CHARLES W. CUMMINGS was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in November of 1935. He graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1953, Dartmouth College in 1957, and the University of Virginia Medical School in 1961. He was an intern at Dartmouth and completed a year of general surgery residency at the University of Virginia. He entered the Air Force in 1963, was discharged in July 1965, and entered residency training in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Harvard Medical School Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, finishing the program in 1968. Dr. Cummings was in private practice in Boston and on the clinical staff at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary until the end of 1975 when he moved to Syracuse, New York, and became an associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. Two years later, on January 1, 1978, he assumed chairmanship of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Washington where he remained until the end of 1990 when he became director of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins. In 2003, Dr. Cummings stepped down as director. He is a Distinguished Service Professor at Johns Hopkins and continues to care for patients. Dr. Cummings is also the senior medical director for Johns Hopkins International. He has written over 144 scientific papers and is the founding editor of the four volume text Cummings Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, which is in its sixth edition. He has also co-authored two surgical atlases, one on laryngeal surgery and another on surgical access and reconstruction in the field of laryngology and head and neck surgery. Dr. Cummings served as a director of the American Board of Otolaryngology, as chairman of the Residency Review Committee and chairman of the Advisory Council for Otolaryngology to the American College of Surgeons. He was chief of staff of The Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1997 through 1999 and serves on the board of directors of Johns Hopkins Medicine. He is a past president of the American Association for Academic Departments of Otolaryngology, American Broncho-Esophagological Association, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the American Society for Head and Neck Surgery. He is married to Jane Drake Cummings and has three children and eight grandchildren.
Charles Cummings Professorship in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
School of Medicine
Established in 2005 to honor Dr. Charles Cummings, made possible by gifts from over 300 donors
Held by Carole Fakhry
CAROLE FAKHRY, MD, MPH, serves as Executive Vice Director of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery, and Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Center. She is a Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Oncology and the Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology.
Her research interest focuses on the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in head and neck squamous cell cancer. She has demonstrated that the presence of HPV confers a prognostic advantage to individuals with oropharyngeal cancer and that HPV is associated with unique clinical characteristics. In addition to the clinical implications of HPV in head and neck cancer, she is co-principal investigator of a large study to understand screening individuals at “high-risk” of malignancy and evaluating imaging modalities to improve diagnostics and early detection of HPV-related head and neck cancer.
After an undergraduate degree at Stanford University, Dr. Fakhry completed medical school, residency in otolaryngology head and neck surgery, and a fellowship in head and neck surgical oncology at Johns Hopkins. She also received a master’s in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
A dedicated educator and mentor, Dr. Fakhry has mentored many trainees. Her clinical teaching was recognized by receipt of the George Nager Teaching Award. Dr. Fakhry serves in leadership roles for the department, the institution, and regional and national professional societies. She is director of the head and neck group in the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and the head and neck surgical oncology fellowship. She is associate editor for Oral Oncology and Cancer and serves on several editorial boards. She is currently the co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Head and Neck Steering Committee.