Derrick Haslem - Homecoming Distinguished Service Award

Oncologist Derrick Haslem, a member of SUU’s class of 2000, has dedicated his life to steering people through the devastation of cancer and today provides all-encompassing treatment of the dire disease.

His Intermountain Precision Genomics provides a personalized approach to testing, diagnosing, and treating cancer, analyzing the genetic makeup of a patient’s cancer and joining a team of skilled specialists to determine how to most effectively treat that case with a customized, targeted plan.

It’s not just a clinic, but a program, he says, and from a St. George base, Derrick and his team reach through Cedar City and throughout southern Utah. He draws upon more than seven years treating cancer in IHC’s clinics in the region.

It is indeed distinguished service, which makes him ideal for that Alumni Association honor, one that he likely did not envision growing up in Vernal, Utah, before moving to St. George while a fourth-grader. His early life had been characterized by running though the alfalfa fields between the Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir, and by tagging along with his father, a building contractor. He was encouraged to take that line of work a bit further and become an engineer. He had an eye out even then, however, to put one foot into health care and toyed with the idea of biomedical engineering, perhaps designing artificial limbs, as he was intrigued, he says sheepishly, by Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic arm.

Later, though, he found that working directly with people and improving their lives satisfied him more than the thought of sitting in some cubicle somewhere. He determined he would work closer to the human condition and when his mother’s cousin succumbed at an early age to breast cancer, he first had the thought of combating the disease.

Following his days at Pine View High School where he first met future wife Amy, Derrick spent a year at Dixie College before serving an LDS mission to the Dominican Republic, where one-on-one work serving others changed his life. Continuing his education at SUU, he became the first intern in the University’s fledgling AHEC program and traveled to area schools encouraging students to pursue occupations in health care.

While a Thunderbird, he also courted Amy Lundin (lun-deen), whom he married in 1997. She earned an SUU degree the following year in business education and computer information systems. They now have five children ranging in age from 17 to four.

Also at SUU, he was a member of the intramural flag football championship team and the Pre-Med Club. He earned his degree in mathematical science with a minor in Spanish, and gives thanks to the school’s strong core of teachers and mentors, including Marty Larkin, Bob Eves, Michael Donovan and the late Jim Bowns. He, like so many, has vivid memories of Ty Redd’s Organic Chemistry course, which he says was one of the toughest experiences in his life but was invaluable preparation.

As a member of one of SUU’s renowned perfect classes of graduates accepted to medical school, he earned his degree from the University of Utah. While there, his now-cancer-free mother contracted colon cancer and he was highly impressed by the work of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Thus, his specialty was revealed to him as he went on to complete his fellowship there.

Derrick’s practice, based on the personal approach, is committed to helping patients through the entire process connected with their disease, arranging for all aspects of treatment. In addition to fighting cancer, he and his team also help patients face the reality of their situation and to deal with it with dignity, he says. Encouraging the stricken to take advantage of time remaining is a vital aspect of the program.

As he goes about his daily duties caring for others, Doctor Derrick Haslem evinces the care and concern instilled by his family and by his teachers and mentors and in doing so, provides truly distinguished service.