Associate Professor, Division of Thoracic Surgery and Division of Health Equities
City of Hope

Loretta Erhunmwunsee joined City of Hope in 2015 and is an associate professor in both the division of thoracic surgery and the division of health equity. Dr. Erhunmwunsee graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University in Atlanta, GA and received her MD from Harvard Medical School, graduating magna cum laude.  She continued her post-graduate training at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, completing a general and cardiothoracic surgery residency. Board-certified in both general and thoracic surgery, she became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 2018. Dr. Erhunmwunsee is also a funded health disparities researcher who focuses on the impact of social determinants and structural inequities on lung cancer risk, biology and screening. She is the recipient of the 2021 Lung Cancer Research Foundation William C. Rippe Award for Distinguished Research in Lung Cancer. She was also awarded the City of Hope Songs of Hope Beverly and Ben Horowitz Legacy Award in 2021. In 2022, she was invited to join the National Lung Cancer Roundtable. She has written numerous publications and given several local and national presentations that bring awareness to the impact of structural inequities on disparate health outcomes.