After his undergraduate years at UNC-Chapel Hill, Dr. Ferris received MD and PhD (Immunology) degrees at Johns Hopkins, followed by training in head and neck oncologic surgery. He joined the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in 2001, helping build an internationally recognized program in immunotherapy of head and neck cancer. He led the Cancer Immunotherapy program from 2007-2017, when he became Director of the Hillman Cancer Center. In 2024, Dr. Ferris was recruited back to UNC-Chapel Hill to lead the Lineberger Cancer Center and oversee oncology clinical services.

As a head and neck surgical oncologist and NIH-funded translational tumor immunologist for over 25 years, the primary focus of his group has been to drive integration of perioperative cancer immunotherapy using neoadjuvant “window of opportunity” trial designs, to understand response and resistance to approved agents and to test alternative, novel therapeutic targets, working with pharma and biotech companies. Dr. Ferris has also advanced NK and T cell adoptive therapies, oncolytic viral therapy, TLR agonists and intralesional therapies. He has led trials of immune correlatives in the serum and TME, targeting PD-(L)1, CTLA-4, and LAG-3. He was lead author of the phase III Checkmate-141, leading to the FDA approval of nivolumab for HNSCC in 2016. Recent work is studying optimal sequencing of PD-1 therapy with chemo- and radiation therapy. He serves on scientific advisory boards for several biotech companies.

Dr. Ferris has contributed to SITC extensively for over 20 years, serving as an at-large SITC Board member (2015-2018). He has been section editor of JITC’s Guidelines/Consensus Statements section since its inception. He has participated in multiple strategic planning retreats for SITC and helped lead the H&N cancer immunotherapy guidelines (CIG), one of the most highly cited CIG for JITC to date. Dr. Ferris has co-chaired and participated in many SITC committees/taskforces, including Annual Meeting/Program, Communications, Membership, Regulatory, and fellowship awards. Recently he was honored to participate in the SITC Women in Cancer Immunotherapy Network (WIN) program. As a leader of the Certificate in Cancer Immunotherapy program, which has been completed by hundreds of SITC members, he is helping create a 9^th “neoadjuvant IO” module. Dr. Ferris has recruited and mentored many young and mid-career faculty to develop successful careers in cancer immunotherapy, who now contribute impactfully to SITC’s mission. His work with other key societies such as ASCO, ASTRO, and AACR including basic science and clinical trials workshops provide perspective to advance SITC’s unique leadership. 

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

1. Overcoming barriers to non-responsiveness. Neoadjuvant trials are becoming mainstream in many tumor types and provide dynamic insights into biology and follow the adaptive and innate immune response to IO therapies. Novel single-cell and spatial technologies now permit highly refined understanding of the TME during therapy and novel combinations, which will be the basis for personalized immunotherapy. Moreover, combinatorial approaches must be guided by science and adaptive designs. Moving IO into earlier lines of therapy, including preoperatively and in cancer immunoprevention, will keep SITC at the forefront of the field. This requires supporting the science elucidating the interactions with targeted therapies, radiotherapies, radiopharmaceuticals and novel combinations.

SITC should promote the tools for gathering and integrating this information and developing the infrastructure for supporting personalized cancer immunotherapy, which is a key priority for the field. SITC’s goal of 100 new IO agents requires prioritizing the most promising agents and combinations to test, facilitating nimble and effective drug development. SITC can promote both grant writing and trial design tools for trainees to enhance biomarker use and novel discovery efforts.

2. Greater impact and use of immunotherapy on patients and practitioners. SITC should maintain and leverage its unique niche as the original, key society driving immuno-oncology. No other society has done what SITC has, and it will need to strategically partner while maintaining its unique identity and contributions. Through its many educational programs, meetings, and fellowships, SITC must re-evaluate how it educates scientists and practitioners. This effort has now shifted to non-immunologists who manage adverse events, refer patients for cancer immunotherapy, or may have begun integrating this new type of therapy into their oncology practice. We need to expand our educational outreach to physicians and researchers in other medical specialties, who will encounter patients receiving cancer immunotherapy and who may collaborate in the management of the immune-related side effects associated with this modality. Continuing to integrate and coordinate the stakeholders in diverse disciplines in academia, early phase discovery, biotechnology/pharma, and regulatory agencies is essential, to drive novel approaches like neoadjuvant therapies, single-cell and AI technologies to harness the evolving immune response to IO.

3. Expanding patients with deep and durable responses to cancer immunotherapy. With the success of cancer immunotherapy, the need for cost effectiveness research and demonstration of the value proposition is a rapidly emerging challenge for the field, which SITC can lead. There are many immuno-oncology agents in development, and these are often quite expensive once approved. It is very clear that the rising cost of medical care poses substantial challenges for society as a whole and must be sustainable. Developing innovative models for assessment of “value” and methods of reimbursement will also be critical for the optimal application and establishment of cancer immunotherapy strategies in the clinic. CAR-T cells result in exciting durable response rates, while some patients are not receiving these therapies due to cost as well as the bandwidth available to produce autologous T-cell treatments. SITC has a strong track record of assembling wide-ranging groups of stakeholders, such as bioengineers, immunologists, regulatory agencies, and industry, to synergize efforts and devise creative methods (in vivo CAR T delivery) to lower the cost and enhance the efficiency of delivery for these treatments. In addition, it is imperative to bring together payers, including private insurers and government agencies, to allow a broader span of patients to receive these treatments. This includes developing novel endpoints for drug approval that reflect the unique mechanisms of action and patterns of response, and building new, integrated models for scientific, clinical, regulatory, and payor collaboration in therapeutic development for dissemination into practice. SITC must play an important role in this area.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

My vision for SITC during this pivotal time for cancer immunotherapy is tightly aligned with SITC’s 6 strategic pillars. Now with IO as an established standard of care for many tumor types, we must broaden and advance SITC as a key home for practitioners and investigators through continuing education, training, trial design, and outcomes in the US and worldwide. The recent SITC strategic plan (2024-2026) and goal of 100 new IO agents by 2034 (#SITCquestfor100) must be supported wisely, in a resource-efficient manner. My experience leading complex organizations from a strategic, scientific, clinical and fiscally sound approach would benefit SITC at this key point in time. SITC must diversify and grow its revenue streams, as part of a refreshed 2026 strategic planning process. Leveraging value from our society and membership’s expertise is a priority, building beneficial collaborations beyond the annual and regional meetings.

