External Advisory Board

  • Gow Arepally, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Vice Chief for Research in the Hematology Division at Duke University School of Medicine where she is also the associate director of their fellowship program and is PI on their hematology T32 (HL007057). As a female scientist of color, Dr. Arepally has been particularly active and effective in engaging female trainees and underrepresented minorities in laboratory-based research. Her teaching/mentoring activities have garnered recognition through numerous teaching awards (Student Services Award, 3/01; Wendell Rosse Teaching Award, 2003; Duke Division of Hematology Education Awards 2011 & 201). Dr. Arepally served on the steering committee that enabled Duke to receive one of 5 Physician-Scientist Institutional Awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund in September 2018, allowing Duke to establish the Office of Physician-Scientist Development (OPSD). Dr. Arepally also leads Duke’s Strong Start Program, an institutional award program to support junior faculty in laboratory-based research programs.
  • Steven E. McKenzie, MD, PhD is Thomas D.M. Cardeza Professor of Medicine and Tocantins-Haurani Director, Cardeza Foundation for Hematologic Research, Thomas Jefferson University. His work involves platelet biology in cardiovascular and immunothrombosis diseases. In addition to his work as Division Chief of Hematology, he has held roles in leadership of regional sickle cell and hemophilia networks. He has over 30 years of experience as project leader on NIH R01, PPG, SCOR and SBIR grants. In mentoring, he has supervised over 45 pre-doctoral and postdoctoral trainees and over 10 Assistant Professors, many of whom have gone on to leadership positions around the world in academia or industry. He is an alumnus of the Penn MSTP Program and is a standing member of the NIH/NHLBI Mentored Clinical and Basic Science study section.
  • Debra K. Newman, PhD is a Senior Investigator at the Blood Research Institute of Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin and Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Toxicology and of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW).  Her research interests in the area of nonmalignant hematology focus on the role of platelets in bleeding and thrombotic disorders.  She has contributed a total of 75 peer-reviewed manuscripts and more than a dozen book chapters, review articles and editorials to the field. In addition to mentoring high school students, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and physician/scientists in her lab, Dr. Newman has served in leadership roles as a mentor, including as a member of, and chaired, the Executive Evaluation Committee for the Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Program at MCW and as Post-doctoral Fellow Faculty Advisor at Versiti. 
  • Koneti Rao, M.B.B.S. (External Advisory Board) is the Sol Sherry Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pharmacology, Co-Director of the Sol Sherry Thrombosis Research Center, and Director of Benign Hematology (Department of Medicine), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He is a physician scientist and has served in several leadership positions at LKSOM – as the Associate Dean for the Temple MD/PhD program (2001-2005), Director of the Sol Sherry Thrombosis Research Center (2005-2011) and the Chief of Hematology Section (2005-2012). His research interests, both basic and translational, are in the areas of hemostasis, thrombosis, and vascular diseases. He has been involved in the mentoring of postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty, both clinical and basic-science, since 1979.  He has been a member of the NIH-T32 Training Grant at the Thrombosis Research Center since 1980. As the former Director of the Sol Sherry Thrombosis Research Center he served as the Associate Program Director and was actively involved in the administration and renewal of the NIH-T32 Training Grant at SSTRC.
  • Jordan Shavit, MD, PhD is the Dorfman Professor of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of Michigan where he is also the associate director of their Hemophilia Treatment Center and Coagulation Disorders fellowship program, and PI on their hematology T32 (HL007622). Dr. Shavit is a physician scientist pediatric hematologist with expertise in the use of animal models (mouse and zebrafish) to study the genetics of hemostasis and thrombosis. He has refined the study of coagulation in zebrafish, as well as the application of genome editing nucleases for engineering of the fish genome, including zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), TALENs, and CRISPR/Cas9. In addition to 15 years of experience mentoring trainees, Dr. Shavit serves on the K12 Advisory Committee for the UM Pediatrics Children’s Health Research Center and is chair of the Scholarly Oversight Committee for the UM Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship program. He is also the Vice-President and President-Elect of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society.