Most Influential Business Professional
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Leona W. Ayers |
Dr. Leona W. Ayers, M.D. is currently an Academy Professor of the Emeritus Academy at The Ohio State University in the Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, in Columbus, Ohio. She stepped down from her full tenured Professorship to join the Emeritus Academy in 2015. She holds a Certificate of Qualification from the American Board of Pathology in Clinical and Anatomical Pathology and has special expertise in infectious diseases pathology and research interests in HIV/AIDS related malignancies. Dr. Ayers taught Pathology to medical students, pathology interns and residents, and medical technology students. While part of the Graduate School faculty, she directed 26 graduate and professional students.
In addition to being an esteemed member of the medical staff of the Wexner Medical Center, Dr. Ayers is part of the consulting medical staff at The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Center where she has held various directorships and practiced pathology in the areas of Clinical Pathology, Medical Microbiology and Infection Control. She currently holds medical staff privilege as a “Physician Scholar.” She is a member of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and has been honored as an Outstanding Microbiologist in 1982, awarded the Earline Kutscher Memorial Lectureship in 1991, selected as Foundation Lecturer for the National Foundation for Microbiology Lectures Program for 1998-2000 and was elected to the OSU Emeritus Academy in 2014.
Dr. Ayers has been funded by National Cancer Institute grants for the last 24 years. These grants were given to support her research interests and HIV/AIDS related cancer diagnosis capacity building in the U.S., sub-Saharan Africa and India. As a Principle Investigator of the NCI MR AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource, she organized and implemented the Sub-Saharan Africa Lymphoma Consortium with pathologist participants from East Africa (Uganda, Kenya), West Africa (Nigeria), South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town) and Europe. Dr. Ayers served as a leader in the first workshop in India on Research Methodologies for the study of HIV/AIDS associated malignancies. Throughout her outstanding career she has been an invited speaker for 256 presentations at regional, national and international meetings and workshops, presented or published with colleagues 226 abstracts/posters at national and international meetings, 110 peer-reviewed Journal articles and 14 book chapters. She has held memberships and served on the College of American Pathologist, American Association of Clinical Pathologists, International Society Biological and Environmental Repositories and the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology.
After obtaining her B.S. in Zoology in 1962 from Duke University, Dr. Ayers graduated with a M.D., with Honors, from Duke University School of Medicine in 1967. She has been inducted into the Duke University School of Medicine Half Century Club.