Chapel Hill, NC – Lisa A. Carey, MD, Professor of Medicine, Medical Director of the UNC Breast Center and Associate Director for Clinical Research at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center has been appointed The Richardson and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer Distinguished Professor in Breast Cancer Research.
The professorship, established by a $1 million gift from Marilyn Jacobs Preyer (class of ’82) and L. Richardson Preyer, Jr. of Hillsborough, NC, will be matched with $500,000 from the state of North Carolina, creating a Distinguished Professorship for Breast Cancer Research at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“The Preyers’ generosity in establishing this professorship will benefit North Carolinians and breast cancer patients everywhere. It will enable Dr. Carey, already an internationally-recognized breast cancer physician, to continue to design and lead clinical trials testing novel ways to treat this disease. Dr. Carey’s unique blend of compassionate clinical care and scientific acumen combined with her encyclopedic knowledge of the world’s breast cancer literature place her and her colleagues at the forefront of genomics and cancer therapy,” said Shelley Earp, MD, Director of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Dr. Carey is an exemplar of the type of clinician-scientist that UNC School of Medicine’s departments and centers strive to recruit and develop, a physician who truly understands and uses molecular science to improve the lives of our patients,” said Marschall Runge, MD, PhD, Executive Dean of the UNC School of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine.
Carey earned her undergraduate degree in Biology and Art History from Wellesley College. She completed her medical degree at Johns Hopkins University, was a resident on the Hopkins Osler service in Internal Medicine, then a fellow in Medical Oncology. She earned an advanced degree in Clinical Investigations at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 1998 and then joined the UNC faculty rising from assistant to full professor.
Dr. Carey is a nationally-recognized leader in the field of clinical/translational research in breast cancer, with a particular interest in the clinical implications of different molecular subtypes of breast cancer. She designs and leads clinical trials, and works with both laboratory and public health investigators. She has successfully translated the precepts of her colleagues’ bench science into the design of nationwide clinical trials. She was the lead author of a seminal article in JAMA identifying racial disparities in breast cancer molecular subtypes. She is the principal investigator (P.I.) of multiple clinical trials conducted at UNC and nationally, and serves as liaison for national correlative science collaborations. Her stature led to her appointment to the select National Cancer Institute Committee that reviews and approves all of the NCI breast cancer trials.
Dr. Carey has served for many years on the scientific program and other committees for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). She was named to the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) Breast Core Committee in 2003. She was awarded a Doris Duke Clinician Scientist Award in 1999, a Career Development Award from the NCI in 2000, was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2008, and was awarded the NCI Director’s Service Award in 2011. Her accomplishments have also been recognized by the university community with her selection as the University’s December 2009 commencement speaker and her service on the 2008 chancellor search committee at UNC-Chapel Hill.