SITC is a unique organization, whose niche interdigitates with academics, industry, regulatory and educational societies, advancing the field of immunotherapy in these exciting but challenging times of today’s funding environment and medical practice. Given the increasing integration of cancer immunotherapy into other societies/meetings, SITC should continue to evolve and broaden its unique identity, while providing a greater platform for clinical translation, reporting of results, and driving clinical trial designs and outcomes. Acknowledging the roles of national guidelines organizations, SITC must continue to leverage our grounding in the science behind IO. SITC should expand the Forward Fund and expand endowments to promote the next generation of SITC scientists.

SITC must remain an innovative and progressive scientific organization, recognizing that immuno-oncology agents may not work in all populations of ethnicities and races equally, and must be studied collaboratively in all populations. This has often been overlooked but may explain differences in outcomes, beyond the initial published trial results. Real world datasets can be facilitated with pharma partners within or after reporting their large registrational trials, which would benefit all groups eventually treated with IO therapies.

Dr. Hege is a seasoned executive and physician-scientist in biopharma and academia. In her most recent executive role at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), she served as SVP Early Clinical Development, Hematology, Oncology & Cell Therapy, where she was responsible for advancing a pipeline of small molecules, biologics and cell therapies from first-in-human studies through clinical proof-of-concept with a strong focus on immuno-oncology. While there she led the bluebird-partnered first-in-class BCMA CAR T cell program (Abecma) in multiple myeloma from inception through FDA approval. Prior to BMS she held leadership roles at Celgene, Cell Genesys, Cellerant, and Theraclone. In addition, Dr. Hege spent nearly three decades as a part time Clinical Professor at UCSF where she cared for patients with blood cancers.

Dr. Hege serves/served on the Board of Directors of Mersana (acquired), Adaptimmune (acquired), Kelonia (active), EvolveImmune (active) and KSQ Therapeutics (active) along with scientific and clinical advisory roles at numerous other biotech companies focused on cancer immunotherapy. She has been a member of SITC for nearly 3 decades and has held multiple leadership roles including past member of the Board of Directors and Executive Council, co-chair of the Strategic and Industry Task Forces, Finance Committee and Associate Editor of JITC. She currently serves as Co-chair/organizer of the Biotech Committee, Women in Immunotherapy Network and 2026 Spring Scientific Summit as well as a member of the Cell Therapy Committee. In addition, she represents SITC on several cross-society/FDA cell therapy consortium projects.

Dr. Hege received her BA summa cum laude at Dartmouth College and MD at UCSF, where she was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa and Omega Alpha Honor Societies. She completed internal medicine and hematology/oncology subspecialty training at Harvard and UCSF, respectively. She has received multiple honors including recognition by Fierce Biotech as one of the top women in Biopharma, by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association as a “Luminary” and by San Francisco Business Times as one of the most influential women in Bay Area business. In addition, she was recognized by UCSD with the Duane Roth Career Achievement Award for advances in science and medicine and by Forbes magazine as one of “50 women over 50: entrepreneurs” in recognition of her leadership role in the development of Abecma.

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

Critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy include building on the momentum gained from the discovery, development and approval of truly breakthrough and life changing immunotherapies, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, T cell engaging bispecific antibodies and cell therapies. In addition, external circumstances including funding challenges for both academia and biopharma, regulatory uncertainty, and the increasing competition from China pose both threats and opportunity to the future of scientific innovation and drug development.

As the leading society in the field of cancer immunotherapy, SITC plays a critical role in driving, enabling and championing the next wave of cancer immunotherapies. SITC has taken a leading role over the decades in fostering a “big tent“ mindset that brings together all of the stakeholders necessary to advance this exciting field. This includes not only academia, biopharma and the NIH/FDA, but also investors, AI enthusiasts, patients and more. The new tools for scientific discovery and drug development are breathtaking and novel therapeutic hypotheses abound, but the barriers to advancing and financing science and drug development have never been higher. The complexity, timelines, cost and regulatory burden of these endeavors require a fundamental transformational shift in how we do things. We can evolve, we can do better, we must, if we hope to continue to build on the now well-established promise of cancer immunotherapy.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

SITC plays a critical role in leading, organizing, shaping and aligning the ecosystem that needs to come together to advance the field of cancer immunotherapy. As an academic hematologist, I have had the opportunity to witness, firsthand, the incredible impact that novel cancer immunotherapies, especially CART cells, have had on the treatment of patients with blood cancers. As co-chair of the SITC Biotech Committee, we have put forward the audacious goal of 100 new cancer immunotherapies approved for patients over the next decade. Achieving this impactful goal will require that SITC work even harder to identify and tackle the burdens and bottlenecks that might derail this vision, align stakeholders on a common path forward and advocate effectively to re-capture hearts and minds on the beauty and promise of scientific discovery and cancer drug development.

Over the years SITC has maintained a unique relationship of trust and partnership with the FDA and this will be even more critical moving forward, given the current uncertainty in the regulatory environment. The public at large has never been more skeptical of science, but SITC can capitalize on the broad-based societal commitment to developing new and effective treatments for the “Emperor of all Maladies” to reshape this story and re-invigorate public trust in science and the industries that bring these life-saving scientific advancements to patients with cancer.

SITC and its members need to avoid the pitfalls of complacency and hubris that keep us clinging to our historical practices and learn from other countries, including China, how to adopt strategies and practices that can advance science and develop effective medicines, faster and at much lower cost, all while protecting patient safety and the return on investment that drives and powers the engine that turns science into drugs. SITC can and will play a key role in engaging and listening to everyone both under and outside of our big tent, pitching provocative and innovative change, and fostering the next generation of leaders that reflect the critical diversity of stakeholders required to advance this impactful field.

