Melissa Bondy, MS, PhD

Candidate for President-elect

Dr. Bondy joined Stanford University in October, 2019 as the inaugural Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Co-Director of the Center for Population Health Sciences, and the Associate Director for Population Sciences at the Stanford Cancer Institute. Prior to moving to Stanford, she was Associate Director of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences and section chair of Epidemiology and Population Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine where she held the Dan L. Duncan Professorship and was a McNair Medical Institute Scholar.  Dr. Bondy received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas School of Public Health and continued her career in the Department of Epidemiology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer for 27 years.  Her research focus is in genetic and molecular epidemiology, and she is at the forefront of developing innovative ways to assess the roles of heredity and genetic susceptibility in the etiology of cancer, primarily brain and breast cancers. She led the largest multi-national consortium (GLIOGENE) that focuses on familial and sporadic glioma patients. Dr. Bondy also conducts research in breast cancer studying molecular predictors of survival after breast cancer treatment and health disparities.

Leadership Roles - She is an established leader within the cancer prevention research community. She served as the Chair of the American Association for Cancer Research Molecular Epidemiology Group, and served as President of the American Society for Preventive Oncology, and board member of other professional organizations including the Society of Neurooncology. She was on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Susan Komen Foundation, and a Susan G. Komen Scholar for more than 10 years, and was a founding member, and president of the Brain Tumor Epidemiology Consortium.  She is currently on the Scientific Advisory Board at the National Cancer Institute, serves on the Cancer Prevention Working Group Steering Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research, and has served on numerous NIH advisory committees, ad hoc review committees for NIH, American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen, and Department of Defense, and is an advisor to several Cancer Centers.

Statement: I am privileged and honored to be nominated to serve as president of the American College of Epidemiology. I have a long history of involvement with ACE, and I served on the ACE Board twice from 2002-2005, and from 2015-2017, and have also served on many standing committees including: the Publications committee, Policy committee, Membership committee, Mentoring committee, and the Committee to identify the management company. I am committed to fostering the careers of our junior members and with this difficult funding climate I would like to help foster and develop more mentoring for the next generation of epidemiologists. This would be an important part of my work with ACE.