguish UWCCC regionally and nationally.

• Ensures that clinical operations reflect the latest evidence-based practices and are integrated with academic and research goals.

• Promotes cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research across basic, translational, clinical, and population sciences, leveraging the university's broad scientific ecosystem.

• Drives recruitment and retention of premier investigators and clinician-scientists across UW-Madison to expand the cancer center's research portfolio.

• Guides preparation and submission of the NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) and ensures the center maintains its Comprehensive status with exemplary peer review outcomes.

• Articulating the overarching vision, mission and strategy for the UWCCC.

• Advancing the visibility of the UWCCC as a national leader in cancer research and patient care.

• Focusing on the needs of Wisconsin communities and beyond.

• Leading efforts to launch new cancer initiatives in education, research, and clinical care.

• Creating synergies among the UWCCC and the UW campus.

• Expanding the level and impact of basic, translational, clinical, and population-based cancer research, including research responsive to the priorities of Wisconsin communities.

• Fostering growth in NCI funding and collaborative peer-reviewed awards.

• Enhancing bidirectional communication with communities in the center's catchment areas.

• Enriching clinical research accrual.

• Assisting in the recruitment of new faculty members.

• Increasing educational initiatives.

• Implementing innovative clinical programs, evaluating and improving clinical outcomes, and establishing value-based oncology services in partnership with UW Health.

• Oversight of all oncology research initiatives.

• Leadership of all cancer related fundraising activities.

• Accountability for the development, management, and adherence of the center's finances.

• Participation in professional, public, and university service appropriate to the faculty rank.

• Strengthens UWCCC's role as a statewide resource, engaging with community members, health systems, public health leaders, and policymakers to improve cancer outcomes across Wisconsin.

• Champions access to care and broad participation in research across all populations.

• Expands outreach and education programs to support cancer prevention, early detection, and survivorship initiatives throughout the state.

• Leads the overarching strategic vision and execution for UWCCC, aligning cancer research, education, and clinical programs with institutional priorities.

• Advances the mission of UWCCC as a statewide and national leader in cancer care and scientific discovery, integrating academic, clinical, and population health strategies.

• Strengthens the center's national profile and influence, especially within the National Cancer Institute (NCI) network and other peer institutions.

• Strategically expand UWCCC's research infrastructure prioritizing investments in cutting edge technologies and core services essential for modern cancer research.

School of Medicine and Public Health

The University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center serves as the state's leading institution for cancer research and care, functioning as a central component of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, UW Health, and numerous statewide initiatives. Established in 1973 as the first and only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Wisconsin, UWCCC has continuously maintained this prestigious designation for over five decades. With a successive peer review rating of "outstanding," it ranks amongst the top of the 73 NCI-designated cancer centers nationwide, a testament to its excellence in science, patient care, and community outreach. The core grant will be up for renewal in 2029.

As a multidisciplinary enterprise, UWCCC brings together 244 researchers from 38 academic departments across 9 schools and colleges on the UW-Madison campus. The center encompasses 389,000 square feet of collaborative research space and supports more than 800 active, funded research projects. Each year, UWCCC conducts over 250 clinical trials and provides care to more than 35,000 patients. In 2016, UWCCC was awarded their first NIH-funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) for head and neck Cancer, and their second SPORE was awarded in 2023 for prostate cancer research. UWCCC also plays a pivotal role in education and workforce development, training more than 400 individuals in clinical and research disciplines annually. UWCCC was one of the 30 inaugural NCTN Lead Academic Programs (LAPS grant) in 2014 and has had greater than 500 patients accrued to late phase clinical trials in the current grant cycle - 27% of which were individuals with rare tumors.

UWCCC's scientific mission is organized around six integrated programs that span basic, clinical, and population sciences. Strategic research priorities include advancing diagnostic imaging and theranostics, expanding precision and immunologic therapies, developing biomarker-driven clinical interventions, enhancing cancer modeling and impacting the public's health. Key academic partners include the Department of Human Oncology (which is undergoing a name change to Department of Radiation Medicine), the Department of Medicine's Division of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care, each of the surgical oncology disciplines in the Departments of Surgery, Urology, Gynecology, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics and Orthopedics, and the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research (Department of Oncology).

Patient care is located within two primary locations within Madison including the primary UW Health hospital as well as in the recently opened Eastpark Medical Center, which is a new 475,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art multispecialty ambulatory center with a strong orientation and major investment to advance carcer care and research. The medical center features theranostics facilities, radiation oncology - including the nation's first upright proton beam, infusion center, and clinical trials offices. It is geographically positioned to serve as a regional destination center located near two major instated highways and the airport. Additional sites throughout the region, include Johnson Creek, Waukesha, and Rockford, Illinois. This clinical reach ensures broad access to state-of-the-art cancer care across urban and rural communities.

