Susan O'Brien MD is the recently retired Associate Medical Director of the Chao Comprehensive Cancer Center at the
University of California at Irvine, as well as the Medical Director of the Sue and Ralph Stern Center for Clinical Trials and
Research. She is currently a Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. She completed her oncology
fellowship at UT MD Anderson and joined the faculty after completion of her fellowship. When she left MD Anderson in
2015 she was the Ashbel Smith Professor of Medicine in the Department of Leukemia.
Dr. O'Brien has authored over 900 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has given over 500 lectures in national and
international conferences and academic institutions. She is considered a leading Leukemia expert world-wide
(expertscape.com) with an H index of 170. She is listed in the 1% of the most highly cited and influential researchers in
the world. Her research is credited for many and sustained contributions to the treatment of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
(ALL) as well as Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). Year after year, she is ranked nationally at the top in her field by
America's Top Doctors, Super Doctors, and America's Top Doctors for Cancer.
She is the SWOG Hematology Executive (formerly known as the Southwest Oncology Group Executive Committee) and a
Board member of the CLL Society. In 2020 she received the Giants of Cancer Care Award for Leukemia and in 2023 she
received the Rai-Binet medal from the iwCLL.