David Gius, MD, PhD

Director, University of Cincinnati Cancer Center

David Gius, MD, PhD, serves as director of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center and is responsible for leading the Cancer Center's research, clinical and academic mission. An internationally recognized physician-scientist, Dr. Gius is a leader in cancer biology and radiation oncology whose research has advanced the understanding of the relationship between aging and cancer through the discovery of the sirtuin tumor suppression gene family. He brings his lab, two National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grants and two active clinical trials for women with high-risk breast cancer, adding significant research momentum to a Cancer Center already accelerating toward National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation. Dr. Gius is a recipient of the 2024 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Mentorship Award and has mentored more than 70 trainees, many of whom now hold prominent faculty positions nationwide.

In addition to serving as Cancer Center director, Dr. Gius holds an academic appointment in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the UC College of Medicine, where he is a professor.

Daniel Starczynowski, PhD

Deputy Director for Research

Daniel Starczynowski, PhD, is the deputy director for research at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. With an emphasis on Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), his laboratory investigates the molecular and cellular basis of hematologic malignancies to advance novel therapeutic strategies.

Davendra Sohal, MD, MPH

Associate Director for Clinical Research

Davendra Sohal, MD, MPH, is the associate director for clinical research at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. Dr. Sohal joined the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center in 2019 with a focus on gastrointestinal cancer research and experimental therapeutics. He is currently leading several national clinical trials as well as trials developed right here in Cincinnati to investigate new cancer drugs, including immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and cellular therapies.

Pier Paolo Scaglioni, MD

Associate Director for Translational Research

Pier Paolo Scaglioni, MD, is the associate director for translational research at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. He is a physician-scientist focusing his clinical practice on acute leukemia and stem cell transplant and acute leukemia. regulate the metabolism of cancer cells with an emphasis on lipid metabolism and ferroptosis. His lab has identified several therapeutic targets and provided the rationale for clinical trials testing new cancer drugs. Dr. Scaglioni is also currently working to build integrated scientific programs between the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s to create a pipeline from basic science discoveries to patients.

Leeya Pinder, MD, MPH

Interim Associate Director for Population Science Research

Leeya Pinder, MD, MPH is the interim associate director for population science research at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. In addition to her Cancer Center role, Dr. Pinder is a gynecologic oncologist, global health clinician, and international researcher who is dedicated to improving the health of women worldwide.

Melinda Butsch Kovacic, MPH, PhD

Associate Director for Community Outreach & Engagement (COE)

Melinda Butsch Kovacic, MPH, PhD, is the associate director for community outreach & engagement at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. Her research has primarily focused on epidemiologic approaches to identify genetic, infectious, environmental, and molecular biomarkers of childhood asthma and cancer using human biospecimens and clinical data. Dr. Butsch Kovacic also focuses on expanding community partnerships using community-based participatory research (CBPR) to co-create materials that improve community members’ health literacy and engage them in citizen science.

Susan Waltz, PhD

Associate Director for Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC)

Susan Waltz, PhD, is the associate director for Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC) at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. Dr. Waltz focuses on identifying education and professional development opportunities for aspiring young scientists, cancer researchers, and clinical care specialists. Her research has primarily focused on RON Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Signaling and breast and prostate cancers.

Steven D. Kniffley, PsyD, MPA, MBA

Associate Director for Cancer Research Development & Faculty Affairs

Steven D. Kniffley Jr., PsyD, MPA, MBA, is a nationally renowned racial trauma scholar and clinician. Dr. Kniffley is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience and serves as the Director for Faculty Development and Special Initiatives for the University of Cincinnati Faculty Enrichment Center. Throughout his career, Dr. Kniffley has secured over $1.5 million in funding for the development and implementation of innovative, evidence-based treatments for trauma in underserved populations, graduate student research and increased access to clinical care. Dr. Kniffley also serves as an organizational consultant, has written numerous books, book chapters and articles on Black male mental health, Black males and the criminal justice system, racial trauma treatment and training, program evaluation, organizational development and academic achievement.

