SIOP Board of Directors

Kathy Pritchard-Jones

SIOP President

Kathy Pritchard-Jones is President of SIOP and Professor of Paediatric Oncology at University College London (UCL) Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK. She is an internationally recognised expert in childhood kidney cancers, where she has extensive experience of running multi-centre and international clinical trials and translational research. She also works with epidemiologists and healthcare data scientists for international benchmarking and outcomes research. She has a track record of enabling partnership working to deliver quality improvement in complex care and to accelerate research across both adult and childhood cancer services. Throughout her career she has been an active member of the work of the national Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG), the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) and SIOP Europe. She has published over 250 articles in the field of childhood cancer.

Guillermo Luis Chantada

President Elect

Dr. Guillermo Luis Chantada graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and completed his postgraduate training in Clinical Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology- Oncology at the Hospital JP Garrahan at Buenos Aires where he served for 31 years. He is an associate member of the Oncology Service of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Barcelona, Spain. He is Principal Researcher of the National Council of Research in Argentina (CONICET). He is the Scientific Director at the Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Service of the Hospital Universitario Austral, Argentina and at the Hemato-oncology service of the Hospital Pereira Rossell in Montevideo, Uruguay. His major contributions are in the area of translational research in retinoblastoma where he worked the identification of innovative treatments, the characteristics of this tumor in developing countries and in depicting its mechanisms of molecular dissemination. He leads the Latin American treatment protocol at the Grupo de America Latina de Oncologia Pediatrica (GALOP) where is member of the Board. He serves as Coordinator of the European Retinoblastoma Group (EURbG). He leads the development of an anti-idiotype vaccine for neuroblastoma in a Latin American protocol. Other areas of interest include pediatric lymphomas and histiocytosis. He is Member of the St Jude Global Pediatric Medicine Department where he is Editor in Chief of Oncopedia at the Cure4kids portal. He is member of the Board at the Latin American Society of Pediatric Oncology (SLAOP).

Stephen Hunger

Treasurer

Dr. Hunger is Professor of Pediatrics, the Jeffrey E. Perelman Distinguished Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Oncology and Director of the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hunger is Professor of Pediatrics, the Jeffrey E. Perelman Distinguished Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Oncology and Director of the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hunger is an internationally recognized expert in the molecular genetics and treatment of childhood ALL and was Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group ALL Disease Committee from 2008-15 and leads the COG ALL TARGET project, which has led to major new insights into the genetics of ALL and identified important new therapeutic targets. Dr. Hunger also has an interest in global health with a focus on improving treatment for children with ALL in low and middle income countries.

Julia Challinor

Secretary General

Julia Challinor, (RN, PhD, MS in Education and MS in Med Anthropology) serves as a consultant for multiple international projects for childhood cancer and pediatric oncology nursing, including the APHON Spanish Chemotherapy/Biotherapy course in Latin America. She was the Educational Liaison for children with cancer and those who had survived their disease at the University of California, San Francisco from 1993-2003. During 1994-2006, she also headed A Tomorrow for Children Foundation and worked in partnership with pediatric oncology centers that are members of the Asociación de Hemato-Oncología Pediátrica de Centro America (AHOPCA), collaborating with Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (Canada) (POGO), and the Monza International School of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (Italy) (MISPHO). Recently she has participated in pediatric oncology nursing initiatives in Ethiopia and India. As the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) Advocacy Officer Julia has participated in the WHO Global Childhood Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) since 2018, the WHO (GICC) workshop in Lima Peru in 2019 and ongoing related nursing projects in the country. Other tasks include a continued role in WHO GICC nursing issues and the SIOP Global Mapping of Pediatric Oncology Services project.

Lillian Sung

Scientific Committee Chair

Dr. Sung joined the staff at The Hospital for Sick Children in September 2004 after completing fellowships in Haematology, Infectious Diseases and Clinical Investigation and receiving a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. She is a Paediatric Oncologist and Clinician Scientist with an independent research program focused on supportive care for children with cancer. Her overall goal is to optimize supportive care for children with cancer, with an aim to maximize quality of life, survival and cost-effectiveness. She is the Chair of Cancer Control and Supportive Care for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). This group oversees all studies of supportive care including studies related to symptom management and patient-reported outcomes. Her research program is currently focused on symptom screening and interventions to reduce fatigue in paediatric cancer patients. She holds a Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute Impact Grant and has previously received operating grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Institutes of Health (NIH, R21). She is the Co-Principal Investigator of the COG National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (UG1CA189955) and an NIH R25 in collaboration with the American Society of Hematology. Her clinical focus is on the inpatient care of children and adolescents with leukemia and lymphoma. She also has a major focus on research education. She has taught graduate courses for the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto since her faculty appointment and she currently co-directs an advanced randomized trials course. In addition, she has contributed to the development of the Clinical Research Training Institute supported by the American Society of Hematology and developed a research training course in Latin America and Qatar.

