Tarbell, Nancy J., 1951-

Dr. Nancy J. Tarbell is a pediatric oncology specialist and the Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Her major areas of research include the effects of radiotherapy on pediatric malignancies, including pediatric brain tumors, total body irradiation for bone marrow transplantation, pediatric neuro-oncology, and proton beam radiation.

Tarbell received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Rhode Island in 1973 and her medical degree from the Upstate Medical Center of the State University of New York, Syracuse, in 1979. She completed her medical internship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, and her residency and chief residency in radiation oncology at the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy, Harvard Medical School (1980-1983). In 1983, Tarbell joined the faculty at Harvard as Instructor of Radiation Therapy and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1985 and Associate Professor in 1990. She was appointed: Director of the Pediatric Radiation Oncology Unit, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, in 1997; Professor of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, in 1999; C.C. Wang Professor of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School, in 2004; and Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs, Harvard Medical School, in 2008. She is the founder of the Children's Oncology Group (2000), a nation-wide organization dedicated to researching and curing childhood cancer. Tarbell was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.