S. Gail Eckhardt, M.D., has been a director since January 2024. Since September 2023, Dr. Eckhardt has served as a tenured Professor and Associate Dean of Experimental Therapeutics at Baylor College of Medicine, where she holds the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation Endowed Chair and is also Associate Director of Translational Research at the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Between 2017 and 2023, she was a tenured professor at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also served as Chair of the Department of Oncology, Associate Dean of Cancer Programs and inaugural Director of the Livestrong Cancer Institutes. Prior to joining the University of Texas, Dr. Eckhardt was a member of the faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine from 1999 to 2017 (receiving tenure in 2001), where she held numerous leadership roles, including Division Head of Medical Oncology, Associate Director for Translational Research at the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of the Phase I Program and Fellowship. Dr. Eckhardt has served on the board of directors of Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing frontline treatments for patients with hematologic malignancies, from 2020 until 2024. She is currently on the Scientific Advisory Board (Oncology) of Amgen. Dr. Eckhardt has also served on numerous committees and study sections, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Molecular Oncology Task Force and Board of Directors, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee and the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Centers Study Section and Investigational Drug Steering Committee, as well as external advisory boards of eleven National Cancer Institute designated cancer centers. Dr. Eckhardt is a current member of the National Academies Cancer Policy Forum and was previously a lead mentor in the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Leadership Development Program and a member of the board of directors of the Association of American Cancer Institutes. Dr. Eckhardt holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Stephen F. Austin State University and an M.D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical School, followed by a post doctoral research fellowship in Experimental and Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the University of California, San Diego.