(WASHINGTON, July 3, 2024) –The ASH Research Collaborative® (ASH RC) is proud to announce its Board of Directors, a diverse group of hematologists and data, health systems, and informatics experts committed to advancing critical research and accelerating positive change for people living with hematologic conditions. The ASH RC supports the overall mission of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and is a supporting organization to the Society.

The Board will set overall strategic direction, ensure alignment with ASH priorities, foster collaborative partnerships to accelerate progress in hematology and provide counsel to the ASH RC leadership.

The ASH RC is governed by its Board of Directors composed of the chair, vice chair, secretary-treasurer, two liaisons to ASH, six directors, and an ex-officio member.

The ASH RC will be recruiting for a vice chair and a director position at a future time.

They are as follows:

Mark A. Crowther, MD, MSc, LLM, FRCPC, FRSC
Chair (2024-2025)

Dr. Crowther is a classical hematologist with over three decades of experience as a physician, educator, and leader in clinical research. He brings invaluable expertise to the ASH RC Board through his experience at St. Joseph’s Health System (SJHH) in Canada, where he participated in the Hospital Foundation and St. Joseph’s Health System International Outreach Program Board –where he oversaw its educational work in several low and middle-income countries as Chair — and served as founding director of the Research Institute at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Crowther is passionate about improving care and patient safety through evidence-based interventions and currently serves as a distinguished university professor, endowed chairholder, and chair of the Department of Medicine at McMaster University. He is a past Chair of the Department of Pathology and Medicine and has served as Vice President of Research for SJHH. Dr. Crowther previously served as ASH treasurer, inaugural Chair of the Quality Committee, liaison to the Trainee Council, and a member of the Clinical Research Training Institute (CRTI) Oversight Committee, as well as a faculty member for the CRTI for multiple years over its initial decade of development.

Gary J. Schiller, MD
Secretary/Treasurer (2024-2025)

Dr. Schiller brings over 30 years of experience as a clinician and an impressive background conducting multicenter trials focused on hematologic malignancies and blood and marrow transplantation to his new position on the ASH RC Board. He serves as the current director of the Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplant Program at the University of California’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Schiller has been deeply involved and held several positions at ASH over the length of his career, including serving as chair of the ASH Foundation Committee.

Linda J. Burns, MD
Liaison to the ASH Executive Committee (2024-2025)

Dr. Burns is committed to best practices in governance, transparent communication, cultivating relationships, and maintaining alignment with ASH’s values, mission, and culture. She currently serves as a consultant and senior scientific director for the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Dr. Burns is a highly accomplished clinician and clinical trialist, having had a distinguished academic career as a tenured professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. As a proven leader, she is passionate about identifying and removing barriers to care, optimizing clinical outcomes through research, and patient engagement. Dr. Burns has been an active contributor to ASH training, awards, communications, and quality programs, serving as chair of the Committee on Training, chair of the CRTI Oversight Subcommittee, co-chair of the ASH Quality Task Force, and chair of the Beutler Award Study Section. As a leader at ASH, she served as ASH treasurer from 2008-2012 and ASH president in 2014.

Roy L. Silverstein, MD
Liaison to the ASH Executive Committee (2024-2026)

Dr. Silverstein’s demonstrated commitment to ASH’s mission and extensive research experience will serve him in his role on the ASH RC Board. He is a highly respected professor and chair emeritus in the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Department of Medicine and serves as a senior investigator at the Versiti Blood Research Institute, where he focuses on the underlying mechanisms of vascular diseases, including thrombosis, angiogenesis, and atherosclerosis. Dr. Silverstein’s engagement with ASH is extensive and includes roles as ASH president in 2019, chair of the ASH Committee on Government Affairs, chair of the ASH Program Committee, chair of the ASH Advocacy Leadership Institute, and editor of The Hematologist.

