Speakers

As the Program Manager for Recruitment & Retention Services at The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science and one who leads the recruitment processes and ResearchMatch, Mary Becker works with principal investigators and clinical research coordinators on both the academic campus as well as those from the medical center, advising and offering training to help them ultimately meet their recruitment goals. She is often requested to speak at departmental meetings within the College of Medicine and share her overall knowledge of recruitment and retention as it relates to clinical trials. Mary is a Buckeye through and through, having been born in Columbus, Ohio, is an Ohio State alumni as is her husband Jeff and all 4 of their children. She has worked at Ohio State for the last 13 years, holding various positions within the medical center before coming to the Center for Clinical and Translational Science 5 years ago. Her passion for teaching others about the value and importance of participating in research is what motivates her to always be looking for the next opportunity to share this enthusiasm with others.  

Loretta Byrne, RN, MSN, CCRP is the national program manager of ResearchMatch.org, and a Principal Research Strategy and Program Specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR). She co-directs VICTR’s Clinical Research Immersion Boot Camp series and is also part of the Recruitment Innovation Center team. Before this role, Loretta served as a Research Nurse Specialist, and conducted clinical trials in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at VUMC for 12 years. Loretta began her career in oncology nursing at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is also experienced in medical and cardiology nursing. Loretta has expertise in all areas of recruitment and retention of research participants and advocates on their behalf.   

Alex Cheng, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His primary area of research is in implementation and evaluation of interfaces between electronic health record systems and research informatics systems (such as REDCap and ResearchMatch) with FHIR APIs. 

Lisa Connally’s path to clinical research is varied and she believes her unconventional route has played a major role in her success. From her start as an invoice clerk at a major retail giant to her role in Human Resources at the County of Monroe to becoming the Deputy Court Administrator at the 1st Court while earning her Bachelor’s of Science Degree from Eastern Michigan University as a Paralegal, she can see where each of her previous roles would build on each other and  provide her the invaluable experience that would lead her to her current role . Lisa fell into clinical research much by happenstance 15 years ago when she began managing a private Endocrinology Research Center in Dearborn, MI. This role would change everything and would be where she found her true calling and passion for research that would lead her to her current role as the Participant Recruitment Program Lead at the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) at the University of Michigan.  

Brooke Crockett is a 2020 graduate from The Ohio State University where she focused on Strategic Communications, Professional Writing and Nonprofit Management. She began her career in Health Communications in 2020 at The Ohio State University working on the HEAL Initiative (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) and then moved into a marketing and communications role with The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Brooke is pursuing her Masters in Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Promotion, with an anticipated graduation in December 2025. Her passion is Health Literacy, and she incorporates it in all social media recruitment and retention materials.  

Neal Dickert, MD, PhD is a Tenured Associate Professor of Medicine and the Thomas R. Williams Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine.  He is a core faculty member in the Emory Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute, holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, and is a senior faculty fellow at the Emory Center for Ethics.  He also serves as the Interim Director of the Emory Health Services Research Center and directs the Network Capacity Core and Recruitment Center of the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance. Dr. Dickert joined the faculty at Emory in 2012. He is a board-certified cardiologist whose clinical work is in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and echocardiography lab at Emory University Hospital.   

Dr. Dickert’s research is focused on ethical issues relevant to cardiology practice and clinical research.  He is an alumnus of the Greenwall Faculty Scholars in Bioethics Program, is a past recipient of the Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research Pillars of PRIM&R award, is a faculty member of the American College of Cardiology, and is a past Greenwall Fellow in Bioethics at the National Academy of Medicine.   He has received research funding from multiple NIH institutes, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Policy, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Greenwall Foundation.  He has an active portfolio of ongoing research.  A major focus of his work is on ethical and regulatory aspects of conducting clinical trials in acute care contexts where informed consent is either impossible or very difficult. Dr. Dickert is also interested in and has published work regarding recruitment and consent for clinical research more generally, including the use of incentives and other influences on decision-making.  And in a recent series of projects, he is studying processes for shared decision-making in cardiology.  In addition to his own research, Dr. Dickert is a member of multiple Data Safety and Monitoring Committees.  

