Messages for the GUMC Community

Date: February 25, 2026
Subject: Dr. Louis Weiner to Step Down as Director of Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dear GUMC Community,

After more than 18 years at the helm of Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, and following four consecutive, highly competitive Cancer Center Support Grant renewals from the National Cancer Institute, Louis M. Weiner, MD, has shared with me his plans to step down as director of the cancer center later this year. He will remain a member of the faculty, and continue his research and clinical work. Dr. Weiner will also step down as MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute’s director and as chair of the department of oncology.

Dr. Weiner’s decision reflects thoughtful succession planning grounded in what is best for the University and Lombardi. He firmly believes that this timing best ensures the cancer center remains well positioned for its next CCSG renewal in 2028. We are deeply grateful that Dr. Weiner, a professor of oncology and medicine, will remain a vital part of our Georgetown community and at Lombardi where he will continue to pursue his lifelong passions in clinical care, laboratory research and in training PhD and other graduate students, along with oncology fellows. I look forward to his counsel and support in the years ahead.

Under Dr. Weiner’s leadership, which began in December 2007, Lombardi has sustained its designation as a National Cancer Institute (NCI)–designated comprehensive cancer center, a distinction reserved for institutions demonstrating the highest levels of research excellence, clinical care, and community impact. The Cancer Center Support Grant is the foundation of this designation, supporting the infrastructure that enables scientific discovery, multidisciplinary collaboration, and the translation of research advances into hope and healing for our patients.

Dr. Weiner was also key to expanding the critically important MedStar Health relationship to ensure the NCI designation included both MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center as its primary hospitals. In addition, his strategic leadership creating the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center CCSG consortium with John Theurer Cancer Center/Hackensack Meridian Health, further strengthened programs within the cancer center and laid the groundwork for the expanding hematology malignancy and cell therapy programs at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He has recruited dozens of  highly effective faculty, many in leadership roles.  Dr. Weiner is a skilled and impactful teacher who has trained hundreds of physician residents and fellows and mentored scores of PhD students, MD/PhD students, undergraduates, postdoctoral fellows, and early career faculty members who now go on to lead the field.

In addition to his leadership of the cancer center, Dr. Weiner has maintained a clinical practice treating and caring for people with GI cancers, and he continues to make important contributions to oncologic science through his laboratory research. He has been named an inventor on 27 patent applications since 2008 in U.S. and international jurisdictions; 5 have resulted in issued patents, and 22 are pending.

For those of you who have read his many blog posts over the years, you know that Dr. Weiner deeply cherishes his family. He and his wife, Harriet, have three children and 9 grandchildren. While stepping down as director affords him more time with family, Dr. Weiner has big ambitions and plans to stay very active at Georgetown.

As we look ahead, Georgetown Lombardi, MedStar Health and Hackensack Meridian Health are  well positioned to expand our collective impact by delivering world-class, research-driven cancer care closer to home. With cancer care designated as a pillar of excellence, we are advancing a coordinated strategy to enhance patient access and further elevate care across our clinical and consortium partners.

This work will help guide the recruitment of our next director. We will soon launch a national search for a cancer center director and service line leader, partnering closely with MedStar Health and Hackensack Meridian Health, Lombardi’s NCI CCSG Consortium partners. We also welcome input from our community throughout the process. We are grateful that he will continue in his role as we enter into the search for his successor.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Weiner on an outstanding leadership career and in wishing him the very best over the coming months as he makes this transition.

Sincerely,

Norman J. Beauchamp, MD, MHS
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences

Date: February 24, 2026
Subject: James Spies, MD, to Step Down; Kelvin K. Hong, MBBCh, Named Chair of Radiology

We are writing to announce that James Spies, MD, MPH, will be stepping down as clinical and academic chair of radiology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Georgetown University School of Medicine and as Senior Associate Executive Director for MedStar Medical Group Radiology this summer.

We would like to express our most sincere appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Spies for his leadership and the many accomplishments and contributions he has made over the last three decades, not only to the Department of Radiology, but to the Hospital and the University as a whole.

Dr. Spies is an international leader in the treatment of endometrial fibroids and has performed extensive research on uterine embolization and the assessment of other therapies for uterine fibroids. He has over 100 published peer-reviewed articles, 20 chapters, over 400 invited presentations and has edited a text on uterine embolization.

Beyond his leadership at the University and MedStar Health, Dr. Spies is a Fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology and the American College of Radiology and has served on numerous national committees for both. His roles have included Chair of the SIR Foundation, President of SIR, and Trustee of the American Board of Radiology.

Internationally, he has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Society of Europe and an Honorary Fellow of the British Society of Interventional Radiology. He received the SIR Gold Medal in 2019 and the SIR Foundation’s Leaders in Innovation Award in 2022. Since July 2020, he has served as Associate Executive Director for Interventional Radiology at the American Board of Radiology.

MedStar Health and Georgetown University have named Kelvin K. Hong, MBBCh, an international leader in interventional radiology, as  academic and clinical chair  for the Department of Radiology for Georgetown University School of Medicine and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, respectively. He was appointed following a nationwide search and will join the organization August 1, 2026.

Dr. Hong currently serves as Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is Associate Professor of Radiology, Surgery and Oncology, with a practice in interventional radiology.

Dr. Hong completed medical school and residency in diagnostic radiology at the University of Witwatersrand School of Medicine in South Africa. After three years on the staff at the Johannesburg General Hospital, he completed a radiology residency and interventional radiology fellowship at Johns Hopkins. He joined the faculty there in 2004 where he has served in numerous leadership positions, including director of the interventional radiology fellowship, associate program director of the radiology residency, division chief of interventional radiology and, since 2023, as the executive vice chair of radiology across the health system. During his tenure as IR chief, he also served as health system’s IR lead and expanded service to regional hospitals.

Dr. Hong has a distinguished record in education, earning numerous teaching awards at Johns Hopkins, including six awards for Outstanding Teacher in Interventional Radiology. He has mentored many research trainees and received the Diagnostic Radiology Residency Education Mentor Award five times. He has also delivered numerous invited lectures at national and international scientific and educational meetings.

In addition, Dr. Hong has made significant contributions to the interventional radiology community, serving as a board examiner and committee member for the American Board of Radiology, the American College of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America, the Association of Program Directors of Interventional Radiology, and the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR). His service to SIR has been particularly extensive; he has served on its Executive Council for the past eight years and will become President-Elect in April.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Hong, an outstanding clinical and academic leader, to MedStar Health and Georgetown University School of Medicine August 1, 2026, and wishing Dr. Spies the very best.

Lisa M Boyle MD FACS
President, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Senior Vice President MedStar Health

Chris Richter MD, FACEP
Vice President of Medical Operations, MedStar Medical Group

Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., MD, MHS
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences, GUMC; Executive Dean, Georgetown School of Medicine

Date: February 23, 2026
Subject: Advancing Georgetown’s Human-Centered Approach to AI

Following the President’s Office announcement that Georgetown University will soon have access to Google Gemini—along with additional tools in the future—we are writing to share how these new capabilities fit within our broader academic mission and our long-standing commitment to innovation.

Access to Gemini will allow Georgetown to build on its leadership at the intersection of technology and society by supporting a thoughtful approach to artificial intelligence in research, teaching, and institutional practice. As we move forward, our work will focus on five core priorities:

• Continue our leadership in Technology and Society by bringing a human-centered and ethically informed approach to AI in research, teaching and business practices, and how we engage with the many communities we serve.
• Study and examine ways to incorporate AI into the curriculum and our research practices.
• Develop a plan to integrate AI in a rigorous and critical way in consultation with faculty.
• Evaluate and account for the use of AI in the classroom and our research.
• Continue to work with faculty leadership to develop guidance for the use of AI at Georgetown.

In addition to the important work already unfolding within each of our schools, the University is advancing its understanding of AI and its impacts on three fronts:

• Collaboration with CNDLS: CNDLS is helping interested faculty thoughtfully integrate AI into teaching and learning, providing research-informed guidance, faculty development opportunities, and spaces for experimentation and exploration.
• Faculty-led research and exploration: Scholars across the university are advancing scholarship on AI’s societal implications, from technology and human flourishing to data for social impact to security and governance.
• School-level innovation and curricular development: Each Dean is working with faculty to responsibly integrate AI into the curriculum. Just a few examples include: for fall 2026, the College of Arts & Sciences is developing a novel three-course, cross-major AI concentration that addresses the ethics of AI, its scientific foundations, and concrete applications. The McDonough School of Business is creating a new AI core requirement for the MBA program and faculty are developing a suite of AI-related courses in each MSB program, with particular emphasis on course-specific custom GPTs and utilizing AI to improve access, equity, and student support in the classroom.
• In collaboration with MedStar Health, Georgetown is creating a simulation center for faculty and students where AI, guided by human-centered design, will impact how we collaborate to improve the human condition. The Medical Center continues to advance the work of the AI Co-Lab, a joint initiative with MedStar Health to create, advance, and lead AI research and education.
• At the Law Center, AI features prominently in the scholarship of many faculty members with more than a dozen courses addressing various dimensions of AI, from its use in legal practice to the regulation of AI in areas such as consumer protection and national security. The Law Center also sponsors a wide range of AI-related programming, including the Tech Institute’s recently launched Georgetown AI in the Legal Profession (GAILP).

We recognize that the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence raises important opportunities, questions and concerns about its impact on learning, discovery, and advancing the mission of Georgetown. We want to affirm that faculty remain the experts on appropriate use of any tool in their classrooms and we support faculty in making those determinations as AI and its uses evolve. As with all complex global challenges, we are committed to preparing our students not simply to use powerful tools, but to question them, govern them responsibly, and apply them in service of the common good.

We look forward to continued dialogue with faculty, staff, and students as we take these next steps together.

Sincerely,

Soyica Diggs Colbert
Interim Provost

Norman J. Beauchamp Jr.
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences

Joshua C. Teitelbaum
Interim Dean and Executive Vice President, Law Center

Date: February 19, 2026
Subject: Policy on Recording in Classes and Instructional Settings

At Georgetown, we are committed to ensuring that our classroom settings promote serious dialogue while protecting privacy, academic freedom, and intellectual property.

The increased use of recording technology has necessitated the need for university-level policies for its use in classrooms. Many instructors choose to record their classes for pedagogical purposes while some prefer not to. Students with specific needs, such as disabilities, are also legally entitled to reasonable accommodations, which may include the ability to record classes.

Last fall we launched a working group of faculty members, subject matter experts and professional staff from across the university to review and make recommendations on this important issue. The working group, led by Prof. Michael Bailey, Colonel William J. Walsh Professor of American Government, Department of Government and McCourt School of Public Policy, developed the Policy on Recording in Classes and Instructional Settings.

The policy, which has been endorsed by the Faculty Senate and approved by Georgetown’s Board of Directors, prohibits unauthorized recording in classes and instructional settings, and sets forth the circumstances under which recording may be authorized.

The university-wide policy aims to:

• Support the responsible use of recording technology for educational purposes;
• Protect the rights and interests of all community members;
• Provide equal opportunity among students to access the university’s educational programs; and,
• Preserve Georgetown’s classes and instructional settings as places for free and open inquiry, deliberation, and debate.

While this policy applies to all Georgetown University students, faculty, staff and visitors to any Georgetown class or instructional setting, we recognize there may be school-level specific details that will require additional information. We encourage you to read the full policy, as well as the accompanying Frequently Asked Questions document.

Sincerely,

Soyica Diggs Colbert
Interim Provost

Norman J. Beauchamp Jr.
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences

Joshua C. Teitelbaum
Interim Executive Vice President and Dean of the Law Center

Date: February 2, 2026
Subject: The Calabreses’ Transformative Gift for Medical Students

Dear Members of the GUMC Community,

Just a short while ago, Georgetown Interim President Bob Groves shared an exciting announcement about a very generous estate gift –  a transformational bequest made by School of Dentistry alumnus Richard Calabrese (D’77) and his wife, Angela. The bequest establishes two endowed scholarship funds at Georgetown designed to help aspiring scientists and physicians.

One fund will provide financial support to help medical students with demonstrated financial need.  A second fund supports STEM-focused undergraduates in Georgetown’s Community Scholars Program.

This gift for our medical school exemplifies a vote of confidence in the promise and potential of the next generation of healers. Our students often share that receiving a scholarship is not just about access to an education; it is the moment they feel seen, believed in, and called to something larger than themselves. Scholarships offer not only resources, but hope.

You can read more about the Calabreses and their motivation for giving in this story.

We are deeply grateful for these commitments to our students, our mission, and to one another.

In hope and healing,

Norman J. Beauchamp Jr. MD, MHS
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences
Executive Dean, School of Medicine