Director

We are pleased to announce that John C. Byrd, MD has been appointed director of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, effective November 1, 2025. Dr. Byrd will also serve as associate vice chancellor for cancer affairs at Pitt and be recommended for appointment to hold the Hillman Professorship of Oncology in the School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine.

Since 2021, Dr. Byrd has served as the Gordon and Helen Hughes Taylor Professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine as well as chief of internal medicine services at UC Health. He also serves as a senior advisor to the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, where he spearheaded the development and launch of the Blood Cancer Healing Center, the only blood cancer center in the nation where patients can benefit from bench-to-bedside research and receive all their care—inpatient and outpatient, survivorship, integrative medicine and spiritual care—in one accessible building.

Prior to joining UC, Dr. Byrd served as senior advisor for cancer experimental therapeutics and Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. During his 20-year career with Ohio State, he also helped to build the Division of Hematology as its founding director. He has been invited to present at more than 315 national and international scientific meetings and conferences, has authored 35 book chapters, and mentored more than 90 fellows, residents, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty members. His own research has been continually funded by industry, federal agencies and leading cancer philanthropies since 1997.

Dr. Byrd earned his MD from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center; and completed his translational laboratory training at Johns Hopkins University.

You may read the full press release about Dr. Byrd’s appointment here.