Carrie Dykes, PhD, MS is the Director of Research Services at the University of Rochester Clinical and Translational Science Institute.  As Director she provides strategic and operational oversight of all resources and services provided by the Institute. She also conducts research in the field of participant recruitment and retention studying the barriers to participation and identifying innovation solutions to those barriers.  She is also the University’s administrator for ClinicalTrials.gov and serves on the ClinicalTrials.gov Registration and Results Reporting Taskforce (Executive Committee member), and the National Library of Medicine’s ClinicalTrials.gov Modernization working group. Prior to working at the CTSI, Dr. Dykes was Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Rochester where she studied the effects of mutations on HIV-1 growth and protein function.  Dr. Dykes holds a Ph.D. degree in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Rochester, a M.S. from the Simon School of Business in Medical Management and a B.S. degree in Biochemistry from Nazareth College.  

Ms. Edwards is the Director of Research Support Services at the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and oversees the day-to-day activities and the centralized resources and support for recruitment and retention.  Ms. Edwards has been employed at Vanderbilt since 1986 where she worked as an ICU nurse then a research nurse. She then worked in the Vanderbilt IRB as the team leader for the IRB Compliance and Education team.  She has held a Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) from the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society, certification from the clinical research professional (CCRP) and has been a certified IRB professional (CIP). Ms. Edwards utilizes her experience providing guidance to investigators in areas including processes for conducting clinical research; Institutional Review Board navigation; development of protocols, data collection tools, databases, and templates; and assisting with RCR training, funding, contractual agreements, and technology transfer. She also collaborates with departments and interdisciplinary teams to develop and implement strategies to improve research practices and procedures.

Ms. Enriquez oversees programmatic elements of the Recruitment Unit of the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science to ensure all projects are traceable to the objectives. The Recruitment Unit aims to increase clinical trial participation amongst underserved populations in the D.C. metropolitan region. Prior to this role, Ms. Enriquez managed programs and projects focused on promoting healthy behaviors and well-being among vulnerable populations in the DMV region. Ms. Enriquez graduated from the University of Baltimore County with a B.S. in Biopsychology, and is currently enrolled in a Master of Science in Nursing at the University of Baltimore School of Nursing.  

Dr. Jennifer Cunningham-Erves is a public health researcher and educator who seeks to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in chronic disease while influencing health equity in minority and underserved populations. Her primary research focus is to identify reasons for and strategies to increase HPV and COVID-19 vaccination among hesitant adults and parents. She has extensive experience in health behavior research, qualitative and mixed methods, community engagement, and community dissemination. Dr. Erves uses her research initiatives to provide training opportunities to ensure students' development into competent public health professionals. She works with other researchers, state level committees, and community-based organizations and members to reduce disparities across diseases. Dr. Erves is an Associate professor at Meharry Medical College in the Department of Internal Medicine and an adjunct Assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She received her PhD in Health Education and Health Promotion from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2013.   

Florencia Gonzalez is Co-director for the Inclusion of Diverse Populations Core under the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUCCTS).  She also serves as community liaison for the Center’s Community Engagement Core.  Florencia specializes in supporting research teams with strategic planning for inclusion of underrepresented groups in health research.  She also leads efforts to promote equitable inclusion of people with limited English proficiency (LEP) in studies.  She guides research teams on community-engaged-research best practices and building community-academic partnerships.  Florencia has prior experience managing clinical trials and overseeing disparity health research within community settings.  Additionally, she has a history of grassroots field experience conducting case management with immigrant populations and managing public health projects in cross-cultural settings such as Sub-Saharan Africa and Honduras.   

