Cancer Center Director, Infirmary Health in partnership with UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center

Cancer Center Director – Infirmary Health

Infirmary Health | Mobile, Alabama
In partnership with the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center

Infirmary Health, Alabama’s largest non-governmental, not-for-profit health system, seeks an accomplished physician executive to serve as Cancer Center Director. This systemwide oncology leadership opportunity will shape the next phase of cancer care across the Alabama Gulf Coast while advancing Infirmary Cancer Care’s affiliation with the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Alabama.

The successful candidate will lead the continued development of an integrated cancer program spanning medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, hematology, infusion services, clinical research, screening, navigation, supportive care, and survivorship. Working with Infirmary Health executives, medical staff leaders, oncology physicians, operational teams, and UAB collaborators, the Director will establish a unified strategy for growth, clinical quality, patient access, research, recruitment, and programmatic distinction.

This is an opportunity for a collaborative oncology leader to build on a strong regional platform, extend sophisticated cancer care closer to home, expand access to clinical trials, and create a high-performing academic-community model for patients throughout southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, and southern Mississippi.

Position Overview

The Cancer Center Director will provide strategic, clinical, and operational leadership for Infirmary Cancer Care. The Director will be charged with aligning cancer services across the health system, developing a shared vision for the program, strengthening multidisciplinary care, recruiting outstanding physicians and team members, and expanding the infrastructure required to support continued growth.

The position is designed for a physician leader who understands how to connect the strengths of a large community health system with the research, subspecialty expertise, clinical trials, and academic resources of an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center. The Director will serve as a visible champion for patients, physicians, employees, community partners, and referring providers while helping Infirmary Health create a differentiated destination for cancer care on the Gulf Coast.

The role encompasses medical, surgical, and radiation oncology and requires close partnership with leaders across pathology, radiology, pharmacy, nursing, genetics, palliative care, rehabilitation, nutrition, behavioral health, clinical research, quality, finance, philanthropy, and community outreach. The Director will balance near-term execution with long-range planning and will be expected to translate strategy into measurable clinical, operational, and patient-centered results.

Opportunity at a Glance

• Executive scope: Provide strategic leadership for an integrated, systemwide oncology program serving the central Gulf Coast.
• Regional platform: Advance cancer services across five geographic care locations in Mobile and Baldwin counties while improving consistency, coordination, and access.
• Academic partnership: Deepen the affiliation between Infirmary Cancer Care and the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
• Program growth: Recruit physicians and clinical teams, develop priority subspecialty services, expand capacity, and strengthen regional referral relationships.
• Clinical trials: Increase awareness of, access to, and participation in cancer clinical trials through Infirmary Health’s research infrastructure and the UAB partnership.
• Multidisciplinary care: Build on recently launched team-based clinics and create efficient pathways from diagnosis through treatment and survivorship.
• Facilities and technology: Help guide future investment in cancer facilities, equipment, digital capabilities, and a planned flagship cancer center.
• Community impact: Expand screening, prevention, education, navigation, and outreach for urban, rural, and underserved populations across the region.
• Location: Live and work in Mobile, Alabama, a historic coastal city with access to Mobile Bay, Gulf Coast beaches, outdoor recreation, arts, culture, and a growing culinary community.

Leadership Mandate

Strategic Leadership and Program Growth

• Develop and execute a comprehensive, systemwide strategic plan for Infirmary Cancer Care that aligns clinical services, research, quality, operations, outreach, facilities, technology, and workforce priorities.
• Position Infirmary Cancer Care as the leading destination for comprehensive, coordinated cancer care along the central Gulf Coast.
• Assess current services, referral patterns, capacity, disease-site needs, and market opportunities to establish a disciplined roadmap for sustainable growth.
• Guide the planning and development of a future flagship cancer center on the Mobile Infirmary campus, including the clinical model, patient experience, space planning, technology, recruitment, and phased program growth.
• Strengthen the identity of Infirmary Cancer Care as one integrated program while recognizing the needs and strengths of individual hospitals, outpatient sites, physician practices, and communities.
• Partner with executive, financial, operational, and philanthropic leaders to prioritize investments and develop business plans for new and expanded oncology services.
• Represent the cancer program with Infirmary Health’s Board, medical staff, community partners, donors, prospective recruits, and regional and national oncology organizations.

