Geisinger CEO receives Society of Surgical Oncology's Heritage Award

DANVILLE – Surgical oncologist Glenn Steele Jr., MD, PhD, president and chief executive officer of the Geisinger Health System, is the recipient of the 2008 Society of Surgical Oncologists Heritage Award, one of the Society’s top awards. It is given to former presidents of the Society for their contribution to the field of surgical oncology and to the Society of Surgical Oncology. Steele served as President of the Society from 1999-2000.
Dr. Steele is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and serves on the Committee on Reviewing Evidence to Identify Highly Effective Clinical Services (HECS), and the New England Surgical Society. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a member of the Healthcare Executives Network, the Alliance for Advancing Non-Profit Health Care, the Commonwealth Fund’s newly created Commission on a High Performance Health System, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) Committee on Performance Measurement.
Dr. Steele serves on several boards including Bucknell University’s Board of Trustees, Temple University School of Medicine’s Board of Visitors, the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees, Premier, Inc., the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute, the Global Conference Institute and the Simon School of Business Advisory Board (University of Rochester). He serving his second term as Honorary Chair of the Pennsylvania March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign.
Dr. Steele previously served as the dean of the biological sciences division and the Pritzker School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago, as well as the Richard T. Crane Professor in the department of surgery. Prior to that, he was the William V. McDermott Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, president and chief executive office of Deaconess Professional Practice Group, Boston, MA and chairman of the department of surgery at New England Deaconess Hospital (Boston, MA)
A prolific writer, he is the author or co-author of more than 400 scientific and professional articles and widely recognized for his investigations into the treatment of primary and metastatic liver cancer and colorectal cancer surgery.
He is a past chair and examiner for the American Board of Surgery and serves on several scientific advisory boards including Simon Healthcare (University of Rochester) and the Institute of Medicine's study of early detection of breast cancer.
The Society of Surgical Oncologists’ membership includes more than 2,000 surgical oncologists worldwide.