Twenty five years ago, Na Tosha Gatson, MD, PhD, graduated from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne with a bachelor’s degree in biology. After spending the last few years as the medical director of neuro-oncology at the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Arizona, the Indiana native decided to come back home to lead at Indiana University School of Medicine.
Gatson, who joined IU School of Medicine faculty in March 2024, is a professor in the Department of Neurology and is the director of the Center for Neuro-oncology in the IU School of Medicine-IU Health Neuroscience Institute. Gatson said she wanted to be part of the school of medicine’s growing neuro-oncology program and be closer to family in Indiana.
"I am fully aware of the quality educators and learners IU is preparing to lead," Gatson said. "I was also encouraged by my great friends and partners within the health system, including our department chair Laurie Gutmann, MD, and fellow neuro-oncologist, Kait Nevel, MD."
After completing undergraduate studies at Indiana University Purdue University-Fort Wayne (now Indiana University Fort Wayne), Gatson spent the next 15 years training at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, where she completed an MD/PhD degree, an internal medicine internship, a neurology residency and an enfolded neurosurgical oncology postdoctoral research fellowship. Gatson also studied two years as a neuro-oncology fellow at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas before joining Geisinger Health in Pennsylvania.
“I believe that the functions of the brain that allow us to move, speak, emote, think, feel and sense are what make us uniquely human,” Gatson said. “These qualities are what I fight to preserve as neurologic disease and cancer threatens this human essence.”
Gatson’s practice philosophy is rooted in compassionate and evidence-based care that extends a quality life. Her research is focused on population science, brain tumor imaging and the Neuro-Oncology of Women (N.O.W.). Women harbor nearly 63 of all types of brain and spinal cord tumors, Gatson said, yet there are very few guidelines or clinical trials focusing on how sex-specific health differences, like pregnancy and menopause, affect women with brain tumors.
As the director of the Center for Neuro-oncology in the Neuroscience Institute, Gaston will lead a team of faculty clinicians and researchers in advancing neuro-oncology clinical research at IU School of Medicine and clinical care offerings at IU Health, the school’s health partner.
