Merry Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO, a professor in the UF Division of Hematology and Oncology, has been appointed the UF Health Cancer Center’s inaugural medical director for women’s cancer innovation and survivorship.
In this role, she will work with clinicians and investigators to ensure women’s needs and perspectives are addressed in studies on all aspects of cancer. She will enhance patient information and guide clinical trials specific to these needs to improve outcomes.
“My goal is to oversee the strategic vision for all research impacting women and their health during cancer care and survivorship,” she said.
Markham, who specializes in gynecologic malignancies and serves as the research leader of the gynecologic cancers disease site group at the UF Health Cancer Center, has long had an interest in women’s cancers. She noted the need to reduce disparities in cancer care, such as lower clinical trial enrollment among women than men.
“It’s important for me that our center can reach women patients and caregivers, who are often women, to make sure we are adequately understanding their needs and providing research access and improvements in survivorship,” she said. “We have an opportunity to learn more about what the gaps are in women’s cancer care.”
Markham will work closely with Paul Crispen, M.D., the center’s associate director for clinical research, to develop and oversee interventional studies focused on the needs of women with all types of cancer. She will use her clinical expertise in women’s cancer care to guide research design and implementation.
To ensure the center’s work is meeting the needs of women in the region of North Central Florida it serves, Markham will gather feedback from community stakeholders and patient advocacy groups, and she will help share research findings with community members.
Other collaborations include a research project in women with gynecologic cancers on social determinants of health, including issues such as food access and diet quality, with Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D., the center’s associate director for population sciences.
Using her extensive experience in cancer communications, Markham will also provide women patients with tools to recognize cancer misinformation and point them to trusted resources. She will collaborate on this with Carma Bylund, Ph.D., a professor and associate chair of education in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics.
Markham has been heavily involved with the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) since 2014, serving on the Communications Committee and Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®) steering group. She was one of the founding members of its Social Media Working Group and is an associate editor for Cancer.net, its patient education site. She is past chair of the ASCO Care and Quality Improvement Committee and has been honored as an ASCO Advocacy Champion.
Markham graduated from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in 2001 and completed her training in internal medicine at UF, where she was also chief medical resident. She went on to complete a combined fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at UF, joining the faculty in 2008 and rising to the rank of professor in 2020.
Markham served as the associate director for medical affairs for the UF Health Cancer Center from 2017 to 2024, playing an essential role in leading the center to achieve designation from the National Cancer Institute. She also served as chief of the hematology and oncology division from 2017 to 2024.
