Otis Webb Brawley, M.D., is the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, responsible for promoting cancer prevention, early detection, and high-quality treatment through cancer research and education. A world-renowned cancer expert and practicing oncologist, Brawley has also been a professor of hematology, oncology, and epidemiology at Emory University, medical director of the Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and deputy director for cancer control at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. He has also co-chaired the Surgeon General’s Task Force on Cancer Health Disparities and filled a variety of capacities at the National Cancer Institute.

A self-described ‘science nerd,’ Brawley gravitated toward research because it blends the practice of medicine with pure science. As a teen, he volunteered in the Veterans Administration Hospital lab in Detroit. Scientists there taught him to use sophisticated equipment and to help them with their work. ‘That’s where I got the research bug,’ he says.

A graduate of University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Brawley interned at University Hospital of Cleveland, Case-Western Reserve University and completed his residency at University Hospital of Cleveland.

Beyond his ongoing educational, prevention and treatment campaigns at the ACS, Brawley guides efforts to enhance and focus the research program, upgrade the society’s advocacy capacity, and concentrate community cancer control efforts in areas where they will be most effective. Brawley is also a key leader in the Society’s work to eliminate disparities in access to high-quality cancer care.