ASH Directions
And The Winners Are …
ASH has announced the election of four new members to its Executive
Committee for terms beginning after the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting in
December. Martin S. Tallman, MD, will serve a one-year term as vice
president, followed by successive terms as president-elect and presi-
dent. Mark Crowther, MD, will serve a four-year term as treasurer, and
Belinda R. Avalos, MD, and Arnold Ganser, MD, will serve four-year
terms as councillor and international councillor, respectively.
“Drs. Tallman, Crowther, Avalos, and Ganser have been dedicated
leaders within ASH through their work on various committees. I want
to congratulate them on the results of the election,” said ASH President
Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH. “I look forward to their contributions
to the path forward for ASH and its membership.”
Dr. Tallman is the chief of the leukemia service at Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell
Medical College in New York City. He has been a member of ASH for 20
years and has served in various leadership roles representing the Society,
most recently as an ASH councillor. He is completing a three-year term as
the executive editor of Hematology, the Society’s education program book,
and he helped establish the ASH Meeting on Hematologic Malignancies in
2015 and continued to serve as co-chair through 2016.
“The most important issue facing hematology today is the remarkably
rapid pace of progress in the discovery, dissemination, and integration of
new knowledge,” said Dr. Tallman. “I believe that my past leadership ac-
tivities in ASH will enable me to effectively contribute to the strategic de-
cision of the Executive Committee and further ASH’s mission to promote
research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology.”
Dr. Crowther is the chair of the department of medicine at McMaster
University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He has been a member of ASH
for 24 years and serves as the co-chair of the ASH Education Program for
the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting. He previously served as the chair of the
ASH Committee on Quality and as a member of the venous thromboem-
bolism guideline coordination panel.
Dr. Avalos is the vice chair of the department of hematologic oncology
and blood disorders at the Levine Cancer Institute and a professor of medicine
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has been a member of
ASH for 25 years and has served as the chair of ASH’s Committee on Promo-
ting Diversity and as chair of The Hematologist Editor Search Committee.
Martin S. Tallman, MD Mark Crowther, MD
Belinda R. Avalos, MD Arnold Ganser, MD
Dr. Ganser is a professor of hematology and oncology and direc-
tor of the department of hematology, hemostasis, oncology, and stem
cell transplantation at Hannover Medical School in Germany and has
been a member of ASH for 29 years. He has served as chair of the ASH
International Members Committee and is the current co-chair of ASH’s
International Consortium on Acute Leukemias.
New Hydroxyurea Patient Resource
from ASH
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has re-
leased a booklet of general information about hydroxy-
urea, which is one of the few FDA-approved therapies
for sickle cell disease (SCD).
The online patient resource, created by a working
group of providers, individuals living with SCD, and
health literacy experts, explains what hydroxyurea is and
how it works in patient-friendly language and includes
real stories from people who have taken hydroxyurea.
Please visit hematology.org/SCD to download the re-
source and share it with patients and colleagues.
16
ASH Clinical News
December 2018