Cocav Rauwerdink, MD 
Massachusetts General Hospital at Exeter Hospital

Dr. Rauwerdink is a hematologist/oncologist with Massachusetts General Hospital at Exeter Hospital, where she is the designated oncologist for Head and Neck Cancer and the Genitourinary Multidisciplinary Groups. 

Dr. Rauwerdink first joined NNECOS as a fellow in 2007 and presented her research several times. She was first elected to the NNECOS board of directors in 2019, and currently President-Elect, serving as chair of this year's annual meeting planning committee. Dr. Rauwerdink will assume the presidency after this year's annual meeting.

Christina Gitto, DDS

Maine Prosthodontics

Alan Newton, DMD FACP, FAAMP, FICP

Maine Prosthodontics

Dr. Alan D. Newton joined Maine Prosthodontics in 2005 after practicing maxillofacial prosthetics and the entire spectrum of prosthodontics in the United States Air Force retiring with the rank of Colonel in 2005.

Dr. Newton graduated from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine with a DMD degree in 1978 then completed a prosthodontics residency at what is now the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1980. While serving in the Air Force he was selected for the Air Force’s Maxillofacial Prosthetic Fellowship at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. In 1986 he established the Department of Maxillofacial Prosthetics at Wright Patterson Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio where he was also Chairman of Prosthodontics and Director, Congenital Anomalies Board. In 1993 Dr. Newton established the Department of Defense’s first comprehensive Dental Implant and Maxillofacial Prosthetic Reconstruction Services in Europe. He then commanded a dental squadron and three Air Force hospitals before joining Maine Prosthodontics.

Dr. Newton is a Diplomate of the American Board of Prosthodontics since 1988 and has recertified his Board status in 2004 and 2022. In addition he is a Fellow of the American College of Prosthodontists, the American Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics, the International College of Prosthodontists and the International Society for Maxillofacial Rehabilitation. He is also a member of the American Dental Association and holds an attending staff appointment in the Department of Surgery at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine.

Dr. Newton enjoys and excels at all aspects of prosthodontics and maxillofacial prosthetics. He particularly enjoys complex implant restorations, facial prosthetics, permanent and removable prosthodontics, cleft lip and palate prostheses, sleep prostheses and facial and dental esthetics.

Dr. Newton enjoys everything that the coast of Maine has to offer especially skiing, fishing and boating.

Zoe Kennedy, CCC-SLP          

Waldo County General Hospital

S. Elise Cushman, MS, RD 

Dartmouth Health 

Elise is a hands-on dietitian, whether it is working with feeding-tube dependent patients or teaching about kitchen hacks to make healthy eating doable. Elise began her career as a pastry chef, but craved more human interaction and science. After completing her master’s in Dietetics, she’s taught in the Food and Beverage industry, yet kept her hands in the clinical realm. Having specialized in oncology for nearly ten years and being a Board Certified Specialist in Oncology Nutrition, she blends food and medicine for healing. When she’s not working, Elise can be found at home or outside snowboarding, mountain biking, running, on the yoga mat or trying to figure out how to relax with her husband, two kids, and small flock of chickens on a mountainside in Vermont.

Natasha Dhawan, MD

Dartmouth Health 

Dr. Dhawan is a third-year hematology-oncology fellow at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She completed her medical degree from St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies, and went on to complete her internal medicine residency in Cincinnati, Ohio. She then moved to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire for Hospice and Palliative Care fellowship prior to hematology/oncology fellowship. She has been a member of the NNECOS palliative care symposium planning committee for the past two years and is now a board fellow liaison. Dr. Dhawan's clinical and research interests include diversity, equity, and inclusion and integrating the principles of palliative medicine and oncology to optimize the patient experience. . 

Sue S. Yom, MD, PhD, MAS, FASTRO, FAAWR, FACR

University California at San Francisco

Dr. Sue S. Yom, MD, PhD, MAS, FASTRO, FAAWR, FACR is the Irwin Mark Jacobs and Joan Klein Jacobs Distinguished Professor in Head and Neck Cancer Radiation Oncology and Professor in the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. She earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. She completed a simultaneous PhD in English. Dr. Yom completed a residency in Radiation Oncology in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center before joining the faculty at the University of California School of Medicine in 2007. During her assistant professorship, she completed a Master’s degree in clinical research. Her clinical practice and academic areas of interest include head and neck and skin cancers as well as thoracic malignancies.

Her administrative roles for the Department of Radiation Oncology are as Vice Chair for the Strategic Advisory Committee and Chief of the Radiation Oncology Head and Neck, Cutaneous, and Thoracic Services. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Oral, Head and Neck Site Committee, Contact PI for NRG Oncology, and Full Member in Molecular Oncology for the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. At the national level, she is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Chair of the NRG Oncology Head and Neck Cancer Committee, and a Board Member and Guidelines and Protocols Committee Co-Chair for the Head and Neck Cancer International Group. She is also on the board of the patient advocacy organization Head and Neck Cancer Alliance. She is a member of the NCCN Head and Neck Cancers guidelines committee as well as the Head and Neck Cancer Resource Panel, Education, Science Education, and Health Equity Diversity Inclusion Education Committee of the American Society of Radiation Oncology. She previously served as the founding Chair of the Appropriate Use Criteria Committees of the American Radium Society, national Chair of the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria Radiation Oncology committees, written and oral board examiner for the American Board of Radiology, member of the NCI Head and Neck Recurrent/Metastatic Disease Task Force, Co-Chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Head and Neck Steering Committee, and President of the American Radium Society.

Dr. Yom's research interests include clinical trials, novel imaging, radioprotectants, quality of life and decision support, smoking cessation, and oral and dental health. She is the Principal Investigator of NRG-HN002 and NRG-HN005, two NCI-supported studies testing reduced-intensity therapy for HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer and Co-PI of NRG-HN001, an international study of risk-adapted therapy for EBV-associated nasopharyngeal cancer. She is the North American chair of Nanoray 312, an international study investigating nanoparticle enhancement of radiation treatment. She is the principal investigator of several clinical trials investigating novel systemic therapies, radiation protectants, and other interventions to reduce symptom severity and improve quality of life. She received NCCN funding for patient decision making support and has been co-investigator on an NCI Cancer Moonshot and two California TRDRP grants supporting smoking cessation. She has received intramural grants for diversity initiatives and is co-PI on NCI R01 funding for study of the oral microbiome. She is a frequently requested plenary speaker, program committee member, and media commentator. She has been author or co-author on over 250 publications in the medical literature. She has served on expert panels and scientific organizing committees for numerous professional societies.