Meet the team

At Dana-Farber and its campuses, Dr. Rana oversees the medical management and the clinical operations that provide care to individuals with genetic susceptibility to cancer.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Rana leads multiple research studies focused on defining cancer genetic phenotype-genotype associations to inform the development of cancer prevention and screening. She also studies novel approaches to genetic testing in an effort improve access to cancer genetics services among diverse patient populations.

Dr. Rana received her medical degree from the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, completed her residencies in Internal Medicine and Clinical Genetics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and received her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has been a member of the Dana-Farber faculty since 2012.

Dr. Deborah Toppmeyer is the Chief Medical Officer and Director of both the Stacy Goldstein Breast Cancer Center and the LIFE Center at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. She is also a professor of medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. An expert in breast cancer, breast cancer genetics, and the design and implementation of clinical trials that offer promising new therapies targeted to specific types of breast cancer, Dr. Toppmeyer meets the needs the of the community by helping her patients navigate through treatment options while encouraging enrollment in clinical trials. She also simultaneously provides opportunities for students to learn cancer biology, cancer pharmacology, genetics and clinical care. Dr. Toppmeyer also serves as a core member for the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium, which consists of the Big Ten Cancer Centers with the goal of creating a unique team-research culture to drive science rapidly form ideas to new approaches to cancer treatment.

Dr. Kilbridge is a Senior Physician in Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her clinical expertise is in genitourinary oncology with a focus in prostate cancer. For nearly 20 years, her research has focused on adapting cancer outcomes measures for underserved populations and overcoming barriers to patient education among patients with low health literacy. She has collaborated with community and academic health centers in Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee to implement multi-institutional studies focused on cancer health literacy. Her funding has included grants from the American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute, as well as the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program in Prostate Cancer.

Dr. Kilbridge received her medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine, her fellowship in Medical Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and her fellowship in Health Policy and Management at Harvard School of Public Health. She has been a member of the Dana-Farber faculty since 2013.

Dr. Garber is the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers Chair and Chief of the Division of Cancer Genetics and Prevention at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She conducts research in clinical cancer genetics, with a special focus in the genetics of breast cancer. Dr. Garber is also a leader in research into the characteristics and treatment of triple negative breast cancer, the most common form in women with BRCA1 mutations and an expert in Li-Fraumeni Syndrome. Her translational research focuses on the evaluation of novel agents targeting DNA repair defects in breast cancer, including PARP inhibitors for treatment and prevention of breast cancer and other BRCA-associated cancers, and the study of other agents for reduction of breast cancer risk.

Dr. Garber is a past president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She served on the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute and was elected into the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Physicians and the National Academy of Medicine. She serves as the Scientific Director of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and is a past chair of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. She is an ASCO Statesman and a Fellow of the AACR Academy, and was its first president.

Jill Stopfer is a board-certified and licensed genetic counselor, and the Associate Director of Genetic Counseling at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since 2015. She works with individuals and families with known or suspected hereditary risk for cancer, and on a number of collaborative research initiatives looking to optimize the way genetic counseling is offered considering new testing and practice standards. Jill is a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, with a Master’s degree in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling. She was one of the first genetic counselors in the country to focus primarily in oncology and has worked over the years on numerous educational and policy initiatives.

Dr. McGraw, a medical anthropologist, has over 30 years of research and evaluation experience. She is well-versed in qualitative methods such as in-depth interviewing, focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographies. Dr. McGraw is experienced in a variety of qualitative analysis approaches and qualitative analysis software packages.

Dr. McGraw’s recent work examined patient and provider experiences with genomic testing in various settings. She conducted an ethnography of scientists and clinicians charged with determining the validity and utility of exome sequencing results and the return of somatic and germline results to clinical oncologists and patients. She was responsible for qualitative studies to inform the development and evaluation of online tools for patients facing somatic and germline testing in cancer care and the return of test results. In collaboration with the University of North Carolina Health Registry, she studied a multimedia program on informed consent for biobanks.

Dr. McGraw has a long track record of collaborating with various research teams covering numerous topics. She has published over 70 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. McGraw has received awards for her media work from the National Educational Media Competition and the Partnership for Networked Consumer Health Information. Dr. McGraw holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut and a BA from McGill University.

Marc Schwartz, PhD, is a tenured Professor in the Department of Oncology at Georgetown University School of Medicine and an Associate Director of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he oversees Population Science research. Dr. Schwartz also co-Directs the Jess and Mildred Fisher Center for Hereditary Cancer and Clinical Genomics Research.

A clinical psychologist by training, Dr. Schwartz’s research focuses on the clinical and population translation of advances in cancer genomics; cancer risk assessment; cancer disparities; medical decision making and decision support for cancer treatment and screening. Dr. Schwartz’s research has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1994. He is a fellow of the Society for Behavioral Medicine and has been elected to membership in the Academy for Behavioral Medicine Research. Recent and ongoing projects include studies focused on expanding the reach and uptake of genetic testing among members of hereditary cancer families; addressing disparities in the use of cancer genomic testing through a traceback genetic testing strategy among cancer survivors; valuating decision making and decision support prior to and following genetic testing. Dr. Schwartz has over 175 peer-reviewed publications and has served on numerous editorial boards, study sections and scientific advisory committees.

As a Senior Network Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – Merrimack Valley, most of the patients I see come from historically underrepresented populations. My main responsibility is to care for patients with blood conditions and cancers. A significant number of those patients could have an inherited cancer predisposition syndrome on the basis of their own personal or family history of malignancy, where genetic testing may be appropriate. I have been personally interested in inherited cancers and cancer genetic testing for years and have collaborated with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – Longwood Medical Area cancer genetics group. I serve as the principal investigator for all the clinical trials at the Dana-Farber – Merrimack Valley, including trials associated with cancer genetic evaluations. One of those trials has been the VERDI study, which attempts to improve accessibility of the video education model utilized as a pre-genetic testing education. Our location in the Greater Lawrence region allows us to better serve a more diverse patient population, also historically underrepresented in clinical studies.

I have been a medical oncologist at Dana Farber for the last 15 years. I have a combined fellowship in Heme/Onc and geriatric oncology. I ran a geriatric oncology clinic at DFCI Milford for many years. I am currently the medical director of DFCI at Foxborough and am also the associate medical directory for the network operations. I am interested in the comprehensive care for all our patients and genetics is an important part of  the care we provide and a field that is probably going to become more relevant in future. I am happy to  be part of any process or study which makes it easier for our patients to understand this process and let them be a part of it in a more informed manner.

Dr. Michael Constantine is an oncology/hematology specialist in Milford, Massachusetts, and has over 28 years of experience in the medical field.  Dr. Constantine is a graduate of the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts.  He completed his fellowship in hematology and oncology at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.  Dr. Constantine has been Medical Director at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center at Milford Regional Medical Center in Milford, Massachusetts since 2008.

Dr. Jeanna Walsh is an oncology/hematology specialist in New Hampshire and has over 22 years of experience in the medical field. Dr. Walsh is a graduate of the State University of New York at the Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. She completed both her fellowship in hematology and oncology and her residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. Dr. Walsh has been the Medical Director at Dana-Farber/New Hampshire Oncology-Hematology in Londonderry since 2013. In addition, Dr. Walsh practices at NHOH’s Concord location as well.