Dr. Christian Capitini is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison, and Director of the UW Carbone Cancer Center. Dr. Capitini leads an NIH-supported laboratory focusing on development of cell-based therapies, including NK cells and CAR T cells, for the treatment of childhood cancers like neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma. The laboratory also manufactures cell-based therapies for complications of bone marrow transplant, including alternatively activated macrophages to treat graft-versus-host-disease and acute radiation syndrome. In the clinic, Dr. Capitini was a site Principal Investigator (PI) for the first multicenter CAR T cell trial, which lead to the FDA approval of tisagenlecleucel-T (Kymriah). Presently he is a site PI for a multicenter GD2 CAR T cell trial and MAGE-A4 TCR T cell trial for pediatric solid tumors. He is also a Sponsor and PI of a clinical trial testing alpha/beta T cell depleted stem cell transplant for high-risk childhood cancers using post-transplant zoledronate to activate gamma/delta T cells and NK cells. Dr. Capitini has earned several awards for his research, including an Outstanding New Member Science Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, the SITC Team Science Award and Champions of SITC Award.

Dr. Capitini has been an active member of SITC since 2010 and first served as co-chair of the Early Career Scientist Committee from 2011-2013. He has also served as a representative on the Annual Program Committee (2012-13), the By-laws Committee (2016-17) and the Awards Committee (2018-present). He presently serves on the Cellular Therapy Committee. Dr. Capitini created the first SITC online CME course on Immunology 101 for the non-Immunologist as a pre-requisite to the Advances for Cancer Immunotherapy (ACI) seminar series and served as co-chair of the ACI subcommittee. He recently served as At Large Director from 2021-23 and is presently an ex oficio member of the board as chair of the Policy Committee. He is the Founding Section Editor for Commentaries/Editorials for JITC, and was an advisor, co-organizer and lecturer for the SITC Winter School. /p>

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

Research support and trainee career development: Funding for cancer immunotherapy research needs to be increased for the extraordinary progress we have achieved to be maintained. With exciting developments in cell and gene therapy, new immune checkpoint inhibitors, bispecific T cell engagers, oncolytic virotherapy, cytokines, vaccines, and other immunotherapies, we are scratching the surface of what could be accomplished with more investment. In addition, we need to ensure the training workforce pipeline remains intact and well supported during this critical juncture. SITC is in great position to not only provide more fellowships for early-stage investigators, but to also advocate for and receive more funding from federal and non-federal entities to expand grant opportunities for members. Support is especially needed for early discovery research, translational studies for validating clinical scale-up, and for conducting early phase clinical trials.

Patient Access: At the health system level, it is no secret that cancer immunotherapies are amongst the most expensive drugs on the market. We need to improve access to immunotherapies to make them more affordable for practices to acquire and administer, and for patients to purchase. While we do not set prices, we can influence our health care administration infrastructure and support development of generic biosimilars that provide cheaper alternatives.\

Leadership in AI: The expansion of A.I. tools have led to tremendous excitement in science and medicine and has shown great promise for the field of cancer immunotherapy. SITC can provide leadership to academia, government, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies in how to leverage existing large language models, artificial neural networks, and machine learning algorithms to develop new biomarkers and immunotherapies. Besides ongoing educational efforts through webinars and symposia at the annual meeting, SITC can bring together stakeholders in bioinformatics, oncology and immunology for summits that can provide summaries and recommendations that could inform future NCI and FDA initiatives related to cancer immunotherapy. There are also opportunities to teach scientists how to incorporate A.I. tools into their research using publicly available datasets as well as engage regulatory bodies in updating guidance around use and interpretation of A.I. during drug development and trial design.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

SITC is uniquely positioned to be the thought leader for how the field of cancer immunotherapy will evolve in research, clinical care and health care policy. For researchers, I would like to engage more industry partners and private foundations to double the number of fellowships we offer and increase the number of travel awards to the Annual Meeting. We can also secure new grant opportunities by partnering with other professional organizations who individually offer prestigious awards but could fund something much bolder/larger by combining resources especially given mutual interest in cancer immunotherapy. I also would like to spotlight more early career scientist research in our journal, JITC.

For clinicians, we can reach out to academic oncology fellowship training programs to develop formal cancer immunotherapy subspecialty fellowships by leveraging our Certificate in Cancer Immunotherapy Program, Webinars and Virtual Seminars. Similar endeavors were done previously for fellows interested in neuro-oncology and stem cell transplant/cellular therapy, but I believe there are trainees that want specialized expertise in immunotherapy and in treatment of immune-related adverse events.

At the policy level, we have provided expert recommendations for using immunotherapies to treat various subsets of cancer (and associated toxicities) that occur in adults. I would like to lead SITC in providing more expert guidance in the field of childhood cancer. A variety of childhood cancer protocols are testing immunotherapies but lack SITC’s expertise on how to incorporate immunotherapy with conventional therapies like radiation and how to better engage industry partners, who may be reluctant to do pediatric research, to get children access to promising immunotherapy drugs. Partnership with the Children’s Oncology Group, the Pediatric Transplant and Cellular Therapy Consortium, NCI-designated cancer centers, children’s hospitals, patient advocates, regulators and other pediatric cancer stakeholders will be needed to successfully expand SITC’s leadership in immunotherapy of childhood cancer.

Charles (Chuck) Drake, MD, PhD, FAAP leads the prostate cancer / cross-cancer immuno-oncology group at Johnson and Johnson, there his lab-based team is responsible for discovering novel agents and mechanisms and developing those discoveries in the clinic. As a physician-scientist, his long-term research and clinical activities have focused on understanding the biology of the immune response to genitourinary (GU) cancers and leveraging that understanding to develop transformative medicines and treatment regimens. As a research scientist, Dr. Drake has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, review articles and book chapters.

Prior to joining Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicine in 2020, Chuck led the GU oncology program at the Herbert Irving Cancer Center, Columbia University in New York. As the Milstein Family Professor of Medicine and Urology, Dr. Drake served as the Associate Director for Clinical Research in the Cancer Center and founded the Cancer Center’s human immune monitoring core. During his tenure at Columbia, he and his team built a strong portfolio of over 30 GU clinical trials, with a significant number of these investigator-initiated and translational in nature. Also while at Columbia, Dr. Drake’s lab at Columbia successfully published a number of articles in Cell, Cancer Cell, Clinical Cancer Research and others.

