Lustgarten Foundation Announces the Appointment of Two New Board Members

Selwyn M. Vickers, MD, FACS, and Scott Penberthy, PhD, MS, join the Lustgarten Foundation Board of Directors 

Woodbury, New York, July 13, 2023 – The Lustgarten Foundation, the nation’s largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research, today announced the appointment of two new board members: Selwyn M. Vickers, MD, FACS, and Scott Penberthy, PhD, MS. Dr. Vickers is an internationally recognized pancreatic cancer surgeon, pancreatic cancer researcher, and pioneer in health disparities research. Dr. Penberthy is a visionary engineering leader with extensive expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and technology, specifically in the healthcare space.  

“We are honored to welcome Dr. Vickers and Dr. Penberthy to the Lustgarten Foundation Board of Directors,” said Linda Tantawi, CEO of the Lustgarten Foundation. “At the Foundation, we firmly believe in the fundamental role of innovative and cutting-edge research in solving the complexities of pancreatic cancer. The appointment of Dr. Vickers and Dr. Penberthy will undoubtedly propel us forward in our mission to transform pancreatic cancer into a curable disease.” 

Selwyn M. Vickers, MD, FACS, a renowned pancreatic cancer surgeon, researcher, and academic medical leader, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). Prior to joining MSK, Dr. Vickers was the CEO of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the Senior Vice President and Dean of the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine. He also served as the Jay Phillips Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School.  He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and has served on the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Board of Trustees and the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees. Additionally, he has served as President of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract and the Southern Surgical Association. Dr. Vickers is the immediate Past President of the American Surgical Association. 

“The work of the Lustgarten Foundation plays an essential role in propelling pancreatic research forward,” said Dr. Vickers, “I look forward to the work we will do together to continue to advance treatments and support those impacted by this devastating disease.” 

Scott Penberthy, PhD, MS is the Managing Director of Applied AI in Google Cloud’s Office of the CTO. Prior to his tenure at Google, he served as the Managing Director of Technology at PwC, where he led a comprehensive company-wide digital transformation and spearheaded the introduction of AI and cloud services. Having lost his mom to breast cancer when she was only 57, Dr. Penberthy promised her to find a better way to treat cancer. At Google, with the assignment to figure out how AI can do good in the world, Dr. Penberthy started to look at cancer as a programming problem, a pattern gone wrong, which means we can learn to fix it. Dr. Penberthy serves on numerous Boards of Advisors, including Stanford University’s Institute for Computational & Mathematical Engineering. 

“I’m delighted to join the fight to end cancer as we know it, shifting from a lethal diagnosis to one that can be managed,” said Scott Penberthy. “We need all the help we can get from AI and cloud! Pancreatic cancer is one of the most challenging, complex, and subtle diseases, and I firmly believe that contributions here will extend to all others.”