A new era of leadership begins at the American Thyroid Association with the inauguration of its new president, James A. Fagin, and new secretary and chief operating officer John C. Morris.
Dr. Fagin is Chief of the Endocrine Service and member of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He was formerly the James Heady Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
“We are intent on seeking new audiences, best exemplified by our outreach to the general public and to patients through dedicated publications and educational activities,” Dr. Fagin stated..
Dr. Fagin obtained his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires and completed endocrinology fellowships at the Veterans Administration Wadsworth and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His main research interests center on the pathogenesis of thyroid neoplasms, and his laboratory has performed extensive studies on thyroid cancer genetics and cell signaling, and on the development of mouse models to enable a better understand the biology of thyroid tumors.
His work has also focused on the identification of therapies directed at key oncoproteins that drive thyroid cancers, and he continues to pursue an active clinical interest in the care of patients with thyroid cancer.
Throughout his career, Dr. Fagin has served the ATA in several key capacities, including as chairperson of the Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee in 1996, a member and subsequently chair of the ATA Research Committee (2002-2006), and co-chair of the ATA meeting “Frontiers in Thyroid Cancer” in 2005.
Dr. Morris is Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism, and Nutrition at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. A native of Tennessee and graduate of King College in Bristol, TN, he obtained his medical degree from the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis, where he also completed a residency in Internal Medicine and served as Chief Resident.
Dr. Morris’s clinical practice centers primarily on thyroid disease and thyroid cancer. His research focuses on the thyroidal iodide transporter and its role as a marker and therapeutic gene in cancer gene therapy. Current work in that arena involves gene transfer of the iodide transporter gene into human prostate and breast cancer models followed by radioiodine therapy of these non-thyroidal cancers.
Dr. Morris has served the ATA as a member and chair of the Scientific Program Committee, member of the Public Health Committee, and chair of the Laboratory Services Committee. He also served as a member of the ATA Board of Directors during 2001-2005, and was co-director of the program for the first ATA Spring Symposium on Potassium Iodide Protection for Nuclear Accident in 2003.
