Summer 2026
By Lisa Gregory
Photography by Fergie Medar
On Nov. 20, 2025, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute celebrated the extraordinary gift from the Mellen and Eisenson families that named The Mellen and Eisenson Family Center for BRCA and Related Genes. Adding to the families’ special gift and legacy of support, a personal gift from Michael and Barbara Eisenson also established the Velma Eisenson Chair in Clinical and Translational Research, in memory of Eisenson’s much-loved mother “Vel,” who passed away as a young woman.
The evening included a ribbon-cutting with special guests, Michael Mellen, representing his late brother, Neil Mellen, Dana-Farber Trustee Michael Eisenson, his wife Barbara, and family members, along with Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD, president and CEO of Dana-Farber, physician-scientists, and other distinguished guests, including Dana-Farber Trustee Chair Joshua Bekenstein, Dana-Farber Trustee Monica Chandra, Dipanjan Chowdhury, PhD, Melany Duval, Senior Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer, Judy Garber, MD, MPH, and Ursula Matulonis, MD.
Ebert recognized the magnificent gift as well as Michael and Barbara’s visionary philanthropy and enduring partnership. A dinner celebration of the Velma Eisenson Chair in Clinical and Translational Research followed, honoring the chair’s inaugural incumbent Panagiotis Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD, director of Translational Research in Gynecologic Oncology, an exceptional leader and pioneer in the field. An endowed donor-named chair is the highest honor Dana-Farber can bestow on a physician or scientist.
The Mellen and Eisenson Family Center for BRCA and Related Genes is dedicated to reducing and eventually eliminating the devastating impact of cancer-promoting BRCA mutations and related heritable genetic anomalies in patients and families at Dana-Farber and across the globe. It is New England’s first academically affiliated BRCA center and one of the very few dedicated BRCA centers in the world.