IHE Rising Stars
A night of presentations for future and new Hematologists/Oncologists
Friday, March 6th, 2026
The Westin, Indianapolis
Shaping the Future of Hematology Professionals
The motto of Indy Hematology Education is "achieving tomorrow's outcomes through education today", this is an important model and initial statement for our organization, and we believe that in the past 21 years we have done so for providers in Central Indiana, the Midwest, and the entire nation. However, we do believe that there remains a significant gap in our offering, particularly for persons and physicians who are currently undergoing training in medical oncology and hematology. We do believe that a focused conference to further promote education in this space of fellows is warranted and important as part of our mission. Therefore, in 2025, we will be offering our first and hopefully Annual Indy Hematology Review Fellows Conference.
The purpose of this is to invite trainees in medical oncology and hematology from across the nation to attend our conference and to have access to our esteemed international faculty in order to promote their learning, understanding, and appreciation of the diseases that they are being trained to treat, specifically in the space of hematologic malignancies and hematology. The goal of our conference is to promote education, interaction, networking, and potentially an opportunity to look toward the future including potential employment for our trainees. We will be inviting fellows from all over the nation, and we will provide an overnight room in order to facilitate the ability of our trainees to attend this conference, since we do believe that well trained fellows-to-be would be best providers tomorrow.
Our 2025 Speakers
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Dr. GIles Salles previously served as a Professor of Medicine (haematology) at Université Lyon-1, (1996) and is currently the chief of the Lymphoma Service, within the Division of Hematologic Malignancies, Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is also associate editor at the journal Haematologica.
Salles is also a member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the European Heamatology Association and the French Society of Hematology.
He was designated as "Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite" in 2016 and received the Jose Carreras Award from the European Hematology Association in 2020.
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Dr. Sonali M. Smith is the Elwood V. Jensen Professor of Medicine, Section Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Co-Leader of the Cancer Service Line, and Co-Director of the Lymphoma Program at the University of Chicago in the Department of Medicine. She is a clinical investigator in lymphoma and a clinical expert in Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas.
As faculty member at the University of Chicago since 2001, she has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has written over 25 review articles on lymphoid malignancies. She is particularly interested in targeted agents and pathway inhibitors and has first and senior author publications through cooperative group trials and investigator-initiated trials.
She has had many active leadership roles including Vice-Chair of the SWOG Lymphoma Committee, Chair of the Lymphoma Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Board, and past chair of the ASCO Annual Meeting Scientific Committee in 2021-2022. She has won numerous teaching awards and considers mentorship a key aspect of her career.
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Dr. Ken Anderson is the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He trained in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and then completed hematology, medical oncology, and tumor immunology training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Research Scientist and American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor.
Over the last four decades, he has developed laboratory and animal models of multiple myeloma in its microenvironment which have allowed for both identification of novel targets and validation of novel targeted and immune therapies. He has then led efforts to rapidly translate these studies to clinical trials culminating in FDA approval of multiple novel targeted therapies, which have transformed the treatment paradigm and markedly improved patient outcome.
He has also trained generations of researchers and caregivers who are now leading myeloma centers internationally. He has received the American Society of Hematology William Dameshek Prize, the American Association for Cancer Research Joseph H. Burchenal Award, the American Society of Clinical Oncology David A. Karnofsky Award, and the Harvard Medical School Warren Alpert Prize. He is also the recipient of the Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Myeloma Foundation and the Waldenstrom Award at the International Myeloma Workshop. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a member of the National Academy of Medicine as well as Royal College of Physicians and Pathologists, and past President of the International Myeloma Society and American Society of Hematology.
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He is a senior Member of the Malignant Hematology and Experimental Therapeutics Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center, and Professor in Medicine & Oncologic Sciences at the College of Medicine, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.
After earning a medical degree in 1996 from the Jordan University School of Medicine, Dr. Komrokji completed an internship and residency at Case Western University, St. Vincent Program. He then completed a fellowship at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, in Hematology/Oncology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.
Dr Komrokji is an expert in myeloid neoplasms where he led several clinical trials and lectured worldwide. His work paved the FDA approval for luspatercept in myelodysplastic syndromes and for Pacritinib in myelofibrosis.
He has authored or co-authored more than 325 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 20 book chapters, and more than 700 abstracts in Hematologic Malignancies. He served as member on the MDS Panel of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and is currently a member of the NIH MDS natural history study steering committee and aplastic anemia and MDS foundation board of directors. He was member of the editorial board for Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). He is peer reviewer for several medical journals including Blood Journal, JCO and Leukemia Journal.
Dr. Komrokji’s research interests are in Phase I and II Clinical Trials, and in the outcome research in hematologic malignancies with focus on myeloid neoplasms. His clinical interests are Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), Acute Myeloid Leukemias, and Myeloproliferative neoplasms.