Clinical Integration, Quality, and Patient Experience

• Advance a multidisciplinary model that brings together medical oncology, hematology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, radiology, genetics, pharmacy, nursing, rehabilitation, palliative care, nutrition, navigation, and psychosocial support.
• Create consistent clinical pathways, quality standards, care coordination processes, and performance expectations across Infirmary Cancer Care locations.
• Support efficient access from referral and diagnosis through staging, treatment planning, treatment, recovery, survivorship, and supportive care.
• Build on Infirmary Cancer Care’s breast and rectal cancer multidisciplinary clinics, in which patients can receive coordinated specialty evaluation and an integrated treatment plan.
• Identify additional disease sites that would benefit from formal multidisciplinary clinics, tumor boards, subspecialty pathways, and coordinated scheduling.
• Use clinical outcomes, patient experience, access, safety, utilization, and operational data to guide improvement and demonstrate value.
• Maintain and strengthen appropriate cancer-program and disease-specific accreditations, including Commission on Cancer and breast-program standards where applicable.
• Champion compassionate, culturally responsive, evidence-based care that treats each patient as a whole person and reduces unnecessary travel and fragmentation.

Physician Recruitment, Workforce Development, and Culture

• Develop a physician and advanced-practice-provider workforce plan aligned with regional demand, patient access, program growth, and Infirmary Cancer Care’s long-term strategy.
• Recruit and retain outstanding leaders and clinicians across medical, surgical, and radiation oncology and related disciplines.
• Support strategic recruitment across oncology specialties as the program expands its clinical capabilities and regional reach.
• Create an environment that supports clinical excellence, professionalism, accountability, collaboration, well-being, and continuous learning.
• Strengthen leadership development, mentoring, and professional-growth opportunities for physicians, nurses, researchers, administrators, and other members of the cancer-care team.
• Promote clear communication, shared decision-making, and effective collaboration across the cancer program.
• Partner with UAB colleagues on joint recruitment, specialty consultation, education, clinical coverage, and other mutually beneficial workforce strategies.

Research, Clinical Trials, and Academic Collaboration

• Expand the depth, breadth, visibility, and operational effectiveness of oncology clinical research at Infirmary Health.
• Work with Infirmary Health and UAB O’Neal leaders to identify clinical trials that address the needs of Gulf Coast patients and can be delivered safely and effectively within the community setting.
• Strengthen processes for trial activation, physician engagement, patient identification, screening, consent, enrollment, data quality, and regulatory compliance.
• Increase awareness of clinical trials among physicians, patients, referring providers, and communities throughout the region.
• Develop pathways that connect eligible patients with UAB expertise, multidisciplinary teams, second opinions, advanced therapies, and research opportunities while allowing care to remain close to home whenever possible.
• Encourage clinical scholarship, quality-improvement research, outcomes research, education, and appropriate academic engagement among physicians and staff.
• Help build a culture in which clinical inquiry, evidence-based practice, and continuous improvement are integrated into everyday patient care.

Regional Access, Prevention, and Community Impact

• Strengthen Infirmary Cancer Care’s five-location network in Mobile and Baldwin counties and improve coordination across geographic sites.
• Build trusted relationships with employed and independent physicians, hospitals, community organizations, employers, and regional providers.
• Improve referral access, communication, navigation, and continuity so that patients and families can move through the cancer-care journey with fewer barriers.
• Expand community education, cancer prevention, screening, early detection, and survivorship initiatives in partnership with local and regional stakeholders.
• Address disparities affecting rural communities, medically underserved populations, and patients who face financial, transportation, geographic, or social barriers to care.
• Use population health information and community needs to guide program priorities and outreach strategies.
• Strengthen Infirmary Health’s role as a regional resource for physicians and patients seeking coordinated cancer expertise close to home.

Operational and Financial Stewardship

• Partner with administrative leaders to establish annual goals, performance indicators, operating plans, and capital priorities for the cancer program.
• Support responsible growth, effective resource allocation, improved access, and sustainable clinical operations.
• Evaluate capacity, scheduling, throughput, infusion operations, radiation oncology operations, care coordination, and other processes that affect patients and clinical teams.
• Align growth initiatives with quality, safety, workforce capacity, technology, financial performance, and community need.
• Develop transparent performance reporting and use data to identify opportunities, remove barriers, and hold teams accountable for results.
• Collaborate with foundation and development leaders to communicate the cancer program’s vision and cultivate philanthropic support for patient care, research, education, facilities, and community initiatives.

