Cancer expert leaves Ohio State to join Gordon Gee at West Virginia University

Michael Huson
Wed, 18 Jan 2017 20:37:19 +0000
Campus

Dr. Richard Goldberg is set to become the new director of the West Virginia University Cancer Institute. Credit: Courtesy of OSU

Dr. Richard Goldberg, who formerly served as physician-in-chief of the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State, has been named the new director of the West Virginia University Cancer Institute.

While at OSU, Goldberg, a renowned gastrointestinal cancer expert, also served as the Klotz Family Professor of Cancer Research and associate director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“I am extremely pleased that Dr. Goldberg will be joining us at West Virginia University,” WVU president and former OSU president Gordon Gee said in a statement. “He strengthens both our educational and clinical efforts, which are already recognized as being among the best in the nation. Under his leadership, West Virginia University will take a giant step forward in battling one of the top health threats to West Virginians.”

Goldberg came to the Wexner Medical Center in 2011, during Gee’s second tenure as OSU president, from 2007 to 2013. He left the Wexner Medical Center at the end of 2016.

“I am honored to come to West Virginia to lead the incredible team of clinicians and researchers at the WVU Cancer Institute,” Goldberg said in a statement. “The Institute has already made great strides in the arenas of treatment, prevention, and research, and I hope that together we can accomplish even greater advances in the future.”

Goldberg’s salary at the university is set at $550,000, WVU Director of News April Kaull said. He is set to step into the position at the cancer institute on Feb. 1, and will be expected to fill a faculty appointment in the university’s School of Medicine.

The institute’s premiere center, the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, in Morgantown, West Virginia, provided more than 41,000 patient visits in 2015, according to a WVU annual report. It is accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, and ranked No. 1 among cancer hospitals in West Virginia in?2015, according to U.S. News & World Report.

“The cancer burden in West Virginia is high, too high, in fact,” said Albert Wright, Jr., president and CEO of the WVU Health System. “As the state’s flagship academic medical center, it is our responsibility to address that burden, and we believe that Dr. Goldberg has the perfect combination of leadership and experience to direct those efforts for us.”

Goldberg has authored or co-authored more than two dozen books and chapters, according to OSU. He was the first president of the International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology, and his research has led to more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, according to the WVU Cancer Institute.