Leadership of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center: 1958-present

Between 1958 and 2026, five consecutive Service Chiefs—Drs. Donald J. Fernbach, David G. Poplack, Susan M. Blaney, D. Will Parsons and Tammy I. Kang—have led Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center to become one of the largest and most prominent pediatric cancer and hematology centers in the United States.

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Dr. Donald J. Fernbach founded the Research Hematology-Oncology Service at Texas Children’s Hospital in 1958, which has grown over the decades to become Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center. Dr. Fernbach was one of the earliest pioneers in the subspecialty of pediatric oncology. During his esteemed career, his accomplishments include serving as Section Chief from 1958 to 1991, performing the first bone marrow transplant from one identical twin to another to treat aplastic anemia, co-founding the Southwest Cancer Chemotherapy Working Group — the precursor to the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded Children’s Oncology Group (COG), leading the effort to develop newborn screening for sickle cell disease long before it became a state mandate, leading the movement to ban smoking in the Texas Medical Center, realizing his vision of opening Houston’s first Ronald McDonald House, which still provides a comfortable temporary residence for families of children being treated, and co-editing the Clinical Pediatric Oncology textbook the first resource of its kind published in the field.

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Upon Dr. Fernbach’s retirement, Dr. David G. Poplack, an internationally recognized leader in pediatric oncology, was recruited in 1993 and served as the Service Chief for the next 25 years. Under his leadership, the Center grew exponentially. Dr. Poplack’s contributions have made a lasting impression on the field of pediatric hematology-oncology. He was a pioneering researcher in the treatment of central nervous system leukemia. He served as founding co-editor of Pizzo and Poplack’s Principles and Practice of Pediatric Oncology, which remains the leading textbook in the field. He also developed the Passport for Care®, an interactive website that provides childhood cancer survivors and their caregivers with individually tailored care guidelines and resources. In 2018, Dr. Poplack transitioned from his role as Service Chief to Director of Texas Children’s Global Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence (HOPE)—a comprehensive capacity-building program aimed at improving pediatric cancer treatment in sub-Saharan Africa. 

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With Dr. Poplack’s transition to his leadership role at Global HOPE, Dr. Susan Blaney was named Service Chief of the Cancer and Hematology Center in 2018. Dr. Blaney is a world-renowned pediatric oncologist focused on the development of therapies for children with recurrent or refractory cancer, particularly for those with malignancies of the central nervous system. Dr. Blaney is a past Vice Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG)—the world's largest organization devoted exclusively to advancing clinical trials for pediatric cancer research, as the principal investigator of the COG Phase 1/Pilot Consortium, and as a founding member of the NCI-funded Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC). Through these activities and her translational research efforts, Dr. Blaney played a key role in the development of more than 70 novel drugs and 20 new drug combinations for high-risk childhood cancers. She also serves as a co-editor for Principles and Practice of Pediatric Oncology and previously served as a co-editor for Rudolph’s Pediatrics, both leading textbooks in their respective fields.  

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Following Dr. Susan Blaney’s retirement in January 2025, Dr. D. Will Parsons served as Division Chief of the Cancer and Hematology Center, building on his prior role as Deputy Director from 2018 to 2025. A board-certified pediatric oncologist and internationally recognized expert in cancer genomics and precision oncology, Dr. Parsons has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the genetic landscapes of pediatric and adult cancers, with a particular focus on brain tumors. His work has helped define how genomic testing can be most effectively integrated into clinical care for children with cancer. Since 2017, Dr. Parsons has served as study chair for the NCI–Children’s Oncology Group Pediatric MATCH trial, the first nationwide precision oncology trial for children with relapsed and refractory cancers, which has molecularly screened nearly 1,400 patients across the United States for enrollment across multiple phase II studies of targeted therapies. His scientific publications have been cited more than 45,000 times. Dr. Parsons remains an active member of the Center’s faculty and continues to contribute to its mission through research, education, and mentorship, including as Director of the Pediatrician-Scientist Residency Program at Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine.

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In March 2026, Dr. Tammy I. Kang took on the role of Interim Director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center and Interim Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology. Dr. Kang is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist by training, with formative clinical experience caring for children with cancer and blood disorders at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she spent more than 16 years on faculty following her hematology-oncology fellowship. Through this work—particularly alongside children with advanced or life‑limiting illness—Dr. Kang developed a sustained focus on integrating palliative care into pediatric oncology and complex care, addressing symptom burden, supporting complex decision-making, and building programs that strengthen care delivery for patients and families. She went on to found and lead CHOP’s Pediatric Advanced Care Team and became a nationally recognized leader in pediatric palliative care. In 2016, Dr. Kang was recruited to Texas Children’s to establish the institution’s inaugural hospital-wide pediatric palliative care program, which has since grown into one of the largest programs of its kind in the country. She currently serves as Division Chief of Palliative Care Services, Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, and Executive Vice Chair in the Department of Pediatrics. Across her clinical, academic, and executive roles, Dr. Kang is committed to advancing high-quality, patient- and family-centered care, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and supporting the clinicians and teams who serve children and families facing cancer or a blood disorder.

For over 65 years, these Service Chiefs have built Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center from its infancy to the international powerhouse it is today. The key to these leaders’ success has been their ability to promote collaboration and unite diverse multidisciplinary stakeholders to achieve a common goal: improving the care of children and young adults with cancer and blood disorders. When the Center opened, only one in every 10 children with cancer survived. Today, more than 80 percent of children who are diagnosed with cancer will successfully fight the battle and be cured. The faculty, fellows and staff at the Center continue to work tirelessly to improve the lives of children with cancer and devastating blood disorders and will not stop until there is safe and effective cure for every child.