Wencesley Paez, MD, MS was always known to be a rather restless kid---at least this is how his parents would describe him. As a child growing up in Chicago, being the only son among three sisters, he was extremely competitive and curious, wanting to learn new things, taking non-traditional paths, becoming easily bored, and pivoting onto the next thing. This pattern of curiosity and urgency of wanting to learn was the driving force for so many of the masks he wears today.
Math, music, and the sciences were always the subjects he was interested in. High school further solidified this. His college years at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) were a blur. However, he continued the trend of showing genuine interest in the sciences as a biology major and chemistry minor student. Post-undergrad, he worked as a lab assistant in a biochemistry lab in the School of Medicine at UIC. Then, keeping with non-traditional paths, pursued medicine abroad where he spent five years in Cebu, Philippines where he received his doctorate of medicine and completed a transitional internship year. He returned full circle back to Chicago where it all started at UIC to complete internal medicine training. Soon he moved to the Pacific Northwest in Portland, OR where he joined a private practice and was first introduced to clinical research.
Renowned breast surgical oncologist, Dr. Nathalie Johnson, requested he look at a dataset and draft a scientific abstract. He submitted to the 2008 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Annual Scientific Meeting and was accepted for full podium presentation. He instantly knew this was the type of work that fascinated him. Despite being involved in the backend of the clinical research process---looking at the data, drawing conclusions, and ultimately presenting the findings---he knew there was so much more to the clinical research world.
From the private group practice, he spent the next fourteen-plus years at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) between the Departments of Surgical Oncology and the latter six years in Radiation Oncology. It was during this stretch where he homed in all the nuances of clinical research, expanding his skillsets. Under the mentorship of Dr. Charles Thomas, Jr., (former OHSU Department Chair of Radiation Oncology, currently Dartmouth, Department Chair), he received the best professional advice to pursue a master’s of science in clinical research, particularly at The George Washington University (GWU) in D.C. Upon completion of the master’s program, Dr. Samar Nasser, Program Director and Section Chief of the PhD in Translational Health Sciences Program invited him to join the faculty in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership for GWU’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Since Fall 2021, he has taught masters and PhD courses during the fall and spring semesters. In February 2022, he joined Penn Medicine’s Department of Radiation Oncology where he was appointed and served as the Director of Clinical Research Operations for the Clinical Research Unit. He served on various senior leadership cancer committees for the Abramson Cancer Center including serving as an IRB board member assigned to high-risk studies as a primary reviewer.
Today, Wencesley Paez, MD, MS serves as the Director of Clinical Research Operations, in the Office of Clinical Research, at Fox Chase Cancer Center-Temple Health where he supports all cancer services lines. He has assumed this role since September 2023.