Trisha Wise-Draper, MD, PhD, will be the new division director for the Indiana University School of Medicine Division of Hematology/Oncology and the deputy director of the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. She will officially assume the role on Aug. 1.
Wise-Draper is an accomplished physician-scientist, specializing in the care of cancers in the head and neck and experimental therapeutics. She serves on several nationally recognized boards, reflecting her influence on the field’s scientific direction.
She is currently a professor at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center; section head of medical oncology, and head and neck disease group leader; co-leader of the Head and Neck Experimental Advancement Laboratory (HEAL); and deputy director for the Office of Clinical Research.
Wise-Draper earned her bachelor’s degree in zoology from Miami University Ohio, before attending medical school and completing her PhD in cancer biology at the University of Cincinnati. Her residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology/oncology and experimental therapeutics were also completed in Cincinnati. She is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.
Nationally, she chairs the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry Study Steering Group; is the medical oncology vice chair for the NRG Oncology Head and Neck Cancer Committee; and serves on the NCI Head and Neck Steering Committee. She is also senior editor for Clinical Cancer Research and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
While working in Cincinnati, Wise-Draper fostered a culture of growth and operational excellence while serving as medical director of the university's clinical trials office and its translational laboratory. She helped expand the clinical trials enterprise and built compliant, scalable systems.
Wise-Draper's research focuses on immunotherapy and precision oncology in head and neck cancer. Her work contributed to the design and execution of pivotal trials in this area, influenced the national standard of care, and built a collaborative translational research infrastructure that united a variety of teams for scientific excellence. Her discoveries have appeared in more than 120 peer-reviewed publications.
As a committed mentor and educator, Wise-Draper is dedicated to the training of future leaders in medicine, having mentored undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who now serve on the faculty at leading institutions.
More than 70 faculty-physicians make up the Division of Hematology/Oncology at IU School of Medicine. These doctors participate in nationally and internationally recognized medical research while providing exceptional education programs and patient care.
The division provides high-quality patient care at IU Health’s downtown academic health center, the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sydney & Lois Eskenazi Health, Richard L. Roudebush Indianapolis VA Medical Center as well as its suburban facilities, including IU Heath West and IU Health Schwarz Cancer Center.
