City of Hope Surgeon Heading to Institute

J. David Beatty, a surgeon at the City of Hope National Medical Center, will become executive director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada on Tuesday.

Beatty, 45, a senior surgeon and director of research and education in the City of Hope’s Division of Surgery, said he hopes in his new role to foster greater cooperation among the medical establishment, industry and government.

The private organization doles out about $30 million to cancer research. The funds are raised annually by its sister organization, the Canadian Cancer Society. Together, the Canadian Cancer Society and the institute function as the Canadian equivalent of the American Cancer Society.

Beatty’s ideas on collaborating more closely with the scientific community and the pharmaceutical industry helped him stand out in a field of six finalists, said Henry Friesen, president of the Toronto-based cancer institute’s board of directors. Beatty has strong ideas about developing cancer prevention and detection programs, Friesen said.

“He has a well-articulated position on these policies,” he said. “And he understands the Canadian health system from having experience here.”

Beatty, born in Ottawa, Canada, came to the the City of Hope in 1981. He received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Toronto. After an internship, residency and fellowships in Canada, he traveled to the Medical College of Virginia to perform a postgraduate fellowship in surgical oncology.

Beatty said he was drawn to the City of Hope because the Duarte hospital offered him an opportunity to practice clinical medicine and research.

He has researched the use of substances called “radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies” for diagnosing and treating cancer. The antibodies, produced from a combination of animal and human tissues, link up with cancerous cells. A special photograph of the antibodies then pinpoints the location of the cancer.

Dr. Paul Chervenick, executive director for Medical and Scientific Affairs at the hospital, called his colleague “a pleasant person with a serious bent.”

“He’s a very talented individual. It’ll be a plus for the institute to be able to get somebody of his stature,” he said.

Beatty said he will take a salary cut of about 25% in his new position. But the hardest thing about leaving City of Hope will be giving up his clinical practice.

“I don’t know if I’ll be ready for that,” he said. “Each day I say to myself, ‘How will it be like not to operate anymore?’ But now I will be a facilitator and my job will be to make it more possible for other surgeons and researchers to do clinical practice and research.”

* Norman L. Carter, a 15-year Pasadena city employee, has been named director of the General Services Department.

Carter, 38, has been acting director since April, 1990. He has been overseeing the completion of the police building and the Villa Parke Community Center renovation. He will be paid $82,000 to head the agency, which has 125 employees and a $14-million operating budget.

Carter started working for Pasadena as an intern with the Human Services Department. He rose through the ranks and was deputy finance director before working in general services. He has a bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College in Claremont and a master’s degree in public administration from USC.

* Juliana Cheng was named Northeast region manager for the Los Angeles Public Library, City Librarian Elizabeth Martinez Smith has announced.

Cheng had been a senior management analyst for branch library construction. She has been with the library system since 1977, having begun as Chinatown branch librarian.

Her new job involves supervising 11 branches: Arroyo Seco Regional, Benjamin Franklin, Lincoln Heights, Chinatown, Cypress Park, Eagle Rock, Echo Park, El Sereno, Little Tokyo, Robert Louis Stevenson and the Malabar branch, which is closed for earthquake renovations.