Ken Greis, PhD

Associate Director for Shared Resources

Ken Greis, PhD, is the associate director for shared resources at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. His research focuses on technology development and the application of mass spectrometry to understand biochemical and biomedical systems where he has also developed significant expertise in project management. He has a passion for developing and managing technology to help researchers solve challenging questions and thus collaborates in various research areas including cancer.

Tammy Mentzel, MPH

Associate Director for Administration, Executive Director of Business Administration

mentzetk@ucmail.uc.edu

Tammy Mentzel, MPH, has been selected to lead the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's administrative core as Executive Director of Business Administration. She will also serve as Associate Director for Administration within the Cancer Center's research structure, reporting directly to David Gius, MD, PhD, director of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. Tammy’s focus is to build an effective, NCI-compliant cancer center administrative team to enhance cancer research, eliminate health disparities, and achieve future NCI designation for the benefit of the community and patients served in the tristate region and beyond.

Maria Czyzyk-Krzeska, MD, PhD

Program Lead, Signaling Networks & Metabolic Pathways

czyzykm@ucmail.cu.edu

Maria Czyzyk-Krzeska, MD, PhD, is program lead for Signaling Networks & Metabolic Pathways research at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, where her laboratory studies the molecular and metabolic drivers of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the most common form of kidney cancer. Her research focuses on how tumor suppressor loss, metabolic reprogramming, and cellular stress pathways contribute to disease progression, with particular interest in the roles of copper metabolism, autophagy, and tumor subtypes shaped by genomic and environmental factors. Dr. Czyzyk-Krzeska’s work is supported by multiple NIH and VA awards, and she also serves as co-principal investigator on the Cancer Center’s ACS Institutional Research Grant, which provides pilot funding for new investigators.

Andrew Waters, PhD

Program Lead, Experimental Therapeutics

watersa3@ucmail.uc.edu

Andrew Waters is an Assistant Professor in Surgical Oncology and Cancer Biology. He performed his PhD research at the NCI-designated RAS Initiative at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research in Frederick, MD under the mentorship of Dr. James Hartley, where he investigated the role of cancer-occurring silent mutations in KRAS to alter protein expression and drive tumorigenic phenotypes. He performed his postdoctoral research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the guidance of Dr. Channing Der, where he researched synthetic lethal targets of mutant KRAS in pancreatic cancer, where he was the recipient of an American Cancer Society postdoctoral award. Currently, his lab is focused on understanding resistance mechanisms that will occur to direct KRAS inhibition in pancreatic cancer. Dr. Waters received a perfect score on a NCI K22 award related to this research. In addition to the National Cancer Institute, his lab has been supported by an American Cancer Center Institutional Research Grant, a UCCC Pilot Program Grant, and the FCSP Foundation. He has several publications in impactful journals, including Nature, Nature Medicine, Cancer Research, Cancer Discovery, Cell Reports, and Science Signaling, among others.

Senu Apewokin, MD

Program Lead, Population Science & Cancer Control

apewoksu@ucmail.uc.edu

Senu Apewokin, MD, is program lead for population science research at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center and serves as Assistant Professor of Medicine and Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at the University of Cincinnati. His work focuses on infectious diseases affecting immunocompromised populations, including individuals with HIV/AIDS and patients undergoing blood and marrow or solid organ transplantation. Dr. Apewokin’s research integrates clinical and population-based approaches to study infection risk, immune response, and microbiome–host interactions in cancer and transplant settings, with the goal of informing strategies to improve supportive care and clinical outcomes.

Courtney Jones, PhD

Program Lead, Pediatric Oncology

courtney.jones@cchmc.org

Courtney Jones, PhD, develops new therapeutic strategies to target leukemia cells with the overall objective of improving the lives of patients with leukemia. Her laboratory studies leukemia stem cells (LSCs), a treatment-resistant cell population that drives disease relapse, and investigates the unique metabolic dependencies that make these cells vulnerable to targeted therapies. Dr. Jones’s work has identified novel, pharmacologically actionable metabolic pathways in LSCs and demonstrated that metabolic vulnerabilities change over the course of disease, informing stage-specific treatment strategies. These discoveries have contributed to the development of metabolism-based clinical trials aimed at improving long-term outcomes for patients with AML.