Dionne is an experienced healthcare professional with a background in nursing and information technology. Dionne received her bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Southern Mississippi before becoming a registered nurse. Prior to joining VICTR, Dionne worked at DaVita Kidney Care, first as a nurse for dialysis patients and then later in health IT as a Senior Analyst. Dionne is currently serving as an Associate Application Analyst for VICTR where she provides support for MyCap, the Clinician Study App (CSA), and the e-Consent platforms. 

Dr. Randall Grout is a pediatrician, health services and informatics researcher, and clinical research informatician.  His research and service focus on learning health systems infrastructure and supporting continuous study and improvement natively embedded in a healthcare system.  Dr. Grout has a special emphasis on clinical informatics and empowering clinical research at Eskenazi Health and frequently consults with researchers seeking to implement or leverage clinical information systems. 

Dr. Grout received his medical degree from the University of Iowa and completed a pediatrics residency and a children’s health services research fellowship at Indiana University. He also earned a master of science degree in clinical research at Indiana University.  He was among the nation’s first cohorts of learning health systems researchers through the Regenstrief Institute’s Learning Health Systems Center of Excellence. 

Dr. Grout is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Informatics Association, and the Academic Pediatrics Association. He contributes to the AAP Partnership for Policy Implementation, a group of informaticians that improves the implementability of societal recommendations through actionable algorithms and language.  He also leads the EHR Recruitment Consult Resource within the Recruitment Innovation Center. 

Paul A. Harris, PhD, is a professor of Biomedical Informatics with secondary appointments in Biostatistics and Biomedical Informatics. Dr. Harris serves as the co-PI of the Recruitment Innovation Center and corresponding PI for the All of Us Data and Research Center. Dr. Harris serves as Director of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Office of Research Informatics and is the Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR). In his role as Director of Research, he created the REDCap data platform (www.projectredcap.org) that has been broadly adopted by more than 6452 institutional partners and 2.5 million end-users across 151 countries. He also created a national recruitment registry, ResearchMatch (www.researchmatch.org), that matches individuals across the USA with research teams recruiting patients for studies and trials. ResearchMatch is serving approximately 145,442 research volunteers and 213 research institutions. 

Dr. Harris received a PhD degree in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University and has significant experience working in the field of clinical and translational research informatics. He is an elected fellow in the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Dr. Harris is a recipient of the Donald A.B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics, an American Medical Information Association (AMIA) signature award recognizing innovation in the field of informatics that has dramatically moved or changed the field.  

Toddie Hays is the Acting Managing Director for the Center for Clinical Research, and the Senior Clinical and Translational Research Navigator, for the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, in Chicago.  Toddie has over sixteen years of experience across clinical and research settings. Toddie specializes in collaborating with research teams to help foster and advance clinical research across multiple specialties. Toddie has worked with NUCATS for the past six years to support research and uses her positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to connect to resources, teams, and networking groups to help advance medical science. Toddie lives on the northside of Chicago, and enjoys biking, walking, and enjoying Chicagoland events and festivals.    

Mrs. Hudson has over 25 years of research, project management, and program development experience utilizing her informatics, community engagement, healthcare systems, and health research knowledge to improve study recruitment strategies. She currently serves as the Director of Recruitment Concierge Service at Indiana Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute and IU School of Medicine.

Clara Kalis is a 2022 graduate from Ohio University. She majored in Communication Studies and minored in Community and Public Health. She began her career in May of 2022 as the Recruitment and Retention Coordinator at The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). She is excited to continue working at the CCTS, while pursuing her Masters in Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Promotion beginning in the fall of 2023. 

