Endowed chairs, directors and master clinicians are powerful recruitment tools for University Hospitals, as Ted Teknos, MD, President and Scientific Director, UH Seidman Cancer Center, can attest. Dr. Teknos himself holds the Jane and Lee Seidman Chair in Cancer Innovation and, in his UH leadership role, leverages endowed positions to hire and retain the best and brightest in cancer care.  

Over the past two years, Dr. Teknos has used endowed positions to recruit new physicians from leading institutions and retain outstanding talent already at UH, including:

• Pierre Lavertu, MD, Medical Director, Surgical Oncology and the Homer D. W. Chisholm and Gertrude Kalnow Chisholm Chair in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology
• Suresh Mendpara, MD, MBA, Oncologist and Patricia and Kenneth I. Cleveland Master Clinician in Hematology & Oncology
• Corey Speers, MD, PhD, Co-Director of the Breast Oncology Program and Hennessy Hyland Master Clinician in Immunotherapy and New Drug Development
• Daniel Spratt, MD, Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology and Vincent K. Smith Chair in Radiation Oncology
• Koen van Besien, MD, PhD, Director of the Wesley Center for Immunotherapy and Don C. Dangler Chair in Stem Cell Transplant

Invested for the Future

“Endowed positions are rare and very prestigious, so it’s a real differentiator when we are hiring in a competitive market,” said Dr. Teknos, explaining that the titles give physicians-scientists a perpetual income stream for leading-edge research and clinical innovation. This financial freedom allows them to explore research that may not yet qualify for governmental funding, but could still have a significant impact on patient care.

For Dr. Teknos, adding people from outside academic medical centers benefits patient care system-wide.

“New physicians come with new perspectives and ideas; they also often bring talented people with them to staff their labs. Consequently, our research mission has been able to move forward at a much quicker pace. We now have more clinical trials to offer patients and unique treatment plans that are combined from many different training programs.”

Dr. Teknos said none of this would be possible without the individuals and families who establish endowed positions. Today, UH has more than 150 endowed chairs, directors and master clinicians, each the result of generous philanthropy.

“We are lucky at UH Seidman Cancer Center to have supporters that are very invested in our success.”