Neeta houston

Her account of the Feb. Byas alleged in a lawsuit filed in Harris County court that she had been wrongfully terminated after the Board of Trustees learned she had told the FBI about potential misuse of bond money and about how some elected trustees had attempted to steer business to friends and political allies. In interviews with the Chronicle, both Oliver and Sane denied that they ever urged Byas to favor certain contractors - though they do not deny that they discussed the contracting process with her in a private meeting.

That email arrived during the heart of a blackout period when HCC policy prohibits contractors from communicating with trustees. Trustees also are prohibited from discussing such contracts with bidders or college administrators. Oliver forwarded the email to Sane and then the two allegedly confronted Byas over how the college was awarding the bond contracts, according to the depositions Byas and the two trustees gave as part of related civil lawsuits that were obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

HCC will launch an investigation into whether the emails violated blackout policies, Chancellor Cesar Maldonado said on Friday after the Chronicle brought the email chain to his attention. The email was one of multiple times that Oliver and Sane improperly communicated with potential vendors or advocated for Houston-based companies bidding for HCC contracts, Byas alleged in sworn statements given under questioning from HCC attorneys.

In her deposition, Byas alleges several examples of advocacy by both trustees in exchanges involving local engineering, architecture and insurance firms competing for HCC business. But the Feb. No at HCC. Hardin said he did not know whether the FBI or the U. Attorney's Office are still investigating. No charges have been filed, and a spokesman for the FBI declined comment.

Special section: Read up on earlier stories looking at the state of HCC. Trustees are barred from making disparaging comments about Byas, and under the agreement, Maldonado, who fired Byas, wrote her a letter of reference, which says: "Byas was dedicated to HCC, and I observed that she always had HCC's best interests in mind. The revelations from the depositions come as HCC has faced questions over spending of bond money. In her June 15, , deposition, Byas claims that during the meeting with Sane on Feb.

Byas took notes during the meeting and referred to them in her deposition. Byas said Sane's list included a firm she had "never heard of. Byas said she explained to Sane that "wasn't permissible. Byas said she then told both: "There was no way that I would be involved in anything like that, and that was improper, and it was illegal, and we couldn't do that.

The bids had been evaluated and the board could vote to approve or reject the administration's recommendations, she said. If the board voted them down, the college would have to wait six months for the projects to go back out to bid, "but it had to be a fair and equitable competition. HCC attorneys read Byas' notes aloud during questioning. The notes claim that Sane and Oliver both said they would not support the administration's recommendations: "None were awarded to people in the areas.

Angry with me. Told them we were moving all forward. In interviews, Sane and Oliver acknowledged that the meeting happened, though Sane said it occurred in April, which was still during the blackout period when trustees were forbidden from discussing the bond contracts with administrators, including Byas.

Both trustees said they were bringing concerns about the contracting process to Byas and weren't advocating for specific firms. I do not recall in any way, shape, form or fashion trying to use any influence I had, or any perceived influence I had, to steer any business to anybody at this college or beyond this college.

On Feb. In May, the board hired Maldonado, who later fired Byas and subsequently brought the bond contracts to the board in batches - using the same ratings the college had assigned under Byas' watch. All contracts have since been awarded. In January, the board elected new officers, and neither Sane nor Oliver now holds a leadership role. Maldonado said in an interview he did not feel pressured during the contracting process he oversaw.

I have not experienced that here with these trustees," Maldonado said. In her deposition, Byas says her meeting with the two trustees came only a week after Oliver received the email from Al Kashani of Horizon Group International, a firm bidding on the two bond projects.

HCC's blackout policy says that firms seeking contracts from the college cannot communicate with a trustee regarding the contracts in any way from the day the contract is first advertised - in this case on Oct. Under the policy, trustees also are forbidden from discussing pending contracts with bidders, administrators and college employees.

In an interview, Oliver confirmed that he spoke with Kashani and received the email about the HCC contract but claimed he was unaware Kashani's firm had bid on bond work. The firm was already doing work for the college under a separate contract, he said. He didn't get one. We selected who we selected. As board chair, Sane would have been required to follow and to enforce the blackout policy.

Cancer Biol Ther 13 5 , Somaiah N, von Mehren M. New drugs and combinations for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma: A review. Cancer Manag Res , Somaiah N, Simon GR. Molecular targeted agents and biologic therapies for lung cancer. J Thorac Oncol 6 11 Suppl 4 :S, Summary of presentations from the 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology: focus on non-small cell lung cancer J Thorac Oncol 6 1 , Molecular targeted agents and biologic therapies for non-small cell lung cancer.

J Thorac Oncol 5 12 Suppl 6 :S, Biomarkers with predictive and prognostic function in non-small cell lung cancer: ready for prime time?. J Natl Compr Canc Netw 8 7 , Bone Cancer. J Natl Compr Canc Netw 8 6 6 , Molecular targeted therapy in non-small cell lung cancer: an overview of available agents.

