Dr. Meena S. Moran to Offer Keynote Speech at Commencement 2021

Dr. Meena S. Moran, a Trustee and esteemed leader in breast oncology who has been involved in the Hamden Hall community for nearly two decades, will be the 2021 Commencement speaker.

Dr. Moran has watched two of her children receive their high school diplomas on the Hamden Hall stage. Besides offering keynote remarks this year, she will also share the stage with her daughter, Anisha, who is a member of the Class of 2021. 

“We are so fortunate to have Meena as our keynote speaker this year. She is such a role model for our graduates in terms of her medical and academic prowess. She is an acclaimed member of the Yale medical team, and her work in the field of breast cancer research – at all levels – is both admirable and life-altering,” said Head of School Bob Izzo.

As the Chief of the Breast Radiation Program at Yale New Haven Hospital Smilow Cancer Center, Dr. Moran has worked over the last five years to standardize the breast radiotherapy treatments throughout all of Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Centers. She is also professor of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale School of Medicine. 

Additionally, Dr. Moran has published numerous peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters, and editorials related to radiation and breast cancer and is internationally known in her field of breast oncology for standardization of treatment, development of guidelines, predictors of local-regional relapse, and radiation techniques. She has served on a variety of medical journal editorial boards including the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

“It was a huge surprise to be asked to be this year’s commencement speaker. It is really such an unexpected honor, and I look forward to celebrating the Class of 2021,” said Dr. Moran.

Dr. Moran and her husband, Dr. Thomas Moran, first came to Hamden Hall in 2002. They enrolled their oldest child, Jay, Class of 2015, in Kindergarten. Son Krishnan, Class of 2018 followed, and youngest child Anisha is now a senior. All three children are Hamden Hall Lifers. Dr. Moran began her service on the Hamden Hall Board of Trustees during the 2012-2013 school year. 

For her own education, Dr. Moran received her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1994 and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in biology from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1989. She completed her internal medicine internship at Columbia University and then moved on to Connecticut where she completed her residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, eventually joining the University staff as an attending physician. She was the recipient of the Yale 2014 Cancer Center Research Award and was granted an Honorary Master of Arts (M.A. Privatum) in 2016 from Yale University after becoming the department’s youngest full professor.

Dr. Moran is passionate about teaching. Starting with a brief stint as a preschool teacher during a gap year, Dr. Moran now teaches resident physicians, medical students, and attending physicians treating breast cancer around the world. She is also an examiner for the American Board of Radiology. 

Dr. Moran was one of the founding breast leaders who worked with the American College of Surgeons to develop standards and a surveying process for defining breast center programs around the country. She has held several prominent positions including co-president of ASCO’s Breast Annual Symposium, Chair of ASTRO’s Annual Meeting Breast Scientific Committee, and Chair of the Early-Stage Breast Educational Committee at ASTRO’s Annual Meeting.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked tirelessly on a national committee to develop guidelines for triaging breast cancer patients under the unprecedented pandemic circumstances.

Most recently, she was named Vice Chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Breast Panel, the internationally recognized organization that develops and continuously updates treatment algorithms for breast care to guide treating physicians, patients, and insurance payers. These recommendations are downloaded more than 11 million times annually.