Prior to joining Columbia, Chuck was a tenured professor at Johns Hopkins University, there his lab played a key role in discovering LAG-3 as in immune checkpoint in cancer; IP on that invention was licensed to Bristol Myers Squibb and led to the development of the anti-LAG-3 antibody Relatlimab.

Dr. Drake received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University, earned his MD from the University of Colorado Medical Science Training Program and received his doctorate in Immunology from the National Jewish Center for Immunology. Clinically, Chuck completed his residency on the Osler Medical Service at Johns Hopkins, where he also did his fellowship in medical oncology. Dr. Drake is board-certified in medical oncology and sees GU patients at Columbia University.

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

One key issue facing the field of cancer immunotherapy is the need for us to move beyond immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) to more fully embrace additional modalities and combinations. While ICB has undoubtedly saved and prolonged tens of thousands of lives, second-generation targets, i.e. those other than CTLA-4, TIM-3 and LAG-3 have proven less tractable. Thus, I believe that cancer immunotherapy must continue to strive to encompass a broader palette, more fully investigating the role of T cell engagers (TCE), cell therapies, next-generation vaccines, and targeted cytokines, as well as the fascinating science behind these modalities.

The second issue worth highlighting is that of adoption, in my current role I’ve been stunned to learn how infrequently IO combinations like ipilimumab / nivolumab are utilized by community-based oncologists. Similarly, T cell engagers have faced challenges in terms of uptake, primarily due to concerns regarding toxicities like cytokine release syndrome (CRS). While perhaps more pedestrian than the deep basic and translational science SITC normally focuses upon, I believe that SITC can play in important role in democratizing IO beyond academic institutions.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

SITC has played a tremendous role in supporting basic science and translational science, as well as in the education of junior scientists in both academia and industry. I believe that SITC should continue to excel in those roles, while at the same time expanding its educational mission to include the practitioners who utilize and develop novel IO agents.

Dr. Finn is University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor of Immunology and Surgery and Founding Chair Emerita of the Department of Immunology. After receiving her PhD in Medical Microbiology at Stanford University in 1980 and completing her postdoctoral training in Immuno-oncology there in 1982, Dr. Finn started her research at Duke University and in 1991 moved to the University of Pittsburgh. After receiving her PhD in Medical Microbiology at Stanford University in 1980 and completing her postdoctoral training in Immuno-oncology there in 1982, Dr. Finn started her research at Duke University and in 1991 moved to the University of Pittsburgh. She gained prominence through her basic and applied research on tumor antigens and cancer vaccines. She served on multiple NCI study sections and was member of the NCI Board of Scientific Councilors. Dr. Finn is member of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) where she served as President in 2007/2008, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). Dr. Finn received numerous awards including AAI Lifetime Achievement Award (2016) and Excellence in Mentoring Award (2026), AACR CIR Lloyd Old Cancer Immunology Prize (2017), SITC Richard Smalley Award (2019) and Distinguished Service Award (2025). In 2019 she was inducted into the inaugural class of AAI Distinguished Fellows and in 2022 became Fellow of the SITC Immuno-Oncology Academy. Dr. Finn has published over 250 articles, reviews and book chapters and is a frequently invited speaker, session chair or organizer of major national and international conferences.

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

1. Immunotherapy of solid tumors has given some impressive results, but the low clinical response rates, limited applicability to only some tumors and only some patients, and a high price tag are still unsolved problems. Enticed by the newest technical and computational might, we are only too eager to look for and find ever more differences between tumors and between patients. While that is a contribution to science, it yields at best a “whack-a-mole” approach to therapy. Identifying features that tumors and patients share may be a more promising path to a more broadly available and affordable immunotherapy.

2. Success of cancer immunotherapy depends on each patient’s immune system. We still don’t have an immune signature of a responder versus non-responder to therapy. Those signatures are likely to vary between pre-malignancy and early and late stages of invasive disease. They may not be that different for different forms of immunotherapy. They could help us predict if a patient is a candidate for immunotherapy and/or what type of immunotherapy.

3. There is still a lot more effort and investment in developing and testing immunotherapy in advanced disease and relatively little in cancer immunoprevention. Cancer vaccines and other immunomodulators are still primarily used as therapy. This approach ignores what we know about cancer immunosurveillance and the tumor escape from it. It misses opportunities to strengthen immune surveillance in the setting of pre-cancer or cancer risk, to improve the chances for immune elimination or for establishing life-long cancer control (equilibrium).

What is Your Vision for SITC?

SITC has become a very important platform for mainstream immunotherapy. It is well-positioned to also provide a welcoming home and more, if not equal time to new ideas or research a little outside of what everyone is doing. Let us as a community identify those ideas and provide support for webinars, small workshops, standing committees or dedicated sessions in the annual meetings. I envision SITC as a place where new ideas go to live.

Jane Healy, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist and physician-scientist dedicated to advancing innovative oncology drug development to improve outcomes and quality of life for patients. She leads early clinical development and clinical pharmacology/pharmacometrics in oncology at Merck.

Dr. Healy earned her MD and PhD in Biochemistry at Duke University and completed her internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, followed by a hematology/oncology fellowship at Duke. Before transitioning to industry, she practiced and conducted research in hematologic malignancies at Duke University.

Dr. Healy joined Merck Research Laboratories in 2016 in Early Clinical Development, Oncology, where she has led early development teams from first-in-human studies through transition to late-stage development and served as an early development section lead. She has also been an asset strategy lead for two late-stage programs: V940, an individualized neoantigen therapy in collaboration with Moderna, and vibostolimab, a monoclonal antibody targeting TIGIT.

