PHREI - Key Persons
Allyson Endo oversees the accounting and financial operations of PHREI, in addition to grants and contracts administration. Ms. Endo supports the Executive Director in providing financial information to the Board of Directors and is directly responsible for cash and asset management, budgets and financial projections, developing policies and guidelines for internal controls, tax and audit requirements, and complying with applicable regulations - including VA, federal and state. Ms. Endo has more than 20 years of accounting experience with over 5 years specifically in the field of medical research.
Job Titles:
- Associate Chief of Staff for Research
Job Titles:
- Consultant / Trustee Consulting, LLC
Job Titles:
- Deputy Chief, Senior Psychology Program Manager
Dr. Brad Norlander is a Deputy Chief, Senior Psychology Program Manager in the Mental Health Service at the VA Central California Health Care System in Fresno, CA. He is a Co-Investigator for An Open-Label Study of Alto-100 in Adults with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and An Open-Label Study of Alto 100 In Adults with Major Depressive Disorder clinical trials.
Dr. Norlander received his Doctor of Philosophy, Clinical Psychology from the University of North Texas. He has worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs as a Clinical Psychologist at several locations as well as maintaining a private practice.
Job Titles:
- Health Research Scientist at the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
Dr. Scott M. Hofer is a Health Research Scientist at the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System and Pacific Health Research and Education Institute. He was previously the Director of the Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health and Professor of Psychology at the University of Victoria and Professor of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Hofer's research has focused on the replicability and generalizability of results from longitudinal studies in the psychological and health sciences, with particular emphasis on integrative data analysis and innovations in longitudinal study design and intensive measurement approaches. Over the last 15 years, he has directed the NIH-funded Integrative Analysis of Longitudinal Studies of Aging and Dementia (IALSA) network, comprised of over 130 longitudinal studies. The IALSA network, with Maelstrom Research, has developed an item-level meta-data library to facilitate identification of relevant studies and measurement harmonization and advance multistudy research synthesis. He and his colleagues are also leveraging digital technologies to improve the assessment of neurocognitive and patient-reported outcomes in home and clinic settings to enable earlier and more accurate detection of change and improve the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with dementia.
He is Past President of Division 5 (Quantitative and Qualitative Methods) of the American Psychological Association, Past President of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, and has been a Fellow of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, American Psychological Association, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Gerontological Society of America, and the Royal Statistical Society. In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Psychologist / Program Manager at the VA Central California Health Care System
Dr. Tracy L. Thomas is a clinical psychologist/Program Manager at the VA Central California Health Care System in Fresno. She is responsible for the overall operation and management of the PTSD Clinical Team, Sexual Trauma Treatment, Intimate Partner Violence, and Military Sexual Trauma Programs. Dr. Thomas is the Principal Investigator for An Open-Label Study of Alto-100 in Adults with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and An Open-Label Study of Alto 100 In Adults with Major Depressive Disorder clinical trials.
Dr. Thomas received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology in Redwood City, CA. In addition to being a Clinical Neuropsychologist/PTSD Specialist, she has experience in mentoring for the National Center for PTSD. Dr. Thomas participates in multi-site research studies and has presented findings at national meetings.
Dr. Web Ross is an experienced Neurologist. He was the Associate Chief of Staff for Research & Development and Chief of Neurology at the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System in Honolulu. He has been the lead on many PHREI projects including Principal Investigator on Risk Factors for Pathologic Markers of Parkinson Disease, Neurotoxins and Neurodegenerative Disorders in Japanese-American Men Living in Hawaii, and continues to conduct clinical trials in Parkinson's Disease. He is a Clinical Professor of Neurology at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, and is Board Certified In Neurology.
Dr. Ross received his B.A. in Biology with honors from Hendrix College in Arkansas and his M.D. degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He completed a residency in neurology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans and a fellowship in behavioral neurology at the University of California at Los Angeles. Dr. Ross also spent a year as a visiting scientist at the Parkinson's Institute, in Sunnyvale, California. He has won numerous awards in medical education.
Job Titles:
- Key Research Investigator
Dr. Petrovitch is a key research investigator on projects involving epidemiology of, and risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases of aging including dementia and Parkinson's disease. Dr. Petrovitch also works on clinical trials in Parkinson's disease, and diabetes. Dr. Petrovitch is a Co-Principal Investigator of the Glycemia Reduction Approaches in Diabetes (GRADE) project at PHREI.
She is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology. Dr. Petrovitch received her B.A. in Biology from the University of California at San Diego, her M.A. in Pharmacology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and her M.D. from the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu. She is board certified in internal medicine.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii John a. Burns
Dr. Uyehara-Lock is a neuropathologist and PHREI Investigator on projects regarding aging and dementia and Risk Factors for Pathologic Markers of Parkinson's Disease. She is laboratory director and Principal Investigator for the Pathology Research Laboratory at Leahi Hospital, where gross brain analysis and histology work takes place.
