Robert Riviello, MD, MPH Steven C. and Carmella R. Kletjian Foundation Endowed Chair in Global Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Steven C. and Carmella R. Kletjian Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine in the Field of Global Surgery Associate Professor of Surgery Harvard Medical School
Dr. Riviello is the medical director of the metabolic support service and an associate surgeon with the Division of Trauma, Burn, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is also the director of the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) at Harvard Medical School. He serves as co-chair of the Center for Equity in Global Surgery at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda and the Kletjian Foundation Endowed Chair in Global Surgery in the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Riviello received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, his master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and his medical degree from the University of California, San Diego. He completed his general surgery residency at Vanderbilt University. He completed a Fulbright International Fellowship in Global Surgery at Centro Evangélico de Medicina do Lubango in Angola and a research fellowship in global surgery at the BWH Center for Surgery and Public Health. He then completed an acute care and burn surgery fellowship, as well as an anesthesia critical care medicine fellowship at the Brigham.
Dr. Riviello’s current research focuses on delivering safe, effective, equitable and patient-centered care to vulnerable populations in settings of poverty. He has more than 140 peer-reviewed publications in the field of global surgery. Dr. Riviello has developed innovative platforms for surgical care delivery and curricula to maximize surgeon effectiveness in resource-limited communities.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has elected Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, MHCM, FASCO, the Robert and Karen Hale Endowed Chair in Surgical Oncology and vice chair for Research in the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham, to lead as its President beginning in June 2026. Dr. Mittendorf, a long-time ASCO member and volunteer, will take office as President-Elect immediately following the ASCO Annual Business Meeting in Chicago on June 2, 2025.
Dr. Mittendorf is also the director of the Breast Immuno-Oncology program, co-leader of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and co-leader of the Breast Program for the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
Dr. Mittendorf’s extensive volunteer history with ASCO includes serving on the ASCO Board of Directors from 2019-2023, when she also served as the Society Treasurer from 2022-2023. She is also a past chair of the Conquer Cancer Grants and Awards Selection Committee, and past member of the Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee and Best of ASCO Planning Committee.
ELIZABETH MITTENDORF, MD, PHD, MHCM, FASCO Vice Chair for Research, Department of Surgery Robert and Karen Hale Endowed Chair in Surgical Oncology Brigham and Women’s Hospital Director, Breast Immuno-Oncology Program Co-Leader, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Mittendorf is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where she also completed a residency in general surgery. After completing her residency, she served on active duty in the United States military before completing a fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Mittendorf also holds a PhD in immunology from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.
Prior to joining Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Mittendorf was a professor in the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Mittendorf is board certified by the America Board of Surgery. She maintains a busy clinical practice and oversees a portfolio of clinical trials, as well as a basic laboratory effort.
She is principal investigator on a number of clinical protocols, including the phase III PRESENT (Prevention of Recurrence in Early-Stage, Node-Positive Breast Cancer with Low to Intermediate HER2 Expression with NeuVax Treatment) study, and a multicenter phase II trial investigating the efficacy of a CD8+ T cell eliciting vaccine in combination with trastuzumab, which is based on preclinical data generated in her laboratory and follows a phase I trial she conducted demonstrating the combination to be safe. This trial is supported by a Breakthrough Award from the Department of Defense (DoD).
Dr. Mittendorf is also the principal investigator on a multi-center trial supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) evaluating the impact of vaccination in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ, a trial evaluating the impact of preoperative radiation therapy on the immune response in breast tumors, as well as two investigator initiated studies evaluating immune checkpoint blockade administered to breast cancer patients in the presurgical setting.
Her laboratory work is focused on identifying novel tumor antigens and investigating aspects of the tumor microenvironment that impact the response to immunotherapy. Specifically, she is investigating mutations in the ESR1 gene as targets for vaccination, as well as the impact of standard therapies on the immune microenvironment with the goal of informing rational clinical trials evaluating the addition of immunotherapy to treatment regimens for breast cancer patients. This work is supported by the Komen for the Cure Foundation and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
