Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Dr. Michael Cookson serves as Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair in Urologic Surgery as well as a professor of urologic surgery. He is co-director of Urologic Oncology at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and serves as the director of the Society of Urologic Oncology approved Fellowship Program in Urologic Oncology at Vanderbilt.

Dr. Cookson has devoted a significant portion of his career to teaching and education, both here at Vanderbilt University and nationally. For almost a decade, he has been involved in the American Urological Association’s written board qualifying and in-service examinations for residents in Urology. Dr Cookson is currently chair of the Oncology Knowledge Assessment Test (OKAT) Committee for the Society of Urologic Oncology, which serves to provide education testing for fellowships in Uro-oncology across the country. He also serves as a Written Examination Committee Oncology and Pathology Consultant for the American Board of Urology/American Urologic Association, a member of the ABU Oral Board Examination Committee.  At Vanderbilt, he serves as Director of the Fellowship Program in Urologic Oncology, and has raised education funding through the charitable gifts of the William and Deborah Nolan Fund.  In 2010, he was awarded the prestigious Michael Rodriquez Award for Outstanding Teaching to the Residents and Fellows.

He currently serves as Chair of the American Urologic Association’s Panel on Advanced Prostate Cancer. He is also a member of the American Urologic Association Practice Cancer Guidelines Committee on Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer and Quality of Life in Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer, member of the American Urologic Association Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement – Prostate Cancer Workgroup, member of the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network Scientific Advisory Board, and abstract reviewer for the American Urological Association annual meeting. He is a member of several other professional organizations, including the American College of Surgeons, Society for Surgical Oncology, American Association of Clinical Urologists, Société Internationale d'Urologie, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.

In addition to serving as principal investigator or sub investigator for more than 50 grant-supported research studies, Dr Cookson is a nationally recognized leader in the field of urologic oncology and has published more than 150 journal articles and 25 book chapters.