Robert S. Powell, M.Ed., will join City of Hope as senior vice president of research operations on March 17. As head of the department, Powell will be responsible for administration of City of Hope’s research programs and support services enabling scientific activities.

Powell previously served as associate director of administration of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, where he was responsible for financial operations of its Research and Education Division. Responsibilities included budgeting and accounting for research funding, research administration for most of Sylvester’s 200 cancer center members, and oversight of support services. He represented the cancer center in numerous governmental relations activities at the state and national level.

He also developed and implemented an information management system for the cancer center to aid in identifying the institution’s research capabilities. Some of these systems have served as the basis for a research benchmarking effort which has included City of Hope, along with all of the members of the Alliance of Dedicated Cancer Centers, and 19 of the 21 National Comprehensive Cancer Network member organizations.

In another expansion of the research operations team, Kristine Justus, Ph.D., was promoted to vice president of basic research operations, overseeing operations of Beckman Research Institute. Justus’ responsibilities include research cost analysis, faculty support, laboratory facilities and shared resources. Justus joined City of Hope in 2005 as manager of scientific writing and editing, and subsequently became director of faculty and institutional support.

At the same time, Douglas C. Stahl, Ph.D., was promoted to vice president of clinical research operations. Stahl provides operational oversight for clinical and translational research programs, including regulatory compliance, quality assurance and clinical trials finance. Stahl joined City of Hope in 1989 as a research engineer in the Division of Immunology; he was appointed to direct the newly formed Department of Biomedical Informatics in 1998. Over the last decade, he created an interdisciplinary team that has developed a broad range of solutions for research information management.

Stahl has also assumed increasingly prominent roles in organizational strategic planning, program development and performance improvement initiatives. Under his leadership, the cancer center’s Biomedical Informatics Core has become one of its most heavily used and highly rated shared resource facilities.