In her current role, she oversees early oncology pipeline strategy; first-in-human and Phase 1 studies; and quantitative pharmacology and advanced modeling across the oncology portfolio, including support for pembrolizumab QLEX approvals. She also leads portfolio-level exploratory biomarker and companion diagnostic strategy for Phase 1–2 trials. Her experience spans dose-escalation and dose-finding, platform and randomized trial designs, and biomarker/Cdx development across modalities including vaccines, small molecules, cell-based therapies, and antibody therapeutics. Dr. Healy has authored numerous publications and contributes to multidisciplinary collaborations with academia and professional societies, including SITC, FOCR, AACR, and ASCO. At SITC, she is an active and regular participant in the SITC community including the Industry Program at the Annual meeting, the Strategic retreat, Regulatory and Investor partnering events, and WIN program mentoring.

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

Resistance: Immunotherapy has delivered remarkable, durable responses in select cancers, yet most patients do not benefit—and among initial responders, many eventually relapse. Resistance is multifactorial: tumor-intrinsic biology, disease heterogeneity, an immunosuppressive microenvironment, and limited immune activation and tumor penetration. Progress will require earlier use of immunotherapy when feasible, rational combination strategies that block multiple escape pathways, deeper mechanistic understanding of resistance, and validated predictive biomarkers to match the right therapy to the right patient.

Access: Breakthrough therapies are becoming more personalized and operationally complex—driving higher costs and creating friction across diagnosis, biomarker testing, reimbursement, and delivery. Resource-intensive administration, uneven trial availability, and variability in payer coverage and site capabilities can delay or prevent care. Closing the gap between innovation and patient impact requires expanding trial access and infrastructure, streamlining and standardizing drug eligibility testing and administration, improving reimbursement predictability, and strengthening best practices for side-effect management so therapies can be delivered safely and equitably.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

SITC is uniquely positioned to accelerate the next chapter of cancer immunotherapy by connecting world-class science to real-world patient outcomes. My vision is to partner with the Board to focus SITC on three priorities: (1) advance and standardize biomarker-driven development to improve patient selection and response monitoring; (2) catalyze smarter clinical trials—including earlier-disease settings and rational combinations—through convening, guidelines, and cross-sector collaboration; and (3) lead on access by bringing patients, clinicians, regulators, and payers together to reduce barriers to testing, trial participation, and therapy delivery. Across all three, I would emphasize “patient-first” development: practical trial designs, approaches that reduce clinic burden, and evidence-based strategies to anticipate and manage toxicities.

Gregory B. Lesinski, PhD, MPH is a translational cancer immunologist focused on developing next-generation immunotherapies for patients with tumors that do not respond to current treatments. His work has helped shaped more than 29 clinical trials across multiple tumor types, ranging from first-in-human immunotherapy combinations to national cooperative group studies. These translational efforts have spanned pancreatic cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, colorectal cancer and melanoma. As checkpoint blockade becomes standard across oncology, his research addresses one of the field's most pressing challenges: designing effective immune-based strategies for patients who have already been exposed to, or progressed on prior immunotherapy.

Dr. Lesinski completed doctoral training at the Medical College of Ohio in vaccine development and postdoctoral studies at The Ohio State University, where his research on cytokine signaling in patients contributed to multiple first-in-human immunotherapy combination clinical trials. He advanced from Research Assistant Professor to an independent tenure-track faculty member at Ohio State, leading studies that defined how cytokine signaling contributes to immune suppression in solid tumors. During this time, he completed an MPH through NCI K22-supported training to strengthen his expertise in clinical trial design and translational research. In 2016, he was recruited to the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University to launch a translational immunotherapy program focused on GI cancers resistant to immune-based therapies and was promoted to full Professor in 2021.

Dr. Lesinski currently serves as the Vice Chair for Basic Research in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University. At the Winship Cancer Institute, he holds multiple leadership roles including Associate Director for Basic Research and Shared Resources, Co-Leader of the Translational GI Malignancy Program, and Interim Scientific Director for the ExCITE Cellular and Immunotherapy Core. He is also an MPI of an NCI-funded Cancer Biology T32 Pre-Doctoral Training Program and holds the John Kauffman Family Professorship in Pancreatic Cancer Research.

Dr. Lesinski has published more than 150 manuscripts and maintained sustained extramural funding from the NCI and foundations, while mentoring a diverse group of talented basic and translational trainees pursuing careers across academia, medicine, and industry. His commitment to integrating mechanistic discovery with clinical translation, through collaborative partnerships with physicians, academic scientists, industry, and government partners, defines both his scientific identity and his approach to advancing the field.

Dr. Lesinski has been actively engaged with the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer for more than two decades through committee leadership, educational programming, and mentorship initiatives that support investigators across career stages. This long-standing involvement reflects his belief that durable progress in cancer immunotherapy depends on a connected, collaborative, and well-trained community working together across disciplines and institutions. He is committed to advancing SITC’s role in fostering collaboration, training the next generation of immunotherapy scientists, and accelerating translation of discoveries into effective treatments for patients.

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

Cancer immunotherapy has entered a pivotal time. Approaches once considered experimental are now standard of care for patients, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cellular therapies, antibody-based approaches, oncolytic viruses and other emerging treatments (ADCs, bispecifics etc.). Renewed momentum in cancer vaccines, neoantigen discovery, and microbiome research continue to expand the therapeutic landscape. Importantly, SITC members have championed many of these approaches and the organization has facilitated communicating these key findings into the larger community. Despite this progress, several critical challenges must be addressed to sustain meaningful advances for patients.

First, we must better understand and overcome therapeutic resistance in the modern treatment era. Most patients enrolling in immunotherapy trials today have already received checkpoint blockade and multiple prior therapies, creating a biologically distinct and often immune compromised population that traditional preclinical studies fail to capture. Patients also develop metastases that render them to have even lower likelihood of responding to immunotherapy. These challenges emphasize the importance of using more relevant pre-clinical models that better approximate the realities of patients entering clinical trials. Another opportunity lies in developing a more comprehensive understanding of how conventional therapeutic approaches—including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapy for patients with defined genomic alterations— may impact the host immune response. These ambitious and critical lines of work could uncover unique therapeutic vulnerabilities that can be leveraged in the setting of immunotherapy resistant disease.