Strategic Opportunities for the Cancer Center Director

The next Cancer Center Director will have the opportunity to build on Infirmary Cancer Care’s current momentum and help shape the program’s continued development. In partnership with Infirmary Health and UAB O’Neal leadership, important areas of opportunity are expected to include:

1. Advance a shared cancer strategy. Build on existing planning to develop a clear, actionable, multiyear strategy encompassing clinical services, workforce, facilities, technology, research, quality, access, and patient experience.
2. Enhance systemwide integration. Strengthen coordination and shared decision-making across cancer service lines, hospitals, outpatient locations, physician practices, and the UAB O’Neal affiliation.
3. Support strategic workforce growth. Align physician, advanced-practice-provider, nursing, research, and administrative recruitment with patient needs, program priorities, and opportunities for sustainable growth.
4. Expand multidisciplinary care. Build on the breast and rectal cancer multidisciplinary clinics and identify additional opportunities for coordinated evaluation, disease-site programs, tumor boards, and efficient treatment planning.
5. Broaden clinical-trial access. Strengthen physician engagement, patient identification, research operations, and collaboration with UAB O’Neal to make appropriate clinical trials available to more Gulf Coast patients.
6. Deepen the UAB O’Neal partnership. Develop practical opportunities for shared planning, subspecialty consultation, clinical pathways, education, recruitment, research, quality improvement, and expanded access to advanced cancer expertise.
7. Guide facilities and capacity planning. Help define the clinical, operational, technological, and patient-experience vision for the planned flagship cancer center and other investments across the regional network.
8. Elevate regional visibility and access. Strengthen relationships with referring physicians and community partners while clearly communicating the comprehensive cancer services available to patients throughout the Gulf Coast region.

Candidate Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• M.D., D.O., or equivalent medical degree.
• Current board certification in a cancer-related specialty. Medical oncology is preferred; accomplished surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and other cancer specialists with relevant executive experience will be considered.
• Eligibility for an unrestricted license to practice medicine in Alabama.
• At least 10 years of progressive clinical and leadership experience in oncology, cancer services, or a closely related field.
• A record of leading complex programs, service lines, centers, departments, or institutes through growth and organizational change.
• Demonstrated success recruiting physicians, developing leaders, aligning multidisciplinary teams, and building an accountable and collaborative culture.
• Experience advancing clinical quality, patient safety, access, patient experience, and measurable outcomes.
• Evidence of effective partnership with hospital and health-system executives, medical staff leaders, community physicians, and operational teams.
• Commitment to patient-centered care, health equity, ethical leadership, and service to diverse communities.
• Ability to live within a reasonable commuting distance of Mobile or relocate to the region.

Preferred Experience

• Leadership experience within a hybrid community-academic cancer program, integrated delivery system, comprehensive cancer center, or large regional oncology network.
• Experience building productive relationships with an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center or other major academic partner.
• Success developing disease-site programs, multidisciplinary clinics, tumor boards, navigation models, and coordinated care pathways.
• Experience expanding clinical trials, research infrastructure, precision oncology, quality-improvement research, or translational collaboration.
• Experience with strategic planning, business development, financial stewardship, facilities planning, capital prioritization, and philanthropy.
• Understanding of accreditation and quality standards relevant to comprehensive cancer care.
• A record of regional outreach, referral development, community engagement, cancer prevention, screening, and efforts to reduce disparities.
• Scholarly accomplishments and experience teaching, mentoring, or working within an academic appointment structure.

Leadership Attributes

The ideal Cancer Center Director will be a visible, approachable, and mission-driven leader who earns trust through listening, transparency, follow-through, and sound judgment. The successful candidate will combine clinical credibility with the ability to lead through influence across a complex, relationship-centered organization.

Candidates should demonstrate strategic vision, intellectual curiosity, operational discipline, emotional intelligence, and a genuine commitment to collaborative leadership. The Director must be comfortable moving between long-range strategy and implementation, making evidence-based decisions, engaging diverse stakeholders, and communicating a clear vision to physicians, employees, patients, families, community leaders, and donors.

Because this opportunity connects a large community health system with a nationally recognized academic cancer center, the Director must respect and bridge both cultures. Success will require an appreciation for the speed, access, and relationships of community practice as well as the rigor, subspecialization, research, and education associated with academic oncology.

Explore Infirmary Health

About Infirmary Health

Infirmary Health is Alabama’s largest non-governmental, not-for-profit healthcare system. The organization’s history began in Mobile in 1896, and its flagship hospital, Mobile Infirmary, has served the community for more than a century.

Today, Infirmary Health includes three acute-care hospitals, one long-term acute-care hospital, two rehabilitation facilities, a physician-clinic network with more than 60 locations, diagnostic imaging centers, breast centers, freestanding emergency departments, and multiple affiliates. The system has more than 700 physicians on its medical staff and approximately 6,700 team members and serves more than 1.76 million patients annually across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, and southern Mississippi.

Infirmary Health’s mission and culture are expressed through the values of LIFE: Leadership, Integrity, Family, and Excellent Service. The health system combines deep community roots with advanced clinical services and a commitment to improving access, quality, and outcomes throughout the Gulf Coast region.

