Cancer fighter: Commencement speaker is UW-Green Bay grad, top researcher

Delivering the commencement address on May 16 will be a 1982 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay who has risen to national prominence as a researcher in the fight against cancer.

Dr. Mokenge Malafa, M.D., stands front and center as chair of the Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology at one of the nation’s leading research centers, the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida, located in Tampa.

He specializes in surgical oncology, often with patients battling pancreatic cancer. In 2008 he was awarded a National Institute of Health grant to investigate his laboratory discovery that a semi-synthetic, micronutrient Vitamin E compound appears to be aiding in the prevention of tumor growth and reoccurrence.

“It’s exciting,” Malafa says of his work. “Daily we treat patients, and the impact of cancer is very immediate. I see the suffering in my patients and their families and my own family. Cancer is a huge human problem and I’m excited to work on the solution.”

In 2005, Malafa was named to the “Best Doctors in America” list of specialists most often named by other doctors as the ones they’d choose to see. His numerous awards also include recognition as a teaching scholar. In his previous position as an assistant professor of surgery at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, he received the award for “best faculty member” as voted by the graduating class, along with an excellence in teaching award as presented by the Student National Medical Association chapter.

Malafa found his way to the UW-Green Bay campus from the African nation of Cameroon via France. A friend had recommended the UW System, and the Green Bay campus in particular. In 1978 he arrived to experience chilly winters but a warm reception — the “Midwestern American spirit,” he recalls — from fellow students, faculty and staff.

“One of the things I have taken with me from those years at UW-Green Bay is the importance of teaching,” Malafa adds. “Any teaching awards I have won are a heritage of my UW-Green Bay days.”

Malafa earned his bachelor’s in Human Adaptability and went on to attend medical school at UW-Madison with surgical residency at the Medical College of Ohio, Toledo. He received fellowship training in surgical oncology at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., and the center’s Beckman Research Institute.

Malafa met his wife, Tracy, at UW-Green Bay. The couple has four children.