Our Boards
Our Board
Executive Committee

Chris Daly
Chair

Marcie Kennedy
Vice Chair

Bruce Braunewell, CPA
Treasurer

Beth Fizell-Jenkins
Secretary
Members
Honorary Council
Nicole Dresnin-Schaeffer
Lisa Farnin
Larry Schmitzer, DO
Hope Raymond, RN
Iliana Strauss
Connie Carino, PhD
Phil Jaurigue
Gina Smith, PT, CLT, MBA
Jonathan Marks, MBA
Medical Advisory Committee
Smarila Aithal, MD
Sramila Aithal, MD, is a Board-Certified Medical Oncologist/Hematologist at Alliance Cancer Specialists in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, part of US Oncology Network. She previously worked at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Philadelphia for several years.
A great advocate for innovative and personalized care, particularly Breast Cancer and women’s health, tailoring treatment options for individual patients and involved in Breast Cancer advances. She’s very passionate about her work, has deep commitment to patient care and an advocate for her patients.
Dr. Aithal has served as principal investigator for numerous studies on breast cancer. She is a frequently invited lecturer and has appeared in media interviews discussing various breast cancer topics, involved in community outreach programs. Dr. Aithal is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and serves on the board of various non-profit organizations.
Rita Axelrod, MD
Hossein Borghaei, DO, MS
Hossein Borghaei, DO, MS, is the Chief of thoracic oncology and professor in the department of hematology/oncology and the Gloria and Edmund M. Dunn endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center. He also chairs the Research Review Committee at Fox Chase Cancer Center as well. Dr. Borghaei earned his degree at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed a residency at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia. Since completing his fellowship training at Fox Chase, he has been involved in a number of clinical trials aimed at developing new antibody based and immunotherapies for patients with lung cancer. In addition to his clinical practice and participation in immunotherapy-based clinical trials, Dr. Borghaei is the principal investigator (PI) of a laboratory that develops new monoclonal antibodies and novel immune-modulating drugs with the aim of bringing these approaches to the clinic. He served as the PI of a phase III randomized study that proved the effectiveness of nivolumab in the treatment of patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer after progression on prior chemotherapy. This work led to the approval of nivolumab, one of the first immunotherapy-based drugs to be approved for lung cancer, in this setting. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research, SITC, IASLC, the thoracic core committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and was a member of the non-small cell lung cancer and mesothelioma panels of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network for several years. Dr. Borghaei has been a recipient of the Robert Krigel Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence from Fox Chase Cancer Center, ASCO’s Young Investigator Award and the Career Development Award from ASCO. His work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, The Lancet Oncology, Leukemia Research, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research.
Robert W. Carlson, MD
Robert W. Carlson, MD, is Chief Executive Officer of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), Professor of Medicine (emeritus) at Stanford University Medical Center, Adjunct Professor of Medical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, and a practicing board-certified medical oncologist. He served as Founding Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Breast Cancer, the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Breast Cancer Risk Reduction, and the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Survivorship.
Christina Clay, M.D.
Christina Clay, M.D. completed her fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at University of Southern California. Dr. Clay graduated from the Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois in 1985. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at UCLA.
After working for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group for several years, she moved with her husband and two daughters to the Philadelphia area and has worked in Delaware County since 1996. She has been a Top Doc on the Mainline many times including an extended interview in 2009.
Neil Farber, MD
Neil J. Farber, MD, is a Board certified primary care internal medicine physician. Dr. Farber went through the experience of caring for his wife, Terry, who was diagnosed with brain cancer 25 years ago, and survived with the help of CSCGP. Dr. Farber went to Penn Medical School and did his residency at Temple. He is a retired Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, where he currently resides. He has taught, researched, and published over 60 papers in medical journals relating to how the patient and physician communicate, as well as in topics dealing with medical ethics.
Pamela Ginsberg, PhD
Pamela J. Ginsberg, Ph.D. is a licensed Psychologist in private practice specializing in women’s health and psycho-oncology. With over 26 years of experience, Dr. Ginsberg works with people with all cancers at all stages, with a special interest in working with women with metastatic breast cancer. She also works with women with a variety of other health challenges, life balance, grief and bereavement, stress management, decision-making, parenting, and relationship issues. Dr. Ginsberg is a staff psychologist at Doylestown Hospital, and has been a member of the Board of Directors for The Cancer Support Community of Greater Philadelphia for 9 years. She is the Chair of CSCGP’s medical advisory board. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Health Psychology, the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, and the American Psycho-Oncology Society.
