Meet the Speakers
Michael Burke, MD
Associate Professor
Medical College of Wisconsin
Director, Pediatric Leukemia and Lymphoma Program
Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
Dr. Michael Burke is an Associate Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplantation. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Irvine, medical school at Ross University School of Medicine, pediatric residency at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and fellowship training in pediatric hematology-oncology at Northwestern University Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Burke is the Director of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Program at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin (CHW). He has developed early phase and upfront clinical trials in acute leukemia that have opened locally as well as nationally through consortiums such as the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and the Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia & Lymphoma (TACL). Dr. Burke is the principal investigator of two pediatric relapse trials (ALL and AML) in TACL as well as the study chair for the recently closed High-Risk B-ALL study in the COG AALL1131.
Dr. Burke’s research interests have primarily focused on the development of early phase clinical trials investigating novel agents and/or combination therapies for relapsed/refractory leukemia. Specifically, Dr. Burke has been investigating the role of epigenetic modifying therapies in acute leukemia such as the histone deacetylase inhibitors and DNA methyltransferase inhibitors, which led to the development of the first multi-agent epigenetic trial in pediatric ALL that was completed in TACL.
Rachel Phelan, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Medical College of Wisconsin
Director, BMT Survivorship Program
Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
Dr. Phelan is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin/Children’s Wisconsin where she specializes in pediatric blood and marrow transplantation for malignant and non-malignant disorders. Dr. Phelan has an interest in late effects and survivorship care following childhood cancer and blood/marrow transplant. She is the director of the Next Steps Survivorship Program at Children’s Wisconsin and also serves as an Assistant Scientific Director for the Late Effects and Quality of Life Working Committee at the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). She has authored multiple manuscripts and textbooks chapters focused on blood and marrow transplant/cellular therapies as well as late effects and survivorship care following treatment.
Dr. Phelan received her MD/MPH at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Her training in pediatrics was completed at the University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital, followed by a Hematology/Oncology/BMT fellowship at the University of Minnesota. A native of Wisconsin, she returned to her home state and joined the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2016.
