Audit Committee

Professor Benjamin Solomon is a medical oncologist and head of the lung medical oncology service at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Following his training in medical oncology, he was a recipient of an IASLC fellowship in 2004 and proceeded to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado under the supervision of Professors Paul Bunn and Fred Hirsch. He returned to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2006, where he heads the Lung Medical Oncology Service and is a Group Leader of the Molecular Therapeutics and Biomarkers Laboratory in the Research Division. His clinical trial work focuses on the identification of novel therapies for lung cancer, including novel targeted therapy and immunotherapy approaches. He has been involved in practice-changing clinical trials with novel inhibitors of ALK, ROS1, NTRK, BRAF, cMET, RET, and KRAS, including pivotal trials leading to registration of drugs including crizotinib, ceritinib, lorlatinib, repotrectinib, and selpercatinib.

He has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). He is a founding board member of the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia (TOGA) and is a Board Member of the Cancer Council of Victoria. He has served on several committees for the IASLC, including the fellowship committee, and was chair from 2016-2018. 

Dr. Paul Van Schil joined the IASLC Board of Directors in 2017 and has served as Chair of its Staging and Prognostic Factors Committee since 2017. He is now the Past President of the IASLC. 

Dr. Van Schil is a professor of thoracic and vascular surgery at the Faculty of Medicine, a member of the Antwerp Surgical Training and Research Center (ASTARC), and a consultant at the Department of Thoracic and Vascular Surgery of the Antwerp University Hospital.
His research focuses on thoracic and vascular surgery with an emphasis on lung cancer staging and therapy, lung metastases, and mesothelioma. Dr. Van Schil has authored or co-authored nearly 250 articles and 44 book chapters. Dr. Van Schil graduated from medical school in 1982 at Antwerp University in Belgium. After completing his training in general surgery, he became a fellow in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, the Netherlands.

Dr. Kelly is the CEO of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the only global network dedicated to the study and eradication of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. She is an internationally recognized lung cancer expert dedicated to providing enhanced cancer care through cutting-edge clinical trials. Her research spans the spectrum of this disease from prevention to treatment. Dr. Kelly is widely published, and she frequently lectures on lung cancer topics, nationally and internationally. Dr. Kelly is a long-standing active member of IASLC, ASCO, and SWOG. She served as the SWOG Lung Committee Chair from 2016 until 2022.

Dr. Kelly earned her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency and oncology fellowship at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Kelly was appointed faculty at the University of Colorado where she spent many years building her academic career in thoracic oncology prior to accepting a faculty appointment at the University of California, Davis where she held the Jennifer Rene Harmon Tegley and Elizabeth Erica Harmon Endowed Chair in Clinical Cancer Research and was the Associate Director for Clinical Research for their NCI designated comprehensive cancer center.

Dr. Natasha Leighl leads the Thoracic Medical Oncology Group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She holds the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation OSI Pharmaceuticals Foundation Chair in Cancer New Drug Development. She has published over 350 peer-reviewed papers, held multiple peer-reviewed grants, and mentored many trainees who have gone on to leadership roles in oncology around the world. In 2019, she was awarded the American Society of Clinical Oncology Excellence in Teaching Award. Her passion for improving patient care has driven her research in lung cancer drug development lung cancer diagnostics, including liquid biopsy, guideline development, and outcomes research.

She has led several international and cooperative group studies in lung cancer, served on the Lung Disease Site Group Executive of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Group (CCTG), was Co-Chair of the CCTG Committee on Economic Analysis, Congress Co-President of the 2018 World Conference on Lung Cancer, and serves on the ASCO Thoracic Guidelines Advisory Group, ESMO Guidelines Group (Lead, non-metastatic lung cancer), is Faculty Coordinator (Metastatic Lung Cancer) for the ESMO Education Committee, Chair of the International Society of Liquid Biopsy Education Committee and co-Chair of the 2024 European Lung Cancer Congress. She is Deputy Editor of Critical Reviews in Hematology/Oncology, Section co-editor of Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology, and serves on multiple editorial boards, including the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, and was a previous Web Editor. She is a strong supporter of patient advocacy and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lung Cancer Foundation of America, she is the Past President of Lung Cancer Canada (2009-2016) and an Honorary Chair of the Exon20 Group. 

Dr. Mary Pasquinelli is a doctorate-prepared nurse practitioner specializing in lung cancer, with expertise spanning the entire continuum from screening and pulmonary nodule management to diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Her clinical research focuses on lung cancer, screening, and health disparities, with a strong commitment to improving access to early detection and care for underserved populations. 

Dr. Pasquinelli developed and directed the Lung Cancer Screening Program at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System (UI Health) in Chicago, serving predominantly minority populations from low-resource communities. Under her leadership, UI Health’s lung screening program has gained national recognition and has been designated a GO2 for Lung Cancer and an American College of Radiology Lung Cancer Screening Center of Excellence. 

As a certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist, she has integrated comprehensive smoking cessation services into the Lung Screening Program and medical oncology clinic, ensuring a holistic approach to lung health. She has worked to implement patient-centered initiatives that improve lung cancer prevention efforts and enhance engagement in smoking cessation treatment. 

She serves as principal investigator or co-investigator on multiple grants and research protocols focusing on thoracic oncology and health disparities. Her research, published in JAMA Oncology, has demonstrated higher rates of positive lung screens and diagnosed lung cancer among UI Health’s screening population compared to the NLST. She has also conducted studies assessing the PLCOm2012 risk prediction model impact on race/sex disparities, published in JTO and Chest, and plays a key role in AI-driven lung cancer risk prediction through the Sybil Consortium. 

Dr. Pasquinelli is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. In 2021, she received the Prevent Cancer Foundation James L. Mulshine National Leadership Award. Last year, she was honored with UI Health’s Nurse Practitioner of the Year award, the highest recognition for nurse practitioners at UI Health. 

Wen-Zhao Zhong received his Ph.D. in Oncology, specializing in thoracic surgery, from Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. At present, he is serving as the chief physician of thoracic neoplasms surgery at Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute. Wen-Zhao is broadly interested in the area of clinical trials and translational research involving early-stage and locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer, which include systemic treatment modality of stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), personalized perioperative treatment, diagnosis and management of pulmonary nodules as well as early screening of lung cancer. His recent projects involve personalized treatment modalities for localized mutant non-small cell lung cancer and ctDNA-guided personalized treatment.

Recent relevant research has been published in high-impact journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, NPJ Precision Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, etc. In 2022 WCLC, he achieved the TSUGUO NARUKE Lectureship award for surgery in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field of thoracic oncology and particularly to thoracic surgery.