Clara Granda-Cameron
Clara Granda-Cameron is an Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson University College of Nursing in Philadelphia. Dr. Granda-Cameron completed her Master and Post-Master’s Nurse Practitioner degrees in Adult Oncology from the University of Pennsylvania; and her Doctor in Nursing Practice degree at Drexel University. Dr. Granda-Cameron’s experience in cancer care and palliative care is extensive; she had worked as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, at the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center in Philadelphia, and the Santa fe de Bogota Foundation in Colombia, South America. Dr. Granda-Cameron’s interest in palliative care focused on symptom management of patients with cancer cachexia. She implemented the Cancer Appetite and Rehabilitation Clinic at Pennsylvania Hospital Cancer Center. Dr. Granda-Cameron’s field of research is to improve cancer care in minority populations and reduced cancer care disparities. Her work includes numerous peer-reviewed publications, public speaking at the national and international level, and an international consultant role in the Latin American Association of Palliative Care.
***Clara Granda-Cameron es Profesora Asociada en la Facultad de Enfermeria en la Universidad Thomas Jefferson en Philadelphia. La doctora Granda-Cameron completo sus estudios de Maestria y Post-Maestria en Enfermeria Oncologica y Enfermeria Avanzada, y sus estudios de doctorado en la Universidad de Drexel. La doctora Granda-Cameron tiene una experiencia extensa en el cuidado de pacientes con cancer y de pacientes en cuidados paliativos; ella ha trabajado en Memorial Sloan Kettering en New York, en el Centro de Cancer de la Universidad de Pennsylvania, y en la Fundacion Santa Fe de Bogota, en Colombia, Sur America. El interes de la doctora Granda-Cameron en cuidados paliativos se enfoco en el manejo de sintomas en pacientes con cancer caquexia. Ella implemento una clinica de rehabilitation y apetito para pacientes con cancer en Pennsylvania Hospital. El area de investigacion de la doctora Granda-Cameron es mejorar el cuidado en pacientes con cancer en grupos minoritarios y reducir las disparidades en el cuidao del cancer. Su trabajo incluye numerosas publicaciones, presentaciones a nivel nacional e internacional, y servir como consultante en la Asociacion Latinoamericana de Cuidados Paliativos.
Julia M. Kennedy, DO
Wui-Jin Koh, MD
Corey Langer, MD, FACP
Corey J. Langer, MD, FACP is Professor of Medicine in the Hematology/Oncology Division at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where he serves as Director of Thoracic Oncology in the Abramson Cancer Center. Dr Langer received his medical degree from Boston University in 1981 and completed his internship and residency in medicine at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Additional postgraduate training included a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and a fellowship in oncology at AOH/Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC). He is board certified in internal medicine
and in hematology/oncology. Dr Langer served in the oncology division of Fox Chase Cancer Center [FCCC] for 22 years from 1986 until 2008, and for the last 14 years of his tenure at FCCC, he led its Thoracic Oncology Program. He also served as the research chair of Oncology Physicians Network. In June of 2008, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania where he currently leads the Interdisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program (I-TOP). Dr Langer is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and the Society of Head and Neck Surgeons. He has served as Vice-Chair of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG, now NRG) and chairs its Medical Oncology Subcommittee. He also serves on the core Thoracic and Head and Neck Committees of both the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and RTOG (NRG). He and his wife Mindy, a retired pediatrician, live in Princeton, NJ. His daughter Adina is a historian, is now an Adjunct Professor in History at Georgia State; she and her husband Matt are the proud parents of Corey’s grandson, Leo Gabriel DeAngelis. Corey’s son Micah is a classical saxophonist with a degree from McGill University in Montreal, where he currently resides.
Pallav Mehta, MD
Pallav Mehta, MD, is a medical oncologist/hematologist with expertise and interest in breast cancer and integrative oncology currently practicing in the Philadelphia area. He received his undergraduate degree cum laude from New York University. Subsequently he achieved certification as a personal athletic trainer through the American Council on Exercise (A.C.E.) and after 2 years of being employed with a fitness center in Manhattan, he moved to Philadelphia to begin his medical training at Jefferson Medical College. Here, he received multiple honors, was inducted into the Hobart Amory Hare Honor Society and continued to pursue his passion for fitness by being employed at the medical school as a personal trainer for staff and students. After receiving his M.D. in 2001, he began his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Temple University Hospital followed by a combined 3-year fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the renowned Fox Chase Cancer Center. Upon completion of his medical training, he joined and became senior partner at a large private practice in the Philadelphia area where he spent the better part of a decade.