At this time the field is amassing large volumes of patient-derived data that can inform how therapeutic resistance evolves and can be subverted. I am confident that advances in spatial biology, single-cell profiling, and artificial intelligence offer powerful new tools to interrogate the tumor microenvironment and define immune signatures that might predict response, resistance, and toxicity. SITC is well positioned to support dissemination of these fundamental basic and translational science studies that offer insight into new resistance targets. As a focused society, SITC can also foster relationships with other organizations to coordinate advocacy around how immunotherapy clinical trials are prioritized. Further, studies evaluating window-of-opportunity and neoadjuvant approaches could provide compelling justification to move effective immunotherapies earlier in the course of care, a strategic shift that would meaningfully advance the field. Moving clinical medicine forward will require coordinated efforts across academia, industry, and regulatory agencies. SITC is well positioned to lead this effort through pragmatic guideline development, educational initiatives, and by fostering the collaborative infrastructure needed to move science from discovery to clinical implementation.

Second, how can we optimally engineer immune cells to eradicate cancer? Adoptive cell and gene therapy is advancing rapidly, but its impact remains limited by manufacturing complexity and costs, which restricts access for financially vulnerable patients and prevents widespread global dissemination. These issues deserve ongoing attention, discussion and solutions. The optimal antigen targets for each patient’s tumor type are often elusive and cell engineering strategies are constantly evolving, yet data emerging across T cell, NK cell, and other immune cell platforms continue to fuel optimism. Emerging approaches such as in vivo engineering and off-the-shelf cellular platforms are generating compelling data but require coordinated evaluation, rigorous dissemination, and thoughtful clinical translation. SITC is uniquely positioned to convene academia, industry, and patient advocates to accelerate progress and ensure these therapies reach patients broadly. I look forward to contributing to these conversations and advances through partnerships. I believe the future of cell therapy is particularly bright, with major advances within reach over the next decade.

Together, addressing therapeutic resistance, advancing next-generation cell engineering strategies, and translating science into clinical practice will define the next decade of progress in cancer immunotherapy.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

I am a strong advocate for SITC in the larger scientific community, and particularly in facilitating the growth of trainees. I am eager to ensure the organization retains its position as an authority for cancer immunotherapy and maintains its reputation as a collaborative hub that connects all stakeholders to conduct innovative research that ultimately benefits patients.

I believe that the true value of SITC is realized through the collective accomplishments of its members. During my own career, I witnessed SITC serve as an integral voice to the community as immunotherapy continues to evolve into the standard of care for patients across solid and hematologic malignancies. My vision is that SITC will continue to bring investigators together and provide unique opportunities for its diverse membership, united by a common passion for cancer immunotherapy. The potential benefits of a truly collaborative community are tremendous, retaining what is are already done well, while continually adapting based on member feedback, stakeholder needs, and rapidly evolving integration of immunotherapy with emerging disciplines, such as artificial Intelligence, in vivo engineering, and spatial technologies.

It is critical that SITC maintain an educational and forward-thinking forum where members can regularly network, stay current on cutting-edge science, present their original research, and build a generational scientific community: One that a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow first enters, and remains part of throughout their career. Aligned with my own experience, SITC can be a stable force for all career stages, offering meaningful involvement through committees, workshops, guided development, and dissemination of key findings into the larger scientific community. Programs such as the Women in Immunotherapy Network (WIN) forum, Sparkathon, and fellowship opportunities should absolutely continue and expand. There are also other opportunities to enhance collaboration between academics, industry, government, and foundation members by promoting the unique strengths each brings to the field. I hope to play a role in enriching these possibilities as part of the organization. Finally, SITC should continue to harness its identity as a truly international organization by expanding online offerings, interactive forums, and partnerships with other societies to broaden its global reach and open new opportunities for collaboration and impact worldwide.

My vision for SITC is deeply personal. I became involved in the organization in 2004 as a postdoctoral fellow and have essentially grown up alongside it. Over the last two decades, I have attended the vast majority of annual meetings, presenting original research, served as a SITC Champion, contributed as an Awards Committee member, a Membership Committee member, and later the Chair of the Membership Committee, during a period of tremendous organizational growth. I have also organized and presented at the SITC Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy™ series and Winter School on multiple occasions. This experience has shaped my own appreciation for what SITC offers its members and my commitment to helping the organization continue to grow as an inclusive, forward-looking community that advances cancer immunotherapy worldwide.

Amanda W. Lund, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology and Department of Pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a Member of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health. She received her PhD in Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, and completed postdoctoral training in cancer immunology at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. At NYUGSOM, Dr. Lund served as the Director of Curriculum for the Vilcek PhD in Biomedical Sciences and co-director of the Translational Immunology Center. In recognition of the impact of her work, Dr. Lund has received multiple awards. She was the recipient of the AACR NextGen Star Award, the Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old STAR Award, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research Emerging Leader Award, and the AACR-BMS Midcareer Female Investigator Award. She has been an active SITC member since 2014, serving as a member of the SITC Immune Biomarkers Task Force, participating in SITC mentoring initiatives, and has served as a faculty mentor for the SITC Sparkathon Accelerator Program.

Dr. Lund’s research defines how lymphatic–immune interactions shape anti-tumor immunity in melanoma, and her work has established the lymphatic vasculature as an active, context-dependent regulator of adaptive immune responses. Her recent studies demonstrate that T cell exit out of tumors governs the anatomical distribution and functional potential of the anti-tumor T cell repertoire and reveal tumor-associated lymphatic vessels as programmable targets that shift the balance from metastasis toward immune surveillance. This integration of tumor immunology and host physiology aims to generate a better understanding for how host adaptations to tumor progression influence mechanisms of response to therapy over time.