Bob Löwenberg, MD, PhD
Director (2024-2025)

Dr. Löwenberg’s leadership as a co-founder and past president of the European Hematology Association and in international, multicenter prospective phase I-II and phase III leukemia clinical trials has allowed him to curate the expertise needed for his role as board director. His previous roles at ASH, which include serving as an ASH Executive Committee councillor, chair of the Scientific Committee on Transplantation Biology Cellular Therapies, and chair of the International Members Committee and Editor-in-Chief of Blood, the premier journal in hematology, lend him societal insight and demonstrate his diverse commitment to scientific collaboration. Dr. Löwenberg currently is a professor of hematology at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Christopher (Chris) P. Boone, PhD, FACHE, FHIMSS
Director (2024-2026)

Dr. Boone will bring his strong background in data analysis and research methodologies to the ASH RC Board. His commitments to data-driven decision-making, clinical research informatics, and scientific collaboration are central to his current roles as group vice president of life sciences research services at Oracle Corporation and adjunct professor of health administration at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. Dr. Boone previously served as vice president and head of global medical epidemiology and big data analysis at Pfizer in addition to vice president and global head of health economics and outcomes research at AbbVie.

Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, MACP
Director (2024-2026)

Dr. Burstin’s leadership in healthcare quality and equity, quality measurement, and advanced data strategies will inform her work as board director. She is the chief executive officer of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, a coalition of more than 50 specialty societies representing more than 800,000 physicians, where she has worked alongside specialty society registries to mitigate data and measurement challenges. Dr. Burstin has a passion for healthcare quality and equity, evident in her advancement of quality measurement and improvement while chief scientific officer at the National Quality Forum and her co-lead of the first National Healthcare Disparities Report while director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships.

Andrew (Andy) M. Evens, DO, MBA, MSc
Director (2024-2025)

Dr. Evens will bring his data collaboration and research expertise to the ASH RC Board, including his experience as the co-founder and co-principal investigator of the international Hodgkin lymphoma consortium, HoLISTIC (Hodgkin Lymphoma International STudy for Individual Care). This NCI-funded project leverages decision modeling to estimate morbidity and mortality based on over 30,000 worldwide individual patient data cases. Dr. Evens is also an accomplished healthcare executive who currently serves as deputy director for clinical services of Rutgers Cancer Institute, associate vice chancellor for clinical innovation and data analytics with Rutgers Health, and system director of medical oncology and oncology lead for the RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group, delivering innovative, high-quality, and integrated cancer care with more than 300 oncology providers across 15 hospitals throughout New Jersey. He brings extensive experience as an author for the ASH Practice Improvement Modules from 2012-2015, and the ASH Self-Assessment Program from 2019-2021. He has been an educational speaker at multiple ASH Annual Meetings over the past 15+ years in the US and internationally.

Mark Ginsky, JD, MBA
Director (2024)

Mr. Ginsky brings a unique skill set to the ASH RC Board as a trained lawyer and business leader. In his legal role at Covance, he supported the laboratory, clinical trial, and market access businesses of the company before transitioning to a business role there where he oversaw the market access business which provided health economics and outcomes research consulting, reimbursement, and policy consulting, and patient support program support to the biopharmaceutical industry. These experiences, in addition to his former role as chief operating officer of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and current position as EVP and general counsel at Medable, a clinical trial technology company, will allow him to contribute a business-informed perspective to the ASH RC Board.

Martha Liggett, Esq.
Ex-Officio Member

Ms. Liggett is the current executive director of ASH. Prior to taking on the role in 1996, she held several board and leadership positions in the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, the American Society of Association Executives, and the Association Mutual Health Insurance Company. Ms. Liggett has a strong background in law and the dentistry field. She received her law degree from Georgetown University and subsequently served as an associate professor in its school of dentistry in addition to serving as an assistant professor at Boston University School of Dental Medicine and Assistant Executive Director at the American Association of Dental Schools. Under Ms. Liggett’s guidance and expertise, ASH has undertaken self-publication of its journals, established the ASH RC, and launched flagship efforts including the ASH Sickle Cell Disease Initiative.

For more information about ASH RC governance, please email governance@ashrc.org.