2 Fred Hutch leaders receive PSBJ Health Care Leadership Awards

Dr. Gary Gilliland: Visionary Award

Gilliland, an internationally renowned expert in cancer genetics and precision medicine, has been at the helm of Fred Hutch since January 2015 and recently announced his plans to step down next year.

“Over the past five years, we’ve accomplished so much,” he told PSBJ reporter Coral Garnick. “And so, this is the perfect moment to recruit a new president and director. The best leaders understand the importance of placing the organization first and of effective transition and succession. I believe it’s time to open the door to a leader who can guide the organization into the next decade.”

In the past five years, Gilliland’s accomplishments have included diversifying and growing the center’s faculty by 20%, acquiring the historical Lake Union Steam Plant Building adjacent to the Hutch campus (former location of Zymogenetics) to grow its laboratory research space and creating three integrated research centers to foster collaboration in immunotherapy, pathogen-associated malignancies and data science.

Under Gilliland’s leadership, the Hutch has also grown its endowed research chairs ninefold and has seen an increase of nearly 50% in federal funding, putting the Hutch at the top of freestanding research institutes in National Institutes of Health grants. Other notable accomplishments during his watch include the Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium recently receiving an “exceptional” score (the highest ranking) from the National Cancer Institute as part of its Cancer Center Support Grant renewal process.

Gilliland, a physician-scientist with a background in academic medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, has made major contributions to the genetic basis of blood diseases, particularly leukemia. His research has led to new, precise treatments that stop cancer while causing minimal side effects.

Dr. Nancy Davidson: Researcher of the Year

In addition to leading the Hutch’s Clinical Research Division since 2016, Davidson has served as president and director of the nationally recognized Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the Hutch’s clinical-care partner, where she treats breast cancer patients. She also heads the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

How is she able to wear so many hats? “My responsibilities are all part of a single goal shared by SCCA/Hutch/UW — to reduce the burden of cancer through clinical care, research, education and community outreach,” she told PSBJ’s Garnick. “It is a privilege to be able to continue to care for individuals with breast cancer because it reminds me every day about the challenges that our patients face and the problems that we must solve, both in the lab and in the clinic, to optimize their care.”

Davidson, who holds the Raisbeck Endowed Chair for Collaborative Research at Fred Hutch, is a world-renowned breast cancer researcher who has teased out the role of hormones in the growth and progression of the disease. She has also had a major impact on the development of new treatments for breast cancer that exploit the vulnerabilities of breast cancer cells.

She is past president of the American Association of Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO — the two largest organizations for cancer researchers and oncology professionals in the world. In 2018 Davidson received the ASCO Allen S. Lichter Visionary Leader Award, named in honor of the organization’s former chief executive officer. Her other honors include being elected to the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians. Earlier this year she was elected to the 239^th class of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a distinction she shares with more than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.