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

Cancer immunotherapy stands at an inflection point: transformative clinical successes have revealed what is possible, but also exposed persistent gaps in our mechanistic understanding of how, why, and for whom these therapies work. While next generation therapies have consistently emerged from deep biological insight, there is increasing pressure toward translational immediacy that can disincentivize foundational discovery. Without sustained investment in fundamental immunology, we risk limiting progress to incremental advances rather than enabling breakthrough therapies. At the same time, the rapid expansion of high-dimensional data and artificial intelligence is reshaping how we approach discovery. These tools offer unprecedented opportunities to identify patterns across complex systems, yet their application often outpaces the biological frameworks needed to interpret them. Finally, a central challenge in cancer immunotherapy is that we continue to treat a dynamic system with static frameworks. Patient responses are shaped by continuous interactions between tumor, immune system, tissue context, and the therapy itself. Building on the strengths of the field and meeting these new challenges will be essential to extend the reach and durability of immunotherapy across patient populations.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

My vision for SITC is threefold: that we continue to foster and support rigorous basic tumor immunology as the fundamental basis for breakthroughs in patient care; that we facilitate the training of the next generation of cancer immunologists who embrace the powers of artificial intelligence to augment rigorous, reductionist biology; and that this together will fuel an era of true systems immunology, where discrete mechanisms can be connected over space and time to generate a dynamic view of the patient that guides adaptive and personalized therapies.

Basic Science. We need to bring the best immunologists and cancer biologists into the field of cancer immunology and ensure that they are supported in asking fundamental, mechanistic questions. SITC is uniquely positioned to reinforce the value of basic science by elevating mechanistic work at its meetings and creating funding oportunities that reward discovery at its earliest stages. By serving as a nexus between discovery and application, SITC can ensure that the next generation of therapies is grounded in a precise understanding of immune regulation in cancer, rather than empirical iteration alone.

Training and Artificial Intelligence. SITC programs like the Sparkathon Accelerator Program have had a significant impact on launching the next leaders in our field, and the organization should continue to play a central role in shaping future generations of cancer immunologists. This includes not only fostering scientific excellence, and facilitating the transition to independence, but also equipping trainees with the conceptual and technical fluency to navigate an increasingly data-rich landscape. I would support the expansion of educational initiatives, workshops, fellowships, and collaborative platforms, that train scientists to critically apply artificial intelligence and machine learning tools. SITC can lead in defining best practices and ensuring that technological advancement strengthens, rather than dilutes, mechanistic rigor.

Treating the System. We continue to struggle to fully ground therapeutic strategies in the biology of the individual patient. SITC can lead a conceptual shift toward treating the immune-tumor ecosystem as an integrated, adaptive network. This will require bridging spatial and temporal scales and fostering collaborations across disciplines, including cancer biology, immunology, engineering, and computational science guided by the leading clinical perspectives. By promoting collaborative research frameworks and clinical strategies that account for this complexity, SITC can help drive the development of personalized therapeutic strategies that anticipate and direct the evolving state of the patient.

Zhen Su, MD, MBA, is Chief Executive Officer of Marengo Therapeutics and a member of its Board of Directors. He brings nearly three decades of experience as a physician-scientist and biopharma executive, with a distinguished track record of advancing cancer immunotherapy across academia and industry. At Marengo, he has led the development of innovative precision immunotherapy programs, including T-cell engager and multispecific antibody approaches, and has advanced the company’s lead programs into clinical trials while expanding its broader pipeline. He has also helped establish strategic partnerships with leading academic institutions and industry organizations to accelerate innovation in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Su has been a long-standing and active contributor to the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), including serving as Founding Chair of the Biotech Committee and supporting SITC’s fellowship program and other initiatives that help develop the next generation of leaders in cancer immunotherapy. In addition, he currently serves on the boards of Karyopharm Therapeutics (NASDAQ: KPTI), CytomX Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CTMX), and the Japan International Drug Discovery Ecosystem Association (J-iDEA).

Before joining Marengo, Dr. Su served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of the Oncology Franchise at Merck KGaA, where he played a key role in the development and launch of several innovative oncology medicines, including immunotherapy and targeted therapy programs. He also helped expand the company’s oncology portfolio through major immuno-oncology alliance partnerships, including collaborations with Pfizer and GSK. Earlier, as Chief Medical Officer of EMD Serono, he contributed to eight major regulatory approvals across oncology and neurology. Prior to his industry career, he held faculty positions at Duke University Medical School and the University of Florida, where his work focused on cancer immunotherapy, cell therapy, and gene therapy. Dr. Su has authored more than 60 publications in immuno-oncology and targeted oncology. He earned his MD from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, completed postdoctoral training in cancer immunotherapy at Duke University Medical Center, USA and received his MBA from the University of Toronto, Canada.

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

From my perspective as a physician-scientist focused on clinical development, one of the most critical issues facing cancer immunotherapy is how to extend durable benefit to more patients. Although immunotherapy has transformed outcomes for many patients, too many still do not respond or eventually develop resistance. Addressing this challenge will require a deeper understanding of tumor and immune biology, better biomarkers, and more precise immuno-oncology treatment strategies to bring the right therapy to the right patient at the right time.

A second critical issue is ensuring the success of the next wave of immunotherapy innovation. Emerging approaches such as immuno-oncology bispecifics, T-cell engagers, and CAR-T therapies, both ex vivo and in vivo, hold tremendous promise to broaden the reach of immunotherapy across more tumor types and patient populations. Having led multiple immuno-oncology drug development programs, I believe it is essential that we not only advance these technologies scientifically but also develop them strategically and efficiently so they can deliver meaningful clinical benefit to more patients.

A third important issue is access and sustainability. As therapies become more complex and costly, we must ensure that innovation remains practical, scalable, and accessible to patients. The long-term success of the immuno-oncology field will depend not only on scientific breakthroughs, but also on our ability to translate them into broadly available treatments that improve patient outcomes.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

My vision for SITC is to continue strengthening its role as the leading global voice, convener, and catalyst for the cancer immunotherapy field. SITC has a unique ability to bring together academia, industry, clinicians, regulators, and patient advocates to advance science, accelerate clinical translation, and improve outcomes for patients. As the field becomes more complex and multidisciplinary, SITC’s leadership in collaboration, education, and innovation will be more important than ever.

I am particularly inspired by SITC’s ambitious vision to help enable the approval of 100 novel immuno-oncology agents by 2034. Achieving this goal will depend on strong, diverse, and forward-thinking leadership, together with sustained commitment to scientific excellence, partnership, and talent development across the field. SITC can play a critical role in shaping the future of cancer immunotherapy by fostering cross-sector collaboration, supporting the development of next-generation therapies, and continuing to invest in mentorship and fellowship programs that help develop future leaders. Ultimately, my vision is for SITC to help ensure that the next wave of immunotherapy innovation translates into meaningful benefit for patients.

