SagerStrong Leadership

Dr. Naveen Pemmaraju

Medical Advisory Board

Dr. Naveen Pemmaraju is an Assistant Professor Director, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. 2011-present. He completed undergraduate studies with a Bachelor of Science cum laude in Cell and Molecular Biology at Tulane University. He received his medical degree at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, completed Internal Medicine training at the Osler Medical Program of Johns Hopkins (Barker Firm), and completed a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Pemmaraju is board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology. He is a clinical investigator with clinical and research interests focused in the areas of analyzing patient characteristics and outcomes as well as development of novel therapies for patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). Dr. Pemmaraju has extensive experience with clinical trial design, enrollment of patients, and serving as the PI or co-PI of several enrolling and upcoming clinical trials at his institution. He has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific/medical publications in the peer-reviewed literature. Dr. Pemmaraju serves as the co-course director for the Leukemia rotation and is a member of the Fellowship Educational Steering Committee at MD Anderson. He has also published his original work in the field of medical humanities (both prose and poetry) in peer-reviewed medical journals, and is an active member of the medical social media community; he is the founder of #mpnsm, or myeloproliferative neoplasms in social media, a Twitter-based community focused on discussion of topics of interest to MPN researchers, providers and patients during medical conferences and throughout the year.

Dr. Muzaffar H Qazilbash

Medical Advisory Board

Dr. Muzaffar H Qazilbash is a Professor in the department of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, which he joined in October 2002. We are the largest stem cell transplant program in the country and perform approximately 800 transplants a year for patients with blood diseases and cancer. Dr. Qazilbash research interests primarily focus on immune and cellular therapy for blood cancers. UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center provides an excellent environment and resources to perform high-quality clinical and translational research.

W. Marshall Sanders

Advisory Board Council

Attorney, Law Offices of W. Marshall Sanders, LLC Marshall Sanders focuses his law practice on the representation of nonprofit organizations and individuals with complex charitable giving needs. For the first 17 years of his legal career he was an attorney with Atlanta’s two largest law firms, King & Spalding LLP (1999-2005) and Alston & Bird LLP (2005-2016), where he represented some of the region’s largest foundations, hospitals, colleges and universities, and other tax-exempt organizations. He also advised clients on tax-efficient estate planning, assisted corporate and individual fiduciaries with estate and trust administration matters and structured various types of lifetime and testamentary charitable transfers. Mr. Sanders now assists nonprofit clients, both big and small, with the full range of legal needs specific to those organizations, including: formation of new charities and charitable remainder and lead trusts; obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status; nonprofit governance and ethics; compliance with private foundation rules; public v. private charity status; nonprofit structures, relationships and affiliations; unrelated business income tax issues; lobbying and political activities; international charitable transactions and operations; and representation in Internal Revenue Service and Attorney General proceedings. Mr. Sanders speaks and publishes regularly on exempt organization and estate planning issues. Mr. Sanders is an AV-rated lawyer, is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and has been listed in Best Lawyers in America every year since the nonprofit/charities category was established. He is the past chair of the nonprofit law section of the state bar and chaired the bar legislative committee which drafted Georgia’s current endowment law. Prior to entering law school, Mr. Sanders held a number of positions in government and politics, which included service as a naval intelligence officer, a senior member of the staff of Senator Wyche.