Richard Schilsky is Professor emeritus at the University of Chicago having retired in 2021 from his position of Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of ASCO.  Dr. Schilsky is also a past President of ASCO, having served in the role during 2008-2009, and former Board member of Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation. Before joining ASCO staff in 2013, Dr. Schilsky spent the majority of his career at the University of Chicago where he joined the faculty in 1984.  Over the next nearly 30 years, Dr. Schilsky served in many leadership roles including as Director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center, Associate Dean for Clinical Research in the Biological Sciences Division and as the Chief the Section of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine. He is a highly respected leader in the field of clinical oncology and specializes in new drug development and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. 

From 1995 to 2010, Dr. Schilsky served as chair of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, a national cooperative clinical research group funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), now part of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. He has extensive experience working with both the NCI and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) having served as a member and chair of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors, as a member of the NCI Clinical and Translational Research Committee, and as a member and chair of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the FDA. Presently, he serves as, chair of the Board of the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Friends of Cancer Research and of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). Dr. Schilsky has served on the editorial boards of many cancer journals, including the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He presently serves on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Schilsky is the author of more than 450 original research articles, reviews and commentaries.