Dr. Kassaye is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University. She earned her medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency training at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, and her Infectious Diseases Fellowship training at Stanford University where she also completed a Masters’ Degree in Epidemiology. Dr. Kassaye’s research and professional interests include HIV research and professional interests include HIV [HIV transmission, prevention, co-morbidities, and long-term outcomes]; use of technology to improve health [mobile health technologies, ethical and privacy-assured use of health data]; and education [medical education, effective health communication]. Her research spans the translational spectrum, from the molecular epidemiology of HIV including drug resistance; long-term outcomes and comorbidities among persons with HIV, particularly in women; and prevention of HIV including during pregnancy. She has supported novel privacy-assured technology approaches to support public health initiatives in HIV and more recently with COVID-19. Dr. Kassaye serves as the principal investigator of the DC MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study, a multisite national study of HIV and co-morbidities, and the site principal investigator for a newly established cohort of young women living with HIV in the southern U.S. (STAR cohort). She participated in COVID-19 research as the Georgetown University site principal investigator for a multi-site national study led by Johns Hopkins University and supported by the Trials Innovation Network (TIN) of the Clinical and Translational Sciences Award Program using convalescent plasma for early treatment and prevention.

Sheila V. Kusnoor, Ph.D., is a senior research information scientist at the Center for Knowledge Management (CKM) and a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Dr. Kusnoor received her Ph.D. in cellular and molecular neuroscience from Vanderbilt University. As a member of CKM, Dr. Kusnoor contributes to a variety of research initiatives incorporating use of evidence synthesis and knowledge management practices to help support VUMC’s patient care, research, and education initiatives.

Cassia Lewis-Land, MS, CCRP, possesses an extensive background in the field of clinical research, spanning over 25 years. Throughout her career, she has adeptly coordinated and overseen numerous large-scale research endeavors, within both rural and urban settings and encompassing diverse populations. Her areas of expertise lie in the realm of targeted digital research recruitment tools and community engagement strategies for recruitment purposes. 

Presently, Cassia assumes the role of Program Administrator within the Recruitment Innovation Unit (RIU) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Institute for Clinical & Translational Research. In this capacity, she is responsible for the management and oversight of various initiatives, including the MyChart Recruitment Service, HOPE registry, and Recruitment Material Design Service. 

Krystal Madkins, MPH, MSLIS, (she/her) is a Clinical Research Associate at Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) at Northwestern University and Director of the Recruitment and Retention Core in the THRIVE Center at ISGMH. She received her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and MS in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Over the past decade, she has accrued expertise in digital and in-person recruitment of sexual and gender minority populations in health research projects, including the Keep It Up! intervention which is now recognized by the CDC as an Evidence-Based Intervention. Her research interests include health disparities, health literacy, and HIV/STI prevention in underserved communities.

Alex Mainor is a Senior Research Regulatory Affairs Specialist at VICTR. He received his JD and MPH in Health Services Management and Policy at The Ohio State University, after which he served as a project manager at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice before joining VICTR in the fall of 2020.

Sarah Nelson is a Principal Research Strategy & Program Specialist at the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She received her Master’s in Strategic Leadership and has extensive knowledge in research recruitment methods, health policy, and healthcare informatics. Sarah has over 11 years of experience as a Department of Defense private contractor, where she collaborated with numerous key organizations such as the DOD, RAND, NIDA, and the NIH in order to build future policy around research recruitment of military personnel both in and out of combat zones.  

Currently, Sarah Nelson’s effort is overseeing and supporting the Helping End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Pain ERN RIC team and supporting the needs of the NCATS funded Trial Innovation Network (TIN) within the Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC) as it applies to Research and Recruitment Informatics. Sarah is the central manager for the TIN Expression of Interest and oversees the planning, execution, and management for all TIN EOIs. 

Mugisha Niyibizi is the Senior Coordinator for Research within the Network Capacity Core of the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance. Mugisha holds a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology and previously worked as a research study coordinator at Emory University. In her current role, Mugisha provides recruitment support for research study teams by connecting them with institutional and community resources and creating recruitment messages and advertisements. Mugisha and Georgia CTSA recruitment staff collaborate with researchers and ethicists to conduct empirical research to understand the research participant experience and evaluate the effectiveness of research communication strategies.  

