Dr. James George Receives the 2024 ASH Award for Leadership in Promoting Diversity   “Diversity is the essential infrastructure of any successful organization. It’s especially important for ASH because some of the important hematologic disorders — for example, sickle cell anemia, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura — occur predominantly in minority populations.”   ASH continues to embrace the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion by leading efforts that promote the advancement of underrepresented groups in hematology and celebrating the champions on this front.    James George, MD, professor of hematology and oncology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), is being honored for his exemplary leadership in building a stronger, more diverse hematology workforce. Under his leadership as ASH president in 2005, the Society collaborated with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP) to create ASH-funded AMFDP positions in hematology. Since the program’s inception, ASH has supported nearly 30 recipients, many of whom have risen to the ranks of senior faculty in their institutions.   Dr. George was also an instrumental contributor to ASH’s efforts to encourage medical students from diverse backgrounds to enter the field of hematology by providing research opportunities under the guidance of a dedicated mentor. In addition, Dr. George codeveloped and directed the ASH Clinical Research Training Institute, an inclusive yearlong program that offers broad education for clinicians on clinical research methods. Dr. George has continued to mentor the next generation of hematologists, including mentees from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine, international students, women, and individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds.   Dr. George’s appreciation of mentorship and passion for hematology date back to his formative years at Ohio State University (OSU), where he graduated with a dual BA/MD degree in 1962. As a medical student, he worked with Bertha Bouroncle, MD, who discovered hairy cell leukemia in the late 1950s, and Charles Doan, MD, former dean of OSU and ASH’s fifth president. After being drafted into the Army in 1963, Dr. George had the opportunity to work in the laboratory of pioneering hematologist William Crosby Jr., MD   Dr. George relocated to the University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio in 1970, where he moved up the ranks of professorship through the late 1980s while focusing on laboratory research of platelet structure and function. In 1990, he moved to the University of Oklahoma, where he served as chief of the hematology-oncology section. With a new focus on clinical research, Dr. George worked to recognize and characterize the clinical features and demographic characteristics of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP . ) .     “The exciting breakthrough for understanding TTP was the discovery of its etiology with identification of the deficient plasma enzyme, ADAMTS13,” Dr. George said. “This documented that TTP could be an acquired , autoimmune disorder or, much less common ly , a hereditary disorder.”    Today’s biggest challenge, he said, is the failure to recognize hereditary TTP when acute, leading to potentially fatal exacerbations in newborn infants or pregnant women.    Despite his long history of influence in the field of hematology, Dr. George remains humble about his accomplishments — and grateful to his diverse collaborators, mentors, mentees, and patients.   “Many of the people I’ve worked with on hematology projects and many of the patients with the disorders I’ve studied have been from minority populations,” he said. “They’ve added essential contributions to everything I’ve done.”   OUHSC recognized Dr. George in 2006 with an award for outstanding contributions to the department of biostatistics and epidemiology, while the OUHSC hematology-oncology fellows named him mentor of the year for 2020-2021. ASH honored Dr. George with the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology in 2012.