UNC physician awarded Robert A. Ingram Distinguished Professorship for cancer research

Last week, Dr. Dan Reuland was awarded the Robert A. Ingram Distinguished Professorship for his work at UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“We are looking at real-world interventions and data, and patient care delivery; but all that research, it all matters," Reuland said.

Reuland is the founder and co-director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center's Carolina Screening Initiative, as well as the Inclusive Science Program and N.C. Translational & Clinical Services Institute. The cancer center is one of the leading cancer centers in the country, recognized as exceptional by the National Cancer Institute. It is one of 57 NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. 

Dr. Michael Galgano, a board-certified associate professor of neurosurgery at UNC and a physician who works at the Lineberger Cancer Center, wrote in an email to The DTH that he was initially drawn to the center due to the “fantastic team atmosphere and the multidisciplinary nature of [the] job.”

Galgano wrote that his role at the cancer center is to perform surgeries on patients with cancer, as well as benign tumors on the vertebral column and spinal cord. Galgano wrote that the Lineberger Center allows him to continue doing what he loves, performing surgery.

Years after completing his fellowship at UNC, Reuland returned to the University for his Master of Public Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, studying health services research.

“I wanted to do work that was more research-oriented as opposed to just teaching and patient care, which I did like,” Reuland said.

Reuland said that he became interested in cancer research while assisting his mentor, Dr. Mike Pignone, due to how often it occurs and causes death. He said that he and Pignone worked together studying low rates of colon cancer screenings in Hispanic populations in certain areas of North Carolina.

Pignone wrote in an email to The Daily Tar Heel that he and Reuland have worked on multiple efforts to improve cancer screening and health equity since they worked together on their colon cancer research.

"I consider Dan one of the finest physicians and health equity researchers in the US," Pignone wrote in the email.

The Ingram Professorship, a grant serving as a philanthropic gift from James H. Goodnight, is a set of funds around $2 million that accrues interest and can be used for medical research and other purposes. Goodnight, the co-founder billionaire of SAS Institute and a triple N.C. State alumnus, named the professorship in memory of the late Robert A. Ingram, who had a long history of funding and progressing cancer research.

“Bob Ingram committed his amazing career to making progress in the fight against cancer,” Goodnight said in a UNC News article.

Ingram, the former CEO of GlaxoWellcome, was personally asked by President George H.W Bush in 2001 to construct a group of corporate leaders that would come together and become the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, an organization aimed to improve cancer prevention and awareness, especially in the corporate world. Ingram served as the first chair of the organization.

The use of funds in the Ingram Professorship are up to the discretion of Reuland. He said he plans to use them on multiple projects, such as teaching and mentoring. The grant will also help progress current projects within the Lineberger Center.

“I look forward to being able to do work that I think is important and that I think would be important to Robert Ingram,” Reuland said.

CORRECTION: This article previously listed Dr. Dan Reuland as the founder of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.

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