Muhammad Saghir Khan

Global Health Co-Chair

Muhhamad Saghir Khan (MD) is co chair of SIOP PODC. He is currently working as Specialist Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Physician at Tawam Hospital Al Ain United Arab Emirates. He completed his medical education including Pediatric Oncology fellowship from Pakistan, and had served as General Secretary of PSPO (Pakistan Society of Pediatric Oncology) during 2013-2014. He is former co chair of SIOP PODC Supportive Care working group (2014-2018). He has actively been involved in Pediatric Oncology East Mediterranean group (POEM) since it’s foundation. Saghir has contributed as leader/member of scientific committees for several National, Regional and International Pediatric Oncology Conferences. He played vital role as Scientific Co Chair of SIOP Asia 2019 held at Abu Dhabi.

Michael Sullivan

Global Health Co-Chair

Michael Sullivan is a Paediatric Oncologist and Neuro-Oncologist in the Children’s Cancer Centre, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, a Professor of Paediatrics, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, and an Honorary Professor of Paediatrics, University of Otago, New Zealand. A graduate of the University of Otago Medical School, he trained in Paediatrics and Paediatric Oncology in New Zealand and Australia and did his PhD in the Epigenetics of Wilms tumour. He has extensive experience in clinical trials and translational research, in particular hepatoblastoma. He is an executive member of SIOPEL and a member of the CHIC liver tumour consortium, SIOPEN, COG and ANZCHOG. Prior to moving to Melbourne in 2013, he was Chair of the New Zealand National Children’s Cancer Network and led the development of the New Zealand Late Effects Assessment Program and the New Zealand Children’s Cancer Registry. Dr. Sullivan has a long-term commitment to Paediatric Oncology in Developing Countries (PODC), especially in the Pacific and Oceania. Since 2006, he has been a member of the NZ Pacific Islands Working Group supporting the care of children with cancer in Fiji and the Pacific Islands, and more recently, he led the establishment of twinning programs with PNG, Timor-Leste and Laos. He is a member of the Melbourne Children’s Global Health and leads the Global Paediatric Oncology Program at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Dr. Sullivan is a member of the SIOP Advocacy Working Group, is the SIOP Liaison for the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and Continental President for SIOP Oceania. He is currently the co-chair of the SIOP PODC Adapted Treatment Working Group, and in 2020 he was elected Co-Chair elect of SIOP-PODC.

Alan Davidson

Advocacy Committee Chair

Prof. Alan Davidson is the head of the Paediatric Haematology-Oncology Service at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital (RCWMCH), which is recognised as one of the leading centres in sub-Saharan Africa. The service also treats the full spectrum of blood disorders, acts as a regional haemophilia centre and advises a large network of shared carers across sub-Saharan Africa through a telemedicine platform. His clinical and research interests include paediatric brain tumours, B-cell malignancy and other HIV-related cancers in children, genetic syndromes predisposing to childhood cancer, stem cell transplantation for primary immunodeficiency and adapted therapy regimens for low and middle income settings. He co-chairs South Africa’s annual Paediatric Brain Tumour Workshop and has previously chaired the South African Children’s Cancer Study Group. He served as the chair of the LOC for SIOP 2015 in Cape Town, and went on to serve as co-chair of the PODC’s Adapted Treatment Regimen Working Group and then co-chair the PODC committee from 2016 to 2019. He is also the vice-president of the Society for NeuroOncology’s sub-Saharan Africa branch.

As a professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Cape Town (UCT), he serves as director of postgraduate education, and is currently the president of the paediatric council of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. He also has an interest in paediatric haematology-oncology training having kickstarted UCT’s African Paediatric Fellowship Programme (APFP) in this area. The oncology component of APFP now operates with multiple partner institutions, and several stakeholders including Global Hope and St Jude. He also serves on the executive and boards of the Children’s Hospital Trust, the RCWMCH’s Facilities Board and RedX Radio which has played a pioneering role in radio for children by children.

Asim Belgaumi

Scientific Committee Chair Elect

Dr. Belgaumi graduated from Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi, and subsequently completed his Pediatric Residency at University of Texas, Houston, and a Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
He joined King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh, as a Consultant in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. He held several administrative roles here, and eventually was appointed the Vice Chair of the Department. In 2014 he moved to Qatar as Interim Division Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Sidra Medicine and Associate Professor in Clinical Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College – Qatar, where he remained until 2017. He then returned to the Aga Khan University, Karachi, where he is Professor of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs in the Medical College, and the Chief Medical Officer of the Aga Khan University Hospital. His main areas of interest are childhood leukemias and lymphomas. He is also trained in Palliative care and was instrumental in establishing programs in the hospitals he has been associated with. Over the past several years he has focused on national and regional development of care for children with cancer. He is a founding member of the Pakistan Society of Pediatric Oncology (PSPO) in 2008, and was elected its president in 2018; he will be finishing a second term in 2022. Regionally, he has been working within the Pediatric Oncology East and Mediterranean (POEM) Group since 2017, and is currently serving as the group president. He has a keen interest in research in the LMIC, and has been instrumental in research education and implementation of clinical trials in the region. He has been a member of the SIOP Scientific Committee since 2019.

