Message from Dr. David Roth, Simon Flexner Professor and Chair:

As you know, Dr. Kathleen Montone has served as both the Director of the Division of Anatomic Pathology and the Director of the Residency Program since 2014. Kathy has done amazing work in both roles, and all of us in the Department have benefited from her dedication.

When she took on the Residency Director role, I promised her that it would be a temporary role. Today I am pleased to announce that Dr. Nicole Aqui has agreed to accept the role of Residency Program Director effective July 1, 2018. Nicole is a former trainee of the residency program and has been on the faculty in Transfusion Medicine since 2006. In addition to being a nationally recognized leader in Apheresis, Nicole has served as the Chair of the Clinical Competency Committee almost since its inception. She received her Bachelor of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Maryland and obtained her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her residency in Clinical Pathology also at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. She went on to complete a fellowship in Transfusion Medicine and a postdoctoral fellowship, studying the effects of T cell immunotherapy on immune reconstitution after transplant in the laboratory of Dr. Carl June. Nicole is the Chief of Transfusion and Apheresis Services and Director of the Pathology Clinical Service Center. She is an active member of several societies, including the American Society for Apheresis (ASFA), where she serves on the Board of Directors and has played a key role in organizing meetings. She serves on the ASFA Guidelines Committee and has co-authored evidence-based guidelines for the use of therapeutic apheresis in clinical practice.

Among her important contributions in our Division of Transfusion Medicine and Therapeutic Pathology are her attention to practice improvements, her leadership in maintaining accreditations for future cellular therapies, and her attention to caring for the underserved. She played a lead role in growing our facility, converting our clinic to an electronic record, and in preparing the division for the anticipated regulatory and administrative requirements related to the FDA approval of CAR T cells. She was also instrumental in the growth of apheresis for research and developed a Clinical Core through Path Bioresource, an easy-to-use resource that is very much appreciated by the Penn research community.

I know the training of our future colleagues will remain in good hands. Drs. Chris Watt, Lauren Schwartz, and Taku Kambayashi will continue to function as Co-directors of Laboratory Medicine, Anatomic Pathology, and the Physician Scientist Program, respectively. The residency program is in outstanding shape, and I look forward to working with Nicole and her Co-directors to take our program to even greater heights.   

I want to offer sincere thanks to Kathy for her years of service and devotion to the program and for her dedication to our past, present and incoming residents. She will continue to direct the Division of Anatomic Pathology, now with more time to pursue her scholarly interests.

David B. Roth, MD, PhD
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine