Renowned Melanoma Expert Appointed to Leadership Role

Ernstoff, whose research focuses on the treatment of melanoma and genitourinary cancers, has also been appointed chair of the Department of Medicine and senior vice president of clinical investigation at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The joint appointment takes effect April 1.

A member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Melanoma Committee, Ernstoff is also a member of the International Melanoma Working Group.

“We are extremely pleased that Dr. Ernstoff will be joining the department in a leadership role in the Division of Hematology/Oncology,” says UB Distinguished Professor Anne B. Curtis, MD, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine.

Ernstoff’s joint appointment at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Roswell Park is a clear indication of the close collaboration between the two institutions, she says.

“We look forward to working with Dr. Ernstoff to build clinical, educational and research programs at Roswell Park, as well as with UB and UBMD Internal Medicine.”

In 2014, Ernstoff became the director of the Melanoma Program at Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute.

From 1991 to 2014, he was an associate professor of medicine and professor of medicine at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. During much of his tenure, Ernstoff was the director of the Melanoma Program at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center and the section chief of Hematology/Oncology.

Ernstoff was previously a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine, where he directed the Hematology/Oncology fellowship training program. He also was an assistant professor of medicine at Yale University and director of its Clinical Research Office.

“I’ve known Dr. Ernstoff as a colleague and collaborator, and I admire him tremendously. He’s one of the most inspiring leaders I know in oncology, and his accomplishments in every arena — clinical, academic and research — represent the best work being done today in our field,” says Candace Johnson, PhD, president and CEO of Roswell Park.

“He is going to do great things for cancer patients, locally and far away from Western New York.”

Board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, Ernstoff will also serve as chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at UBMD Internal Medicine.

Ernstoff completed a medical oncology fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine. His internal medicine residency took place at the Bronx Municipal Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

A Brooklyn native, he earned his medical degree from New York University and completed his undergraduate degree at Emory University.