S. Gail Eckhardt MD is a tenured Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School where she is also the inaugural Director of the LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes, Chair of the Department of Oncology, and Associate Dean of Cancer Programs. She has been a faculty member at the institution since January of 2017. Prior to joining UT Austin, Dr. Eckhardt was at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where she was Division Head of Medical Oncology from 2006-2014; Associate Director for Translational Research at the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of the Phase I Program and Fellowship.

Dr. Eckhardt has served on numerous committees/study sections, including the ASCO Molecular Oncology Task Force, the ASCO Board of Directors, the FDA Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee, and the NCI Cancer Centers Study Section. She is a member of the NCI Investigational Drug Steering Committee and serves on 11 External Advisory Boards of NCI designated Cancer Centers and is the lead mentor in ASCO’s Leadership Development Program.

Dr. Eckhardt is the Principal Investigator on grants involving early clinical trials and colorectal cancer research, has conducted numerous phase I and II clinical trials and has published over 200 manuscripts. Her area of interest is in the preclinical and early clinical development of combinations of molecularly targeted compounds, with a laboratory focus on colorectal cancer.

 Dr. Eckhardt earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Stephen F. Austin State University and her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. She conducted her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical School followed by a post-doctoral research fellowship in Experimental and Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research Institute, in LaJolla, CA and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the University of California, San Diego.