Boris C. Pasche was named president and CEO of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and chair of the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Oncology.
In these leadership roles and pending formal NCI approval, he will serve as the principal investigator of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Core Grant.
Pasche assumes the role Joseph Uberti served in an interim basis, following the retirement of Gerold Bepler.
Pasche arrives at Karmanos and WSU from Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, NC, where, in addition to his duties as an attending physician specializing in gastrointestinal malignancies, he held additional leadership and academic positions, including the Charles L. Spurr Endowed Chair of Cancer Research, chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology, and director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, during which he oversaw an expansion that resulted in a doubling of the program’s NCI funding, a hallmark of the strength of an organization’s research programs (The Cancer Letter, Feb. 25, 2022).
Additionally, he directed the reorganization of its scientific programs and recruited 72 new faculty members. These efforts led to the successful renewal of the NCI core grant in 2016 and again in 2021.
Over a career that stretches more than 30 years, Pasche has served in various clinical and academic positions.
He was chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he expanded the clinical and research programs, recruited 19 new faculty members, and tripled its funding. He was also deputy director of the University of Alabama Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to that, he was the founder of the Cancer Genetics Program at Northwestern University in Chicago.
At Karmanos, Pasche will set the strategic vision for the future growth and development of the Karmanos, the largest cancer provider and researcher in Michigan and northern Ohio, and implement that vision, which includes planning and evaluation, scientific direction, community outreach and engagement, coordinated delivery of multidisciplinary clinical cancer care, advancement and development activities through the Karmanos Cancer Foundation and organizational administration.
As chair of the WSU Department of Oncology, Pasche will provide the strategic vision, leadership and planning to advance the department’s cancer research and clinical care, including the recruitment of additional faculty to achieve this mission.
