Robert Siegel, MD
Paula Siegel, RN
GW Commitment to Overcoming Cancer Award

Bob and Paula Siegel have been critical to the development and growth of GW’s oncology program. An alumnus of the School of Medicine, Dr. Siegel returned to GW in 1982 as a faculty member and spearheaded the effort to create an oncology unit. He established a Cancer Conference and Tumor Board and, in 1985, a certified hospital tumor registry. Dr. Siegel began as director of the Oncology Unit in 1983, chairman of the Cancer Committee in 1987, director of the Clinical Cancer Center in 1993, and director of Division of Hematology and Oncology. An ardent researcher, he was among the first to document that young African American women were more likely to develop more aggressive cancer when compared to their Caucasian or Hispanic counterparts.

A graduate of the North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Nursing, Paula left her work at Duke University Medical Center to join GW’s internal medicine nursing staff. There she became an integral part of the team which transitioned the unit to an oncology focus. Following the birth of their three children and completion of her master’s degree in Oncology Nursing, Paula joined the nursing staff at the Outpatient Infusion Center and she has the longest tenure of any nurse there. She also has helped develop protocols and standards of practice for treating gastrointestinal cancer.

Together the two have dedicated decades to providing their patients with compassionate and quality clinical care – Dr. Siegel repeatedly is recognized as one of Washingtonian magazine’s top docs and, in 2005, received the Humanitarian of the Year award. They continue to focus on providing service to their patients while strengthening GW’s clinical cancer program.