Rate My Professor Karen Ballen

Karen Ballen, MD, is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She serves as Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology and Medical Director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to joining UVA in 2017, she was Director of the Leukemia Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Ballen received her undergraduate degree in history and literature from Harvard College and her MD from Dartmouth Medical School. She completed her internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and her hematology/oncology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both in Boston, Massachusetts. She holds board certifications from the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology.

Dr. Ballen is an internationally recognized expert in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, with a focus on alternative donor sources for patients lacking matched unrelated donors. She founded one of the first cord blood banks in the United States and specializes in cord blood transplantation, haploidentical transplantation, and novel immunotherapies and targeted agents for acute leukemia and other hematologic malignancies. Her research interests encompass cellular therapy and innovative strategies to improve outcomes in high-risk patients. Ballen has authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles on stem cell transplantation and acute leukemia. She contributes to the field through service on the advisory committee of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research and as chair of the cord blood advisory committee for the National Marrow Donor Program.