Auayporn Nademanee, M.D., associate clinical director of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, has been named the first Jan & Mace Siegel Professor in Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. The endowed professorship was made possible by a $1.5 million pledge from longtime City of Hope supporter Mace Siegel.
 Auayporn Nademanee (Photo by Walter Urie) |
Nademanee directs City of Hope’s Matched Unrelated Donor Program, which pairs patients battling cancer and other severe illnesses with unrelated donors who can provide potentially lifesaving blood stem cells for transplantation.
She joined City of Hope as a staff physician in 1981 and has been featured numerous times in “America’s Top Doctors for Cancer,” a consumer guide to the nation’s top cancer specialists.
Under her direction, the Matched Unrelated Donor Program has gained national prominence and helped garner City of Hope recognition by the National Marrow Donor Program as the only center in 2010 to achieve above-average survival rates in unrelated transplants for five consecutive years.
She is a member of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society of Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation.
Siegel, founder and chair emeritus of the real estate investment trust Macerich Co., has been a supporter of City of Hope for more than 15 years.
“City of Hope is fortunate to receive this gift from one of our most committed benefactors,” said Michael A. Friedman, M.D., City of Hope president and chief executive officer and Irell & Manella Cancer Center Director’s Distinguished Chair. “Mr. Siegel’s gift is a vote of confidence that will help City of Hope advance the quality of care for people who face life-threatening cancers of the blood and immune system.”
A leader in the Los Angeles Real Estate & Construction Industries Council, Siegel received that group’s top philanthropic honor, The Spirit of Life® Award, in 2007. He recently pledged $1 million to the industry group’s annual fundraising effort, bringing the group’s total funds raised for City of Hope to $3.4 million. In 2004, City of Hope and Siegel honored his late wife, Jan, by dedicating the sixth floor of City of Hope Helford Clinical Research Hospital to her memory.
“I’m inspired by City of Hope’s commitment to innovative research and compassionate care,” said Siegel. “It’s simply true to its name. City of Hope’s physicians and nurses deliver hope to many who are facing the toughest time of their lives. And the research programs prom-ise to extend that healing to patients all over the world.”
