From an early age, strengths in math and science and desire for a career helping people were driving factors for Todd Riehl ’92. While at SHS Todd played basketball and baseball and ran cross country and track. He was a member of the Spanish Club, was active in service of his church (scripture lector, altar server, musician and youth council) and graduated as class salutatorian.
After graduating a discussion of science careers with guidance counselor Ken Terman steered him to the University of Toledo where he earned both a bachelor’s degree in science and a doctoral degree in pharmaceutical sciences.
A desire to help cancer patients led Todd to pursue post-doctoral residency training in oncology at the renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, becoming the first University of Toledo graduate to do so. He remained there working as a clinical oncology pharmacist, assisting doctors in managing patients’ treatments. While in Houston, Todd was able to use the Spanish he had studied while at SHS.
He left clinical practice in 2006 and moved to California. There he worked in the pharmaceutical industry at Genentech, focusing on rare cancers, advances in science and genetics, and personalized medicine in pursuing his aspiration of ensuring that cancer patients have better treatments than chemotherapy.
He pioneered ways to study personalized cancer medicines and worked closely with the U.S. FDA and other global health authorities to obtain approvals. Todd took on positions of increasing responsibility including serving as global development leader of tumor agnostic and rare cancer drug development and clinical trials.
Says an alum, “We are extremely proud of Todd with his roles in cancer research that have helped many people around the world so that they have more options than chemotherapy.” Todd died in Belmont, California in 2021. Surviving are wife Jessica and two children.