Dr. Schwartz received his MD from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and his MPH from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He completed an Internal Medicine Residency at Morristown Memorial Hospital, New Jersey as well as Hematology Fellowship at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center; a Research Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; and a Transfusion Medicine Fellowship at New York Blood Center. Upon completion of training, he pursued a decades-long career in promoting excellence in the field of Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis & Cellular Therapy across a multitude of facilities. He had served as a Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, before moving to the Moffitt Cancer Center and recently joined FACT as their senior medical officer. In these capacities, He has had many years of experience directing Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis & Cellular Therapy Services.
Throughout his tenure in the field, Dr. Schwartz became an active member of the professional and academic community, serving on standards committees and executive boards. He has been involved in many professional organizations including AABB, CAP, ISCT, and WBMT to a name few. He served as a director and an officer of the American Society for Apheresis (ASFA), rising to be the president in 2018-2019. He is currently the president of the World Apheresis Association. Seeking to impact clinical practice worldwide, he served on the writing committee of ASFA’s special issue (published on 3-year cycles) for the last five editions. Thus, he was part of the codification efforts of evidence-based best-in-class clinical Therapeutic Apheresis. Furthermore, he promoted quality and standardization through dissemination of the FACT-JACIE international standards for cellular therapy (Standards Committee Chair, Inspector, Workshop Speaker). For these efforts and more, he has earned many honors including the AABB Hemphill Jordan Leadership Award (2019), ASFA’s Presidential Award (2021), Francis Morrison lectureship Award (2023), and Lecturer award (2024).
He is currently the Medical Director of Transfusion Medicine & the Blood Bank at the Moffitt Center
and Senior Medical officer, FACT.
Dr. Schwartz is the 19th president of the WAA and it is with great enthusiasm that he is welcomed to the position. We look forward to exciting times ahead under his leadership.