Newswise — DETROIT – Lisa A. Newman, M.D., MPH, director of the Breast Cancer Center at the Henry Ford Cancer Institute, has been appointed by Susan G. Komen – the world’s largest nonprofit funder of breast cancer research – to its Scientific Advisory Board.

Komen’s eight-member Scientific Advisory Board guides the organization’s education and advocacy work, public health efforts and helps direct Komen’s $920 million research program – an investment in breast cancer research surpassed only by the U.S. government.

Dr. Newman is an internationally known breast surgeon and breast cancer researcher. She was named to the Scientific Advisory Board based on her extensive expertise in aggressive forms of breast cancer.

According to Komen, Dr. Newman has “a wealth of knowledge on health disparities in breast cancer. Our Bold Goal of reducing breast cancer mortality will benefit hugely from having someone of her talents as part of our Scientific Advisory Board."

As the leader of Henry Ford’s global breast cancer research program and founding Medical Director of the International Center for the Study of Breast Cancer Subtypes, Dr. Newman brings extraordinary expertise to the Board.

During the past decade, she has continued to grow her research on ethnicity-related variation in breast cancer, including triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease that disproportionally affects African American women and young patients.

Triple negative breast cancer has been a focus of Dr. Newman’s ongoing work in Ghana, where the majority of cases are triple negative. This research seeks to advance knowledge regarding the biologic and genetic origins of this disease.

Dr. Newman encourages collaborative research nationally as well, serving as Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She also promotes academic and advocacy organizations to better serve communities in Michigan and across the U.S. She currently serves as Chief National Medical Advisor for the Sisters Network, Inc., a national African American breast cancer survivors organization.

Additionally, she has held leadership roles with several other prominent academic and advocacy organizations such as the Society of Surgical Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association of Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society, the National Institute of Minority Health and Disparities, and the American College of Surgeons.

She has received numerous awards, including Michiganian of the Year in 2011, Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation Hero Award in 2012, and the University of Michigan Harold R. Johnson Diversity Award in 2015.

Dr. Newman obtained her undergraduate and Masters of Public Health degrees from Harvard University. She attended medical school and completed her general surgery residency training at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, and completed her fellowship in surgical oncology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

For more information about breast cancer care provided by the Henry Ford Cancer Institute or to schedule an appointment, visit www.HenryFord.com/BreastCancer.