About Infirmary Cancer Care

Infirmary Cancer Care delivers coordinated oncology services across the continuum of prevention, early detection, diagnosis, staging, treatment, remission, supportive care, and survivorship. The program brings together cancer physicians, nurses, pharmacists, navigators, researchers, and allied health professionals to help patients receive timely, personalized care close to home.

Services include medical oncology, hematology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, infusion therapy, imaging and diagnostics, genetic testing and counseling, precision cancer therapy, palliative care, navigation, nutritional support, social services, financial counseling, rehabilitation, survivorship resources, clinical trials, and community education. Infirmary Cancer Care serves patients through five geographic locations in Mobile and Baldwin counties, creating a regional network that combines local access with systemwide expertise.

Expanding Multidisciplinary Cancer Care

Infirmary Cancer Care continues to expand its multidisciplinary model. A breast cancer multidisciplinary clinic launched in 2025, followed by a rectal cancer multidisciplinary clinic in 2026. These programs bring the appropriate specialists together to provide coordinated evaluation and establish a treatment plan efficiently. For example, patients seen through the rectal cancer clinic can meet with colorectal surgery, medical oncology, and radiation oncology during a coordinated visit.

The incoming Director will have the opportunity to strengthen these programs, measure their effect on access and outcomes, and extend the multidisciplinary approach to additional disease sites. The goal is to make expert, team-based care easier for patients and families to navigate while reducing delays between diagnosis and treatment.

Clinical Trials and Research

Infirmary Cancer Care maintains clinical-research capabilities and educates patients about trials that may be available at diagnosis or during treatment. Through its affiliation with UAB O’Neal, the program has an opportunity to broaden access to research and advanced treatment options for communities that have historically faced geographic barriers to academic cancer centers.

The Cancer Center Director will help establish research priorities, strengthen infrastructure, engage physicians, and build a culture in which clinical trials are considered as part of appropriate patient care. The Director will also work with UAB colleagues to identify studies that fit the needs of the regional population and can be delivered responsibly in community settings.

Partnership with the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center

In January 2024, UAB Health System and Infirmary Health announced a formal cancer-care partnership designed to bring collaborative, comprehensive oncology services to patients in southern Alabama, southeast Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle. The affiliation connects Infirmary Cancer Care’s regional presence with the expertise, multidisciplinary teams, scientific resources, and clinical trials of the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.

UAB O’Neal is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Alabama and the only such center in a four-state region that includes Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Its physicians and scientists contribute expertise in cancer prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, research, and education.

Patients continue to receive care through Infirmary Cancer Care’s locations in Mobile and Baldwin counties while gaining access to UAB cancer specialists, multidisciplinary collaboration, expanded treatment options, and clinical trials. The organizations remain separate legal entities and provide clinical services under their existing licenses, but they work together to reduce the burden of cancer, improve outcomes, and expand access to scientific discovery.

For the next Cancer Center Director, this partnership creates a distinctive platform: the opportunity to develop an academic-community model that brings NCI-designated expertise closer to Gulf Coast patients while preserving the accessibility, responsiveness, and relationships of a trusted regional health system.

Living and Working in Mobile, Alabama

Mobile offers an appealing combination of professional opportunity and Gulf Coast quality of life. Located at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Interstate 65, the city serves as a regional center for healthcare, commerce, education, maritime industry, culture, and the arts. Its historic downtown includes locally owned restaurants, museums, galleries, entertainment, and waterfront activities.

Founded more than three centuries ago, Mobile is known for its distinctive architecture, shaded public squares, historic neighborhoods, cultural traditions, and status as the birthplace of America’s original Mardi Gras celebration. Residents have access to Mobile Bay, the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Dauphin Island, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, boating, fishing, kayaking, golf, parks, and year-round outdoor recreation.

The region offers a range of residential communities in Mobile and Baldwin counties, including urban neighborhoods, suburban communities, bayfront settings, and coastal areas. For a physician executive seeking meaningful leadership work and a connected coastal lifestyle, Mobile provides a compelling place to build both a program and a life.

How to Apply

Infirmary Health has retained Academic Med to assist with this nationally important Cancer Center Director search. The search is being conducted by Academic Med Principals Gentry Zacheis and Jim Hagood.

Interested candidates should submit a curriculum vitae and a letter of interest to:

Jim Hagood
Managing Principal, Academic Med
Email: ji*@**********ed.com

All inquiries, nominations, and applications will be handled with confidentiality. Candidates may also review other physician and academic medicine leadership opportunities with Academic Med.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Infirmary Health complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. Infirmary Health does not exclude people or treat them less favorably because of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex.