The Board of Directors and the Steering Committee of the Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) are pleased to announce that Valeria Santini, MD, has assumed the position of SOHO president in September 2026. She will oversee the society during the 2026-2027 term and will chair the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of SOHO in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Santini is an associate professor of hematology at the University of Florence Medical School in Florence, Italy, where she also earned her medical degree and a postgraduate diploma in hematology, cum laude. Her family moved to Florence when she was six, and she attended primary school, high school, and university there. Though drawn early on toward philosophy or art history, she chose medicine as a field that combined science with a focus on humanity.
Following her training in Italy Dr. Santini spent three years in the Netherlands as an EORTC fellow in experimental hematology, from 1988 to 1991, at the Dr. den Hoed Kliniek at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, working on translational studies in acute myeloid leukemia. She then returned to the University of Florence where she rose from assistant to associate professor. In 1999, she spent time in the Department of Leukemia at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, an experience she has described as introducing her to new drugs, a different approach to disease, and a level of organization and collaboration unlike anywhere else.
Dr. Santini has been part of SOHO since the society’s founding in 2012 and has served for many years on the Education Committee, shaping the scientific and educational content of the annual meeting, as well as on the Steering Committee. She is part of the Ambassador Program, which extends SOHO’s educational mission to hematologic oncologists worldwide, including those in developing countries.
Dr. Santini has said she feels honored to be named president of the society.
“I’m quite emotional about this presidency,” Dr. Santini previously told SOHO Insider. “I’m very excited and honored, and I hope to be a good president and create a strong program and agenda for the meeting.”
She also said that leading SOHO as someone based outside the United States makes the role feel especially meaningful.
The chosen theme for SOHO 2027 will be announced separately.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Santini!
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