Jaume Mora

Local Organizing Committee Chair-Barcelona

I’m a Pediatric Oncologist with a PhD in Molecular Oncology since 2003. After residency training in general pediatrics (1992-1995), I completed the pediatric Hematology and Oncology fellowship at MSKCC in New York (1996-1998). After, I did three years of Research Fellowship in molecular pathology, also at MSKCC (1999-2001). In 2002 I returned to Barcelona as the leader of the Pediatric Oncology Department at HSJD and created the Developmental tumor Biology Laboratory. From 2007 til 2012 I was the Head of the Pediatric Oncology Department. Since 2013 I’m the Scientific director of the Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona (PCCB) at HSJD.
I have published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in developmental oncology. My research focuses on the origin of Childhood tumors with contributions in neuroblastoma, Ewing sarcoma, retinoblastoma, Wilms tumor, and DIPG. I have been distinguished with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Young Investigator Award (YIA) in 2000; the 16th Schweisguth Prize of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) in 2001; and the ASCO Career Development Award in 2001. I won the first Research grant for pediatric Oncology of the Spanish Association against cancer (AECC)in 2006; the first Research Award of Translational Oncology of the FERO Society in 2009; and the First Martí Via Award of Translational Oncology of the Fundació Vallformosa in 2015.

Gemma Bryan

Young SIOP Network Chair

Gemma Bryan is a Research Fellow at the Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Her research interests are in communication, symptom reporting for children with cancer, the use of participatory methods in research with children, and in decision making for the management of pain and symptoms in children with chronic, life threatening and life-limiting conditions. During her time in Young SIOP she has been involved in the blog, social media and Education day committees. She is currently the Chair of the YS Board, and co-chair of the YS Education day.

Courtney E. Sullivan

Chair of the Nursing Committee

Dr. Sullivan is presently a postdoctoral research fellow at UAB where her research focuses on measuring pediatric oncology nursing quality and establishing an evidence-base of nursing-sensitive outcomes internationally. Her passion and focus are to support and enable nurses to improve practice and outcomes. Dr. Sullivan has worked with nurses internationally through St. Jude Global and other avenues for nearly a decade. She is presently the SIOP Nursing Network Chair and has been active in the Young SIOP Educational Day Working Group, Membership Committee, Global Health Nursing Working Group, and Baseline Nursing Standards. Dr. Sullivan is also engaged in the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) and is passionate about integrating nursing priorities within national childhood cancer control planning.

Jeffrey Dome

Continental President North America

Jeffrey Dome, MD, PhD, is chief of the Division of Oncology. Dr. Dome specializes in pediatric solid tumors, with an emphasis on Wilms Tumours and other pediatric kidney tumours. As chair of the Renal Tumour Committee for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), Dr. Dome oversees clinical trials for Wilms tumours and other childhood kidney cancers in more than 200 children’s hospitals. He has authored more than 30 articles and textbook chapters on pediatric kidney tumours.

Carmelo Rizzari

Continental President Europe

Carmelo Rizzari is Professor of Pediatrics and Head of the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Unit at the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Milano-Bicocca, MBBM Foundation, ASST Monza, Italy. He is currently Chair of the ALL Scientific Committee within the Italian Association of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (AIEOP) and is member of the steering committee of the ongoing international protocol, AIEOP-BFM ALL 2017, for first-line treatment of childhood ALL. He is also international co-Chair of the AIEOP-BFM ALL working group on asparaginase studies and co-Chair of the Clinical Trials Council for the European Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP-E).

Liliana Vasquez

Continental President Latin America

Pediatric Oncologist, International Consultant for Childhood Cancer, Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization
Master of Medical Research and Global Child Health
President of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Oncology (SLAOP)
Author of papers published in indexed journals on issues of childhood sarcomas, treatment abandonment, diagnostic delays, and global child health.

Joyce Kambugu

Continental President Africa

Claire Wakefield

Continental President Oceania

Prof. Claire Wakefield leads Australia’s largest Paediatric Psycho-Oncology Research Group, based in UNSW Medicine. Her research program aims to develop interventions to ameliorate long-term physical, social and mental health conditions in families affected by cancer. Her research covers psychosocial and behavioural domains, from the diagnosis of cancer in a child, through to their survivorship, or their family’s bereavement. Under her leadership, the Behavioural Sciences Unit (BSU) has expanded from 1 person in 2009 to more than 35 staff/students in 2020.

Hiroki Hori

Continental President Asia

Dr. Hiroki Hori is Professor at Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University in Tsu, Japan and a member of Japanese Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (the former chair of the international committee). He has been working for Japan Children’s Cancer Group, the first nationwide study group for childhood cancer in Japan launched in 2014. He is a physician with more than 30 years’ experiences of the practice and human resource development in the field of pediatric hematology/oncology, social care for children with cancer and their families, and translational research in pharmacology. He has also joined international medical cooperation with resource-limited countries in Africa as an expert of Japan International Co-operation Agency and has a strong will to contribute to the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer as a member of SIOP.