Mesa to Lead Combined, Integrated Comprehensive Cancer Center
Ruben Mesa, MD, FACP, has been named executive director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist; president of the cancer service line, leading both the Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute, and vice dean of cancer programs with Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Mesa assumes the roles filled by Derek Raghavan, MD, who retired following a long career with Atrium Health, and by William Blackstock, MD, professor and chair of radiation oncology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, who had served as interim director of Wake Forest Baptist’s Comprehensive Cancer Center since February 2022.
He will advance the growth and development of the health system’s National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and the entire cancer service line. He also is responsible for all aspects of the cancer program, including clinical operations, research, education, community outreach and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Mesa previously served as executive director of the NCI- designated Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson and professor of medicine at UT Health Science Center San Antonio. He is an internationally known expert who has dedicated his career to research and drug development for myeloproliferative neoplasms – a group of chronic leukemias that can cause bone marrow problems, acute leukemia and premature death.