Leadership Appointments

Simon Craddock Lee, PhD, MPH, chair and Sosland Family Professor in Preventive Medicine in the Department of Population Health, has been named interim associate director for Cancer Workforce Equity at The University of Kansas Cancer Center. In his new role, Dr. Lee will lead efforts to enhance diversity in the cancer workforce to better represent the breadth of communities experiencing cancer health disparities. This is essential for providing equitable cancer care, advancing research breakthroughs and optimizing health and healthcare. 

A medical anthropologist, Dr. Lee’s expertise lies in implementation science and healthcare delivery research in cancer prevention and control. He recently completed an NCI-funded pragmatic trial to implement care coordination for complex cancer survivors between oncology and primary care in an integrated county health system. Dr. Lee has led multiple studies to optimize rural delivery of cancer screening and early detection services for under- and uninsured individuals. His prior studies of organizational processes influencing disparities in clinical trial accrual contribute to Dr. Lee’s commitment to advancing workforce equity across the cancer continuum.

Andrés M. Bur, MD, associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Kansas Medical Center, was named research project leader for the Kansas Institute for Precision Medicine. Dr. Bur focuses his research on developing and evaluating evidence-based interventions and technologies to improve outcomes for patients with head and neck cancers. In his role as research project leader, Dr. Bur receives funding and mentorship support to advance his research and develop models using radiogenomics data to predict response to therapy in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The objective of the federally funded Kansas Institute for Precision Medicine is to advance the use of precision medicine, an approach that considers individual differences in people’s genes, environments and lifestyles to identify effective therapies.