Dr. Maggie Cupit-Link decided to become a physician when she was 4 years old during a lengthy hospital following a car accident. Her career choice never changed.
After graduating as high school valedictorian, she left her small Mississippi hometown to study chemistry and religion at Rhodes College in Memphis. As a freshman she earned a coveted position as a research fellow in a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital lab. She was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma days before she was scheduled to start and became a St. Jude patient instead.
Dr. Cupit-Link describes the year-long treatment as horrible and inspiring. The courage she witnessed in the children around her motivated Dr. Cupit-Link to become a pediatric oncologist. She returned to Rhodes, finished her bachelor’s degree, and completed multiple St. Jude research projects.
She was awarded a fellowship by FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics) and studied medical ethics in Europe (2017). Dr. Cupit-Link earned her medical degree from Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, Rochester, Minn. (2018). She completed her pediatrics residency at Washington University/St. Louis Children’s Hospital (2021), where she was awarded the Ari Berlin Award for Compassion and Excellence in Patient Care. She is now a clinical hematology/oncology fellow at St. Jude. Along with patient care, Dr. Cupit-Link does clinical research into neuroblastoma and treatment late effects.
Dr. Cupit-Link loves being social, public speaking, yoga and writing. She has published two nonfiction books – Why, God? Suffering Through Cancer into Faith and Skinny or Not, Here I Come. She and her husband Drew have a 3-legged rescue cat named Captain Jack and plan to grow their family through adoption.
“The Master of Science in Clinical Investigations will give me the skills I need to design and conduct clinical trials to reduce acute and long-term toxicities associated with pediatric cancer therapies. Such clinical trials are particularly relevant for children with high-risk neuroblastoma.”
Education
Pediatrics Residency - Washington University/St. Louis Children's Hospital (2021)
MD - Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota (2018)
Publications
Cupit-Link MC. The BARF Project: A Pilot Study Using the BARF Scale to Assess CINV in Children. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04678947. 2021.
Cupit-Link MC, Kohorst MA, Tran CL, Bleesing JJ, Galardy PJ, Boyce TG. Suspected thrombotic microangiopathy in a child with Epstein-Barr virus-induced hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2018.
Cupit-Link MC, Nageswara Rao A, Warad DM, Rodriguez V, Khan S. EBV-PTLD, Adenovirus, and CMV in Pediatric Allogeneic Transplants with Alemtuzumab as Part of Pretransplant Conditioning: A Retrospective Single Center Study. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2018.
Cupit-Link MC, Kirkland JL, Ness KK, Armstrong GT, Tchkonia T, LeBrasseur NK, Armenian SH, Ruddy KJ, Hashmi SK. Biology of premature ageing in survivors of cancer. ESMO Open. 2017.
Cupit-Link MC, Nageswara Rao A, Warad DM, Rodriguez V. Lemierre Syndrome: A Retrospective Study of the Role of Anticoagulation and Thrombosis Outcomes. Acta Haematol. 2017.