W. Kimryn Rathmell

W. Kimryn Rathmell is the CEO of the James Cancer Hospital of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She previously served as the 17th Director of the National Cancer Institute, reporting to President Joe Biden. Her previous roles include serving as Chair of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a physician-scientist studying the molecular biology of renal cell carcinomas and rare tumors of the kidney. Her research program focuses on understanding the molecular pathogenesis of renal cell carcinomas and spans early models of renal tumorigenesis; novel imaging strategies for diagnosis and screening of kidney cancer; epigenetic regulation of kidney cancers; metabolic features of tumorigenesis; and novel therapeutic strategies to overcome resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy and checkpoint targeted immunotherapy. Rathmell is also an advocate physician-scientist training and has directed several mentoring and career development programs. Rathmell is a member of The Cancer Genome Atlas, winning the 2021 American Association for Cancer Research Team Science Award, and in 2025 she was awarded the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor and the American Society for Clinical Oncology Hologic, inc. Women Who Conquer Cancer Award. A past president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Rathmell is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University, and completed her master of management in health care from the Vanderbilt Owen School of Business in 2021.