Bunmi Ogungbe is post-doctoral fellow within the IMPACT (IMproving Participation Among diverse populations in Cardiovascular clinical Trials) Center at Johns Hopkins University Schools of Nursing and Medicine. She has expertise in cardiovascular and clinical epidemiology and public health research. She was PI of the “Cardiac PASC” study, a multi-methods study that characterized subclinical myocardial injury using high-sensitivity cardiac Troponin I and other inflammatory biomarkers in persons who have had COVID-19, and examination of cardiac-related post-acute sequelae of COVID-19. She works with the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Recruitment Innovation Unit leading the social media recruitment service. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was part of the team that developed HOPE (Hopkins Opportunities for Patient Engagement registry), a research community that uses electronic medical records, digital and community-based methods to identify, recruit, screen, and connect people to COVID-19 research. She is also now involved in the CONNECT (Developing a learning COmmunity to increase eNgagemeNt and Enrollment in cardiovascular Clinical Trials) project within the IMPACT Center. Thus, she has been engaged in research and implementation of innovative methods to improve diversity in recruitment. She also works on studies focused on improving cardiometabolic outcomes of underserved populations, health disparities, and innovative hypertension care strategies. She has won numerous awards, including the prestigious 2021/2022 P.E.O. International Scholarship award and the American Heart Association Early Career Award, and was recently appointed as an Early Career Assistant Reviewer for Hypertension journal.  

Tara Pittman comes from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where she serves as the recruitment manager for their CTSA hub, the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research (SCTR) Institute. Through consultations and trainings, Tara assists research teams with developing recruitment budgets, strategies and materials, with an emphasis on accessing and engaging populations that will assure diverse and representative samples. As recruitment manager, Tara leads SCTR’s Patient Outreach Recruitment (POR) team, in charge of implementing and overseeing researchers’ use of cold contact methods for research recruitment, and also works with offices across MUSC to alleviate barriers to successful recruitment and create resources to increase efficiency.  Tara has her master’s degree from University of Georgia, in the area of communication studies, and has  been working in research at MUSC for nearly 15 years. She has her certification as a clinical research professional through the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA).  

Emily Serdoz is an accomplished manager and product owner with nearly 20 years’ experience embedding technical platforms into multisite research and research operations at Vanderbilt. With a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in public health administration, Ms. Serdoz brings an understanding of human behavior and patient-centered care and is able to navigate the complex landscape of federal regulations and compliance. She plays a pivotal role in supporting the successful development and evolution of products supporting study start up, recruitment, retention, and data capture for clinical trials.  

Ms. Stroud has been with Vanderbilt since 1984 as a nurse providing bedside care in the Medical Intensive Care Unit Stepdown and subsequently the Neuro Surgical/Medical Intensive Care Unit. She began her career in research in 1989 in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. She has worked in VICTR (Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research) since 2011 and is currently the Program Manager for the RIC (Recruitment Innovation Center). Ms. Stroud also served as the Program Manager for the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center from 1997 to 2011 supporting industry sponsored multinational clinical trials with a focus on patient eligibility, and adjudication. She is adept in regulatory knowledge and recruitment strategies.

Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI, tenured Professor of Medicine, is Senior Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a nationally recognized thought leader in health equity and in addressing the elimination of systemic inequities that impact the health and well-being of minoritized racial and ethnic groups. Throughout her career, Dr. Wilkins’ research has focused on racial and ethnic health disparities using a community engaged approach. She is currently Principal Investigator of three NIH-funded centers: the Center for Improving Clinical Trial Education Recruitment and Enrollment at CTSA Hubs; the Southeast Collaborative for Innovative and Equitable Solutions to Chronic Disease Disparities; and the Vanderbilt Clinical and Translational Science Award. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers primarily on health equity and engagement.  

Dr. Wilkins is an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. She earned a Bachelor of Science in microbiology and Doctor of Medicine from Howard University. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and a Geriatric Medicine fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine/Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Following her medical training, Dr. Wilkins earned a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation from Washington University School of Medicine.