J Thorac Oncol 4 11 Suppl 3 :S, Mol Cell Biol 29 3 , New therapeutic approaches for advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Hematol Oncol Clin North Am 23 1 , x, Mol Cell Biol 27 7 , A retrospective review of the histopathology and clinicopathologic correlates of appendices removed from patients of acute appendicitis.

Minerva Chir 62 1 , Molecular profiling of sarcomas: new vistas for precision medicine. Virchows Arch doi Ann Surg Oncol. Invited Articles Somaiah, N. GIST Module. Clincal Care Options, J Oncol Pharm Pract 25 2 , Sarcoma, Gustavo Schvartsman, Michael J.

Wagner, Behrang Amini, Chrystia M. Barbo, Heather Y. Scientific reports, Accepted with revisions. Oncotarget, Neeta Somaiah, Sant P. Kenney, Gerry C.

Bohac, Seth Pollack. Hsu, Gerry C. Bohac, Sacha Gnjatic. J Clin Oncol 35, Sandra P. Demetri, David A. Liebner, Scott Schuetze, Arun S. Bartlett-Pandite, Rafael G. Analysis of osteosarcoma subtypes by clinical genomic testing to identify clinically actionable alterations.

Connective Tissue Oncology Society , Prognostic Factors for Adenosarcoma of the Uterus. Araujo, Shreyaskumar Patel, Robert S. Benjamin, Vinod Ravi. Huh, Vinod Ravi, Najat C. Daw, Neeta Somaiah, Robert S. Benjamin, David S. Hong, Gregory Ravizzini, Eric Rohren. Alpha particle radium dichloride RaCI2 in high risk osteosarcoma. Anthony Paul Conley, Winston W. Benjamin, Shreyaskumar Patel.

Clinical characteristics of adult alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma ARMS patients Pts on front-line therapies. Roman Groisberg, David S. Clinical next-generation sequencing in sarcomas. Mrinal M. Gounder, Andrew J. Wagner, Neeta Somaiah, Richard F.

Riedel, Gary K. Schwartz, Steven Attia, Albiruni R. Razak, Lee D. Cranmer, Scott H. Okuno, Mohammed M. Kauffman, Sant P. Grunhagen, Pieter Boonstra, An K. Herzog, Daniel D. Outcomes of patients with advance sarcoma enrolled in clinical trials of pazopnib in combination of histone deacetylase. Schwartz, Tyler Masters, Richard D. Weise, David S. Marieke A. Nielsen, Alexander J. Lazar, Neeta Somaiah, Judith Bovee. Daw, Joanna G. Chawla, Cindy L. Schwartz, David S. Hong; Eric Rohren. Somaiah, E.

Gilbert, A. Conley, A. Zarzour, S. Patel, R. Benjamin, P. Bhosle, H. Lin, K. Watson, B. Feig, K. Torres, C. Feig, Alexander J. Lazar, Robert S. Meyer, Brian L.

Dilling, Charles C. Simon, Hossein Borghaei. Andrew J. Benjamin, Shreyaskumar Patel, Ivan Spasojevic. Effects of fosaprepitan Fosa on ifosfamide Ifex metabolism in sarcoma patients pts receiving multi-day chemotherapy CT regimen on doxorubicin Dox and Ifex AI : Randomized, cross-over study.

Benjamin, Valerae O. Michael Wagner, Kenneth R. Hess, David S. Validation of the Royal Marsden Hospital RMH prognostic score in patients with advanced sarcoma enrolled in early phase clinical trials at a major cancer center. Clinical Outcomes for patients with metastatic, malignant granular cell tumors treated with systemic therapies. Targeted sequencing of leiomyosarcomas in the clinic: Potential for target identification. Predicting survival using FDG pet responses in patients with unclassified sarcoma.

Targeted-Based therapeutic matching in early-phase clinical trials in patients with advanced sarcoma. Evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of IS-LV, a third generation lentiviral vaccine in patients with ny-eso-1 positive malignancies.

Araujo, Joseph A. Ludwig, Robert S. Benjamin, Joseph A. Hong, Funda Meric-Bernstam. Diversity and heterogeneity in molecular analysis of advanced sarcomas: The clinical, regulatory, and financial challenge for drug development and precision medicine. Shadia Ibrahim Jalal, Nasser H. Hanna, Robin Zon, Gregory A. Lazar, Dejka M. Ali, Vincent A. Miller, Philip J. Stephens, Robert S. Benjamin, Patrick Hwu, Andrew Futreal. Whole-exome and targeted sequencing of angiosarcomas: Target identification and treatment implications.

A feasibility study and trial proposal of immune checkpoint blockage in well and dedifferentiated retroperitoneal liposarcoma. Analysis of locoregional disease patterns as a guide to the extent of resection in well differentiated and dedifferentiated retroperitoneal liposarcoma.

Cardiac angiosarcoma: Clinical features and treatment outcomes. Phase I study o vorinostat with concurrent chemoradiotherapy CRT for locally advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.

Observational study of ifosamide Ifos neurotoxicity N : The prospective use of a nursing assessment tool. Neeta Somaiah, George R. Neeta Somaiah,. The prospective use of a nursing assessment tool.