Folakemi T. Odedina, PhD, is an internationally recognized cancer researcher and academic leader. She has led global research programs for decades, primarily funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Defense. This research focuses on developing cost-effective, community-based behavioral intervention programs to address prostate cancer in Black males.  

Her research, education, training, and community outreach activities have exclusively focused on addressing health disparities in racial and ethnic minorities and underserved communities. As a behavioral scientist, she conducts behavioral research across the translational continuum to test behavioral models, confirm who will benefit from behavioral interventions, and examine how to deliver interventions in all settings.  

Dr. Odedina’s research program has developed and validated multiple behavioral models that include multi-level assessment of barriers and facilitators for the uptake of interventions. This program has also tested and adapted interventions that include behavioral clinical trials. Dr. Odedina has worked closely with community health workers to implement health intervention programs in diverse community settings worldwide. She has also been a leader in training future scientists whose backgrounds are underrepresented in biomedical research.  

Dr. Waseem Hussain obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992, where he graduated with honors. He received his medical degree in 1996 from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Hussain finished his residency in 1999 at the MacNeal Family Practice Residency in Berwyn, Illinois. 

He began his career as a Board-Certified Family Physician at Riverside Family Medicine in 1999. Further, Dr. Hussain served as the Medical Director of the emergency department at the Fayette County Hospital from 2005 to 2007. His work experience also includes providing primary care to underserved populations in rural and urban areas. Since July 2020, Dr. Hussain has served as the Associate Regional Medical Director of Primary Care at Luminis Health. 

In 2007, he became a Fellow in the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Hussain has also received numerous awards throughout his career, including receiving the Top Doctor Castle Connelly award yearly from 2012 to 2020 and being named the “Top Doctor” in the Washingtonian Magazine in 2015, 2016, and 2017. 

Marc B. Garnick, M.D., is the Gorman Brothers Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he also directs the hospital’s role as a tertiary cancer center for many of its affiliated community cancer centers. He has established initiatives to help underserved patients and families address the non-medical and financial challenges that a cancer diagnosis poses. He completed fellowships at the National Institutes of Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and is a member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Dr. Garnick previously served as Executive Vice President at several biotechnology companies.  

He serves as the editor in chief for the HMS Report on Prostate Diseases and its associated website. He served as the initial academic co-principal investigator for the commonly used prostate cancer drug leuprolide (Lupron). He has received multiple awards including the Distinguished Medical Alumni Service Award from the Perelman School of Medicine, the Jack Colbert Award for Prostate Cancer Research, and the Whittier Health Medical Center Men’s Champion Award. He has recently completed a 10-year tenure as a special governmental advisory member of multiple FDA panels and advisory committees. He currently serves on the boards (scientific and corporate) of several life science companies. He has served on the board of trustees of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine. He is also a trustee emeritus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. 

Dr. Bettina Drake is the Michael F. Neidorff Professor in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine and Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement for Siteman Cancer Center. She is a cancer epidemiologist, and her research has focused on identifying preventive strategies and integrating community engagement approaches to reduce cancer disparities.

She received funding from the Department of Defense (DOD) to identify strategies that improve quality of life for metastatic prostate cancer patients and to recruit and maintain a diverse prostate cancer biorepository to foster multidisciplinary prostate cancer research. Currently, she leads two National Cancer Institute (NCI) centers. She is a co-principal investigator on the NCI-funded PECGS grant meant to determine patient engagement among patients of rare cancers and high-risk populations.

She leads as the principal investigator for the community-engaged health equity center, developing the Advancing Cancer Control Equity Research through Transformative (ACCERT) solutions. As Assistant Vice Provost for Community-Engaged Research, she is fostering community engagement as part of the University’s academic mission. She is also the Director of the St. Louis Confluence Collaborative for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Practice.

Dr. Leslie Deane is a minimally invasive robotic surgeon and endourologist at Howard University, where he is Professor and Chief of the Division of Urology and the R. Frank Jones Endowed Professor of Surgery. He is on staff as an attending urologist at Howard University Hospital.  

Prior to joining the faculty at Howard University, Dr. Deane was Professor of Urology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and an attending urologist at the University of Miami Health System, Jackson Memorial Hospital, and the Bruce W. Carter Miami Veterans Affairs Health System, the latter where he served as the Section Chief for Urology. After completing his fellowship,  

Dr. Deane spent 11 years in Chicago, Illinois, first as an Assistant Professor of Urology and Director of Laparoscopy, Endourology, and Robotic Urologic Surgery at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and then as an Associate Professor of Urology at Rush University Medical Center. 

Dr. Deane is a graduate of the University of the West Indies School of Clinical Medicine and Research at Cave Hill, where he received his medical degree in 1998, with honors in Anatomy and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Deane was the recipient of the Merck, Sharpe, and Dohme Clinical Prize in Medicine.  

He went on to pursue training in Urological Surgery at the University of Toronto and its prestigious affiliated teaching hospitals, including Sunnybrook and Women’s College, the Toronto General Hospital, St. Michael’s Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Princess Margaret Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital of Toronto, and the Toronto Western Hospital.  

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Urology and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Urology. He holds licensure in the District of Columbia, Florida, and California. 

Dr. Deane specializes in the minimally invasive management of urologic malignancies including cancers of the prostate, bladder, ureter, and kidney and has extensive experience in robotic surgery for these conditions. He also treats complex kidney stone disease and obstructions of the upper urinary tract requiring reconstruction. 

Dr. Deane also performs these complex robotic procedures in patients who are unwilling to accept blood and blood products for religious or other reasons. This means that with such meticulous attention to detail, the overall risk and rate of requiring a blood transfusion is exceedingly low. 

Over the past decade and a half, Dr. Deane pioneered approaches in minimally invasive urological surgery that avoid the use of narcotic/opioid-based medications for post-operative pain control.