Community engagement is a core element of UWCCC's mission, with over 130 outreach activities, 25 annual public events, and engagement with eight stakeholder groups. The center collaborates with community constituent groups advance cancer care and research throughout all populations. Programs such as the Precision Medicine Molecular Tumor Board and UWCCC's leadership in the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium exemplify its commitment to translating innovation into impact through regional and national collaboration.

Philanthropy is critical to the success of the UWCCC raises more than $15 million annually. The UWCCC Innovation Fund and Venture Philanthropy Program represents a unique partnership between the UWCCC and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), providing a novel investment vehicle for leaders to direct seed funding for promising new ideas, expanding research capabilities, supporting faculty recruitment, and advancing the development of innovative products and approaches to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer.

UWCCC engages a 32-member Advisory Board, made up of community and business leaders focused on elevating the awareness of the center. The Advisory Board has been key in supporting the cancer center in establishing philanthropic priorities to defeat cancer through research, diagnosis, prevention and treatment.

Guided by a servant-leadership model, UWCCC's leadership team emphasizes transparent decision-making, responsiveness to stakeholder needs, and a culture of continuous improvement. Through this approach, UWCCC continues to attract top-tier faculty and clinicians, foster innovation, and deliver nationally recognized cancer care, research, and education to the people of Wisconsin and beyond.

Negotiable, 12-month

• Board certified and eligible for Wisconsin medical license for practicing physicians.

• Meet criteria for a tenure appointment at the full professor rank at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Knowledge and Work Experience

• Significant leadership experience and demonstrated success as a leader at the chair, associate director, director or program leader level within an academic medical center, and/or cancer center/institute, including successful experience in the recruitment, retention, and management of researchers and clinicians.

• Strong organizational, management, financial, and budgetary skills with the ability to bring scientific leadership and organization innovation to the management of people and processes.

• A demonstrated ability to think strategically with a vision of how to develop cancer research and services for the future while keeping an eye on the details of the implementation; ability to articulate a vision that will promote and integrate cancer research, care, and education across UWCCC and the community.

• A proven background in recruitment, mentoring, and development of outstanding academic and administrative leadership. A dedicated leader and mentor to scientists, clinicians, and staff.

• A strong personal track record of significant continuous funding, ideally with an NCI-funded research program, preferably both individual grant funding as well as multi-investigator grant funding-and peer-reviewed publications.

• A demonstrated ability to work well in a highly matrixed organization.

• A distinguished academic record and national presence in one's discipline as evidenced by such activity as major journal editorial responsibility, a senior officer position in one's major national organization, regular participation on NCI study sections or equivalent experience.

• A proven ability to build strong teams as well as to work as a team member with one's colleagues in management and in team leadership positions with one's direct reports.

• An ability to grow revenue and attract external funding from institutions and through philanthropic efforts.

• A demonstrated record of building strong teams, both within and across disciplines. Evidence of support for interdisciplinary research and clinical program development is highly valued.

• An intimate understanding of the NCI with experience gained within an NCI-designated cancer center including involvement in grant renewals.

Leadership Skills and Competencies

• Strategic in orientation, with a positive and clear vision for the future direction of cancer research and clinical care.

• Proven leadership and management skills with the ability to inspire and align faculty and staff.

• A strong communicator and diplomat who inspires and effectively communicates with wide variety of audiences at all levels of the organization and externally.

• Analytical and data driven; uses metrics to support key decisions.

• A strong track record of integrity, credibility, and a demonstrated capacity to build trusting relationships, and a management style that seeks to share information and welcomes input into the decision-making process.

• A collaborative approach and demonstrated ability to take an institutional view.

• A confident style, genuine and able to relate effectively with people at all levels.

• Demonstrated political acumen and the necessary skills to constructively balance the interests of multiple stakeholders.

MD, MD/PhD, DO, PhD or equivalent degree.

Please direct all applications, nominations and inquiries to the WittKieffer consultants, Jeff Schroetlin, Andrew Bean, PhD, Megan Welch and Imran Ali assisting University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center with this recruitment, preferably via e-mail, to UWCarboneCCDir@wittkieffer.com.

All applications, nominations and inquiries are invited. Applications should include, as separate documents, a CV/resume and a letter of interest. The deadline for assuring full consideration is September 30, 2025; however, the position will remain open and applications may be considered until the position is filled.

Jeff Schroetlin, Andrew Bean, PhD, Megan Welch and Imran Ali assisting University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center with this recruitment, preferably via e-mail, to UWCarboneCCDir@wittkieffer.com.

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