Faculty

Meet the Chief

Karen Ballen, MD

Dr. Karen Ballen is a professor of medicine at UVA School of Medicine and serves as the Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology.

Dr. Ballen received her undergraduate degree in history and literature from Harvard College and her doctorate from Dartmouth Medical School. She completed her medical residency at Beth Israel Hospital and a hematology/oncology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. Before joining UVA’s faculty in 2017, Dr. Ballen was the director of the Leukemia Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Ballen’s research interests include novel therapeutic strategies for acute leukemia, including immunotherapy and targeted agents. She is an international expert in stem cell transplants, particularly for patients who have difficulty finding a donor. Dr. Ballen started one of the first cord blood banks in the United States, and she has published over 150 articles on transplants and acute leukemia. She is on the advisory committee of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research and the chair of the cord blood advisory committee for the National Marrow Donor Program.

In her spare time, Dr. Ballen likes to hike. She and her daughter climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2016.

Clinical Faculty Clinical Faculty, UVA Community Oncology Research Faculty

Hematology-Oncology Research Faculty

Choose a faculty member to view his or her research profile. Links go to the School of Medicine Research Faculty Directory; use the back button to return to the Hem/Onc division website.

Brenin, Christiana M.

Breast cancer clinical trials for early stage and metastatic breast cancer in selected patient populations.

Densmore, John J.

Malignant hematology (lymphoma, myeloma, leukemia)

Dillon, Patrick M.

Development of clinical trials in breast cancer; cancer immunotherapy; cancer survivorship improvement; cancer and aging.

Douvas, Michael G.

Clinical research in hematologic malignancies, fertility preservation, and quality improvement.

Dreicer, Robert

Novel therapeutic approaches for urologic cancers including prostate, urothelial and kidney cancers.

Feith, David

Cell signaling and survival pathways, genetic alterations, and development of experimental therapeutics; large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia; acute myeloid leukemia (AML); role of polyamines in normal and neoplastic growth in the skin, upper aerodige

Garrett-Bakelman, Francine

Acute Myeloid Leukemia: molecular and cellular biology events which mediate aberrant epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms during disease establishment and progression

Gaughan, Elizabeth M.

Melanoma, Head and Neck Cancer, Genitourinary malignancies, Drug development, Cancer Immunotherapy

Gentzler, Ryan D.

Lung cancer, novel therapies, cancer immunology, and targeted therapy

Hall, Richard Delmar

Clinical trial design and development for novel therapeutics and immunotherapy for the treatment of lung cancer.

Keng, Michael K

Clinical trials in hematologic malignancies, including myelodysplastic syndromes and leukemias with special interest in treating the elderly population, determining optimal combinations and timing of targeted agents in MDS and leukemia, and studying patie

Loughran, Jr., Thomas P

Hematologic malignancies; bone marrow disorders; leukemia; large granular lymphocyte (LGL)

Lum, Lawrence G.

Cancer immunotherapy

Maitland, Hillary S

Hemostasis and thrombosis

Portell, Craig Anthony

Clinical trials in hematologic malignancies including leukemias and lymphomas, with special interest in determining optimal combinations and timing of targeted agents in B-cell leukemias and lymphomas.

Thakur, Archana

Dr. Thakur's research activities are focused on 1) developing new and innovative therapeutic approaches to enhance clinical and anti-tumor immune responses; 2) developing novel strategies to attenuate the immune suppressive cellular and humoral factors.