After completing my undergraduate training in chemistry and medical school at the American University of Beirut, I joined the University of Pittsburgh for residency in 2002. My residency and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology included formal training in clinical translational science that culminated in a PhD in 2011. At the University of Pittsburgh, I gained exposure into the world of immuno-oncology and participated in the early phase trials of checkpoint inhibitors which then went on to receive FDA approvals including ipilimumab, pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and the combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab. My training in Phase I and drug development allowed me to engage in the exploration of novel combinations in new clinical settings. I joined MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2015 and have since served in multiple roles such as Director of Clinical Research and Deputy Chair in the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology. I currently serve as Professor in the Departments of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Investigational Cancer Therapeutics. I also co-founded and continue to co-lead the multi-disciplinary Andrew M. McDougall Brain Metastasis Clinic and Research Program.

I have had the honor of leading multiple practice-changing immunotherapy trials that have redefined standards of care in melanoma. Serving as the national PI of CheckMate-204, establishing the efficacy of ipilimumab and nivolumab in melanoma brain metastases, and as a leader of RELATIVITY-047, which established nivolumab and relatlimab as a first-line standard in advanced melanoma. I have also co-founded and continue to serve on the Steering Committee of the International Neoadjuvant Melanoma Consortium, advancing innovative trial designs and translational endpoints in early-stage disease. My research is focused on mechanisms of response and resistance to immunotherapy, with emphasis on novel combination that modulate the tumor microenvironment and extend the benefit of immunotherapy to historically underrepresented populations. More recently, I was appointed Executive Director of IO Drug Development and established an institutional program, AMPLIFY, to lead our center’s effort towards advancing next-generation immune-based therapeutics across multiple histologies through rational combinations, biomarker-driven strategies, and integration of translational science into clinical development.

I have been a long-standing member of SITC and have participated in various initiatives over the last 2 decades. I continue to serve as Co-Chair of the PD-1 Resistance Committee as we shape the field’s understanding of resistance to checkpoint blockade and inform trial designs and strategies to evaluate the next-generation of immunotherapy agents. My contributions to collaborative, multi-institutional science have been recognized with the 2025 SITC Collaboration Award given for our role in the INMC. I remain committed to advancing SITC’s role as a central driver of innovation in immuno-oncology through fostering collaboration, accelerating translational integration, and expanding access to effective immunotherapies for patients worldwide.

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

As a clinician and researcher, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative impact of immunotherapy, particularly with the broad approvals of PD-1–based therapies across multiple cancer types. Early in this evolution, it was natural to hope that immunotherapy might offer a path to curing every cancer and benefiting every patient. However, the past decade has made it clear that our approaches must become more nuanced, and that progress will depend on a deeper understanding of tumor–host interactions and mechanisms of response and resistance. Several critical challenges now define the field. First, despite an expanding therapeutic arsenal, clinical development remains fragmented across diseases, institutions, and sponsors. This limits our ability to efficiently evaluate rational combinations and slows the pace of learning. In addition, there remains a significant gap between scientific discovery and clinical translation. While our biological understanding has advanced considerably, it is not yet systematically integrated into trial design or development strategies. The field continues to face a paucity of robust biomarkers of response and resistance. In the near term, this necessitates reliance on clinically defined patterns of resistance—an area where Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer has already provided important leadership—to guide therapeutic decisions. Looking ahead, better data sharing and integration across stakeholders will be essential to enable the development of more precise, histology- and modality-specific biomarkers that can drive the next generation of immunotherapies.

A significant emerging challenge is presented by the evolving complexity of the regulatory environment. Increasing emphasis on single-agent activity and traditional dose optimization paradigms may not fully capture the biology of immunotherapy, where synergy between agents can amplify efficacy even in the absence of strong single-agent signals. Similarly, dose-response relationships in immunotherapy are often less linear, requiring more context-specific approaches to optimization. Without careful consideration, current frameworks risk prematurely discarding potentially transformative combinations.

Finally, there is renewed excitement with the emergence of novel therapeutic modalities—including bispecific antibodies, T cell engagers, and advances in cellular therapies. These innovations hold significant promise but also require coordinated, biology-driven development strategies to realize their full potential.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

As a member of the SITC Board of Directors, my goal is to help position SITC at the forefront of the next era of cancer immunotherapy. Achieving this will require strengthening meaningful collaboration across disciplines, disease groups, and institutions. It will also require deeper engagement with regulatory agencies, global investigators, and industry partners. Together, these efforts can accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into impactful clinical advances.

I am particularly committed to advancing integrated, multi-disease clinical development strategies. These approaches are essential to fully leverage emerging immunotherapy agents and rational combinations, especially as our understanding of the biology underlying resistance mechanisms continues to evolve. In parallel, I aim to enhance platforms for data sharing across institutions and with industry partners. Currently, vast amounts of clinical and translational data remain fragmented across multiple stakeholders. Efforts to aggregate and harmonize these data along with the emergence of powerful AI tools could create a transformative resource, capable of driving a new era of innovation. Better integration of clinical and biological data can enable more informed decision-making, de-risk development strategies, improve clinical trial efficiency, and potentially shorten the path to registration for novel agents.

I also believe that SITC good be a leading voice in expanding access to immunotherapy by promoting more inclusive clinical trial designs, particularly for underrepresented populations such as patients with brain metastases, autoimmune conditions, and rare tumors, while supporting broader engagement of community sites and global partners.

Finally, I believe SITC should continue to lead in shaping innovative clinical trial paradigms and setting standards for the field. This includes building consensus in key areas such as neoadjuvant immunotherapy, PD-1 resistance, cell-based therapeutics, and brain metastases. It also requires fostering collaboration across institutions, adopting innovative trial designs, and prioritizing patient-centered outcomes. Equally important is investing in the next generation of investigators through mentorship, education, and leadership development. Through these efforts, SITC can further strengthen its role as the leading global organization advancing immunotherapy and improving outcomes for patients worldwide.