In 2015, he returned to academic medicine and is currently an assistant professor of medicine at Cooper Medical School, along with the Director of Integrative Oncology and Director of Practice Development at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper (MDACCC). In 2019 with a new partnership between MD Anderson, MDACCC, and Holy Redeemer Health System, he also became the Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and the Medical Director of the Charles A. and Betty Bott Cancer Center at Holy Redeemer Hospital. He is board certified in medical oncology, hematology, and integrative medicine. He is the Cancer Liaison Physician to the Commission on Cancer (COC) and has authored multiple journal articles and reviews. He has served as a local principal investigator on several national oncology clinical trials and is conducting grant funded research on the role of exercise after cancer treatment.
He is a frequent invited speaker regionally and nationally on various topics in oncology, breast cancer, and integrative medicine. He has had multiple TV, radio, and online appearances from CNN, Women’s Health, PBS “World Without Cancer” and the Dr. Oz Show. He is a consultant and speaker for several international oncology companies pertaining to breast cancer, genetics, and molecular profiling. He is co-author of the international best-seller “After Cancer Care” published by Rodale, Inc. in 2015 on the topic of health and wellness after cancer treatment. He is a Castle Connolly “Top Doc” 2014 -2019, Philadelphia Magazine Top Doc 2018 and 2019, Inside Jersey Magazine Top Doc in 2018, SJ Magazine Top doc for women in 2018. He was the recipient of Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s highest honor, the Founders Award, in 2017 for his contributions to the fields of breast cancer and integrative oncology. He was raised in NYC but now resides in Philadelphia though he retains his allegiances to his beloved and beleaguered NY Mets and NY Giants. He is married with 3 wonderful but exasperating children.
Kassie Richman, RN
Laura Simonelli, PhD
Dr. Laura Simonelli is a licensed psychologist and the Director of Premier Health Psychology, LLC, in Harleysville, PA. In her practice, she offers help for coping with many life stressors including, but not limited to, medical problems. Dr. Simonelli has particular interest in women’s health including breast and gynecologic cancers, infertility, pregnancy and perinatal concerns and other women’s health problems and women’s issues. Additionally, Dr. Simonelli has training to address coping with many other health issues including medical trauma, insomnia, pain, illness anxiety and health behavior change goals. She is also available to provide support around medical decision-making. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Simonelli uses several evidence-based treatment approaches including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat stress, anxiety, trauma, and depression, and Cognitive-Existential therapy when addressing matters such as grief, life-threatening illness, and meaning in life. She also offers Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for those interested in mindfulness and achieving values-driven personal goals.
Dr. Simonelli is a proud alumnus of The Pennsylvania State University, where she completed her undergraduate psychology training. She went on to receive her doctorate in Clinical Health Psychology from The Ohio State University and completed a predoctoral internship at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (now Rutgers) and postdoctoral fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. She has extensive experience working in psycho-oncology helping people cope with cancer, and spent most of the first decade of her postgraduate career as a cancer psychologist at The Helen F. Graham Cancer Center and Research Institute in Newark, DE. During that time, she also held Adjunct Assistant Professor appointments in the University of Delaware Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Thomas Jefferson University and Medical College Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. Over the years, Dr. Simonelli’s research in psycho-oncology and behavioral medicine has been presented at professional conferences and she has published numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles, including an important paper on treatment for cancer fear of recurrence in Psycho-Oncology. Dr. Simonelli is currently on the Medical Advisory Board for the Cancer Support Community of Greater Philadelphia and is a preferred provider with Unite for HER.
Gina Smith, PT, CLT
Heather Wright, ND, FABNO
Dr. Heather Wright ND FABNO is president of the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians (OncANP.org) and co-research director for the KNOW project (KNOWoncology.org) – a searchable database of integrative oncology clinical trials. Dr. Wright is board certified in naturopathic oncology with 12 years’ experience working in hospital-based oncology teams and 14 years in clinical practice. During her career, Dr. Wright became an expert in the co-management of pancreatic cancer and on intravenous vitamin C for people with advanced cancer. As a specialist in naturopathic oncology, Dr. Wright has worked diligently with countless families to improve quality of life and longevity during their cancer journey.
Dr. Wright is a lecturer, writer and consultant for research and publication projects in integrative oncology and has published articles in the journal Current Oncology, on the power of the placebo effect in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and on tools for integrating natural approaches into conventional care for pancreatic cancer in Natural Medicine Journal. Dr. Wright also consults with organizations to incorporate integrative providers and approaches into clinical settings.
In 2017, Dr. Wright founded Goodapplewellness.com, in Philadelphia PA, offering private consultations for integrative care and providing specialized expertise for families affected by cancer. Dr. Wright works with clients to incorporate evidence based use of exercise, nutrition, sleep, counseling, supplements, homeopathy and botanical therapies as tools in wellness.