Dr. Uyehara-Lock received her B.A. in Chemistry and Biology and her M.S. in Physiology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an M.D. from the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine. Her postgraduate training includes residency in General Surgery and pre-residency fellowship in Neurological Surgery. She is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology and neuropathology.
Dr. Uyehara-Lock is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns school of Medicine. She also has a pathology clinical practice at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center at Moanalua and provides neuropathology consultative services for Tripler Army Medical Center.
Dr. Margaret-Anne (Maggi) Mackintosh's work focuses on the treatment of PTSD and comorbid mental health concerns, such as dysregulated anger, depression and interpersonal difficulties. Much of her work includes how technologies can be used to extend and enhance service delivery, especially for underserved populations. In addition, she has a strong set of skills in research design and application. She worked as a data manager and statistician, as well as a consultant on methodological and analytical issues in social science research. Dr. Mackintosh leads analyses addressing a variety of social and psychological endpoints, including hearing impairment; sleep complaints and polysomnographic measures; marital, employment and financial stability; and social networks and interpersonal functioning on PHREI's traumatic brain injury study.
Dr. Mackintosh received her doctorate in clinical psychology with an emphasis in geropsychology from the University of Southern California. She was a clinical research psychologist at the VA National Center for PTSD, Pacific Islands Division and is now a statistician with the Dissemination and Training Division in Palo Alto.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Research / University of Hawaii John a. Burns School
Job Titles:
- Grants and Contracts Administrator
Marnie Meyer serves as a primary contact with grants and contracts specialists on assigned PHREI projects. She is responsible for fiscal reports and working with the PI to ensure fiscal operations meet the funding source as well as PHREI rules and regulations. Ms. Meyer also assists with budget preparation and completion of fiscal documents for proposal submissions. She recently completed her Bachelor of Business Administration degree majoring in Accounting and assists the PHREI Controller with accounts payables and check disbursements. She has over 8 years of experience as a fiscal administrator.
Job Titles:
- Associate Chief of Staff for Education
Dr. Balkin is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He did his residency training at Vanderbilt in diagnostic radiology, and was the chief resident. After residency he joined the faculty at Tulane University in Radiology. Dr. Balkin subsequently moved to Hawaii in 1988 where he had a civilian appointment at Tripler Army Medical Center in Radiology. He joined Straub Clinic and Hospital in 1989 and practiced radiology there until the present. He served as Chief of Radiology from 1999-2004. He now spends most of his clinical efforts on his teleradiology business "Nighttime Radiology Solutions".
Dr. Balkin has several inventions including the much used Balkin up and over sheath. He is co-principal investigator for the Hawaii site of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST).
Dr. Allsopp is an Associate Professor at the John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii.
His major research focus is the cellular and molecular mechanisms of aging. In particular, he has long been interested in telomere-induced senescence, factors which regulate telomerase in stem cells, and on developing novel telomerase-based therapies to treat age-related diseases. Of note, Dr. Allsopp's lab was the first to discover the essential role of Hif1 on telomerase expression in embryonic stem cells. He is also interested in studying age-dependent changes in stem cell populations in adult organisms, including humans. He has over 10 years experience in studying and isolating hematopoietic stem cells and 20 years experience in studying telomere & telomerase biology. Recently, he has shown that adipose derived stem cells are particularly useful in treating infarcts in a human-to-rodent model system.
Dr. Allsopp received his PhD from McMaster University, Hamilton Ontario Canada. Subsequently, he spent five years training in the prestigious stem cell lab of Dr. Irving Weissman at Stanford University, before joining the University of Hawaii as faculty in 2003.
Job Titles:
- Grants Specialist / Executive Assistant
Tina Matano has worked in the research arena for over 20 years. Her primary role has been as a pre-award proposal specialist for the past 10 years. She takes primary responsibility for assisting PIs with all aspects of grant proposal preparation to meet the funding source's guidelines and deadlines. She assists investigators with questions related to application procedures and communicates with NIH or other funding agencies as needed to gather information. In addition, she assists the ED and Director of R&D in research development at PHREI. Ms. Matano also works with the ED in corresponding with the PHREI Board of Directors and is responsible for overall office management for the administrative staff, receptionist duties, maintaining files, arranging meetings and interacting with visitors to the office.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director / Director, Research and Development
Ms. Shambaugh is responsible for assembling the resources necessary to enhance and ensure the Institute's continued ability to successfully compete for research funding. This includes identifying funding opportunities, researchers and research teams, evaluating research concepts, and assisting investigators in developing and conducting successful studies. She is also a lead investigator on the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial and the National Lung Screening Trial funded by the National Cancer Institute. Ms. Shambaugh serves on the board of various national and international research organizations to provide contacts and information to strengthen Hawaii's research infrastructure.
Job Titles:
- IT and Communications Manager
Wes Fujimoto has more than 15 years of experience working in Information Technology. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management Information Systems. As the IT and Communications manager, he oversees the operation and maintenance of PHREI's servers, workstations, portable devices, network, and digital phone system. He assists staff with their computer and technology needs, troubleshoots issues, and also maintains the PHREI website. