Healing with light and the light of faith

Alumnus’ personal tragedy is part of the tapestry that brought him to a career treating Tennessee’s cancer patients.

Posted 1-2-25

Daniel Wakefield (BS ’12), newly named partner at Tennessee Oncology, likes to make the joke that he really was raised in a barn.

The Lewisburg, Tennessee-native is the son of a veterinarian, Dr. Victor Wakefield, who ran his own small and large animal practice. His mother was the office manager and Wakefield got plenty of opportunities to interact with his father’s patients and their owners. 

Wakefield spent his childhood cleaning stalls, mending fences and helping his dad care for patients. “I guess you can say healing runs in the family. Everyone asked me growing up if I was going to become a veterinarian like my dad,” he says with a smile.  

However, life had other plans. A football injury in high school led him to consider human medicine rather than veterinary medicine. When he tore his ACL and viewed his MRI, he became fascinated with the space where technology changes human lives. After surgery and rehab, he decided to consider a pre-med track for college.

Wakefield says fondly, “I remember my father encouraging me to ‘go be a human doctor, son… there is much less biting and kicking!’”

Sadly the next step in his journey towards becoming a healer was a tragic one: His father passed away suddenly right before he was to start college. The 19-year-old Wakefield found his father’s body on a Wednesday, buried him on Saturday and moved to Lipscomb on Sunday.  It was a challenging time. 

“Lipscomb became a home for me in that season,” said Wakefield. “After my dad’s death, it was the right place because of the way the faculty and staff supported me. I chose Lipscomb because of the strong pre-med program, but I stayed and thrived because of the sincere love the faculty have for students.” 

Wakefield went on to become student body president and valedictorian, and received a full-ride scholarship to the University of Tennessee Medical School.

“I do not think I would have had that opportunity if I had not gone to Lipscomb. It’s small but it’s mighty,” Wakefield said. “It is the formative leadership training and character development that stands out to me when I think about my time at Lipscomb.”

In medical school, he “tried on a lot of different white coats,” he said, but found himself drawn to specialties with high acuity and risk of life and death: the ER, trauma bay, ICU and the oncology wards. “I know from the death of my father what people can lose, how serious our decisions can be, and that has drawn me to the situations that are more acutely threatening to life. In the end, I chose radiation oncology because of the patients. They are truly special.”

“I just fell in love with cancer patients,” he said, “and I love implementing cutting edge science and technology to help patients achieve their goals. I care for them with light—photons, electrons, protons—but also am often able to serve them by bringing in the light of love, to serve my patients’ physical, psychological—and when it is important to them—their spiritual needs, too. Lipscomb equipped me for this service.”

During his undergraduate studies, Wakefield dove into his classes to mask his pain, and over time “other fathers” at Lipscomb stepped in. Former Biology Chair Kent Gallaher (BS ’91) and former Senior Vice President for Student Life Scott McDowell (MA ’89) were among the men who mentored Wakefield through family and faith issues. “Lipscomb really had some great administrators who poured into me and showed me how God really works,” he said.

During his college days, Wakefield proposed to his wife Amber Markham Wakefield (BSN ’12), now a nurse navigator, at a Phi Sigma formal. He drank in insight from Bible and history faculty Lee Camp (BA ’89) and Richard Goode (LA ’78, BA ’82), who helped him develop his worldview: “to look at my professional skill set as something I can use to help people and create a better world,” he said. “I do have the vision given to me by Lipscomb to be part of a mission that is bigger than myself.”

Today he carries out that mission as a radiation oncologist at Tennessee Oncology. He serves as the medical director for the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center at TriStar Centennial Hospital. He is also in leadership of various committees dealing with tumors, governance, new technology and cancer that have an impact across the state.

When he first meets his patients suffering with cancer, rather than jumping into the “what and how” of treatments, he first asks them about their “why” by inquiring “First: What matters to you?”

“The spectrum of humanity I see in the answers to that question is what keeps me coming back as a caregiver time after time,” he said. “I have heard many answers. From the joking patient saying, ‘Sex, drugs and rock and roll, man!’ to the professional artist stating ‘I just want to continue giving people joy and light.’ However, most commonly, my patients state that the thing that matters the most to them is their faith, their family and then their future—in that order. It is remarkable to me to see the strength that patients have, how much their faith and loved ones mean to them and to enter into their journey to help them achieve their goals.”

“Many of my patients are also spiritual people. They appreciate when a doctor is open to listen to them when they state ‘My faith is most important to me’ while facing an uncertain future,” Wakefield said. “Often they ask for prayer. Those moments are so meaningful, when two people connect together to set an intention for healing. It is a precious privilege. I believe that an education at Lipscomb enabled me to practice caring for the whole patient and am grateful for it.”

Wakefield’s career took some twists and turns before landing in his current role. During his residency, he worked in research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, as he was considering working in pediatrics. From there he became involved in researching public health with St. Jude Global, which led to a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and serving with the University of Tennessee’s Department of Preventive Medicine and also in international policy research during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was headed towards a career in academics, research and policy.

Then another major life event changed his trajectory again. Wakefield was involved in a serious car wreck. His near-death experience made him realize that it was really working one-on-one with patients that he loved most. The realization led him to eventually come to Tennessee Oncology. 

“It is an organization that allows me to serve patients at the highest level using world-class technology and cutting edge science,” he said. “It is a practice that allows me to achieve my academic and leadership goals while focusing on being a clinician.”

Tennessee Oncology, the largest private practice oncology group in Tennessee, cares for the majority of cancer patients in the Nashville area and more than 50% of the patients across the state as a whole.

“Our team is in the business of making grandads and grandmas. We are here to give patients more birthdays,” said Wakefield. “We give patients the gift of time and the gift of peace.

“I tell our patients, when you put your head on your pillow at night, I want you to feel that in this season you made the right choices. Even if the cancer comes back, or you struggle with a side effect, I want you to have peace of mind that you knew your options, received great care, and did what was best for you. That time and peace of mind is what we want to accomplish as a team for you.”

“At Tennessee Oncology, we get to do that at a large scale: We help invent drugs and provide access to them for patients in both urban and rural Tennessee, and we are in the community where patients live, giving them compassionate care close to home,” said Wakefield. 

“I deeply appreciate the heart of our company,” he said. “I have found sincere patient-focused and compassionate hearts in my partners. They inspire me. I appreciate being able to operate with compassionate, smart, patient-focused leaders.”

Now Wakefield is committed to giving back. Reflecting on his days at Lipscomb, particularly a summer research experience he had, Wakefield was inspired to become involved in Lipscomb’s J.S. Ward Society, an alumni group that supports Lipscomb’s health sciences programs and the university’s students to help them enter medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and many other allied health professions.

Wakefield has served as a mentor in the society’s Bison Docs mentoring program and has hosted students for tours and shadowing during his clinic duties. “It is meaningful to pay forward what I was given through professors like Jon Lowrance (BS ’77), Dr. Phil Choate (BA ’69), Gallaher and Jim Arnett (BA ’67),” said Wakefield. “Lipscomb is setting students up for success through this generational hand-off of wisdom and advice.

“The experience sticks with them for a long time,” he said of Lipscomb students who have shadowed him in the oncology clinics. “Our work shows a really humanistic, patient-centered way to work with people, and whether they go into health care or not, they benefit, because a life of service is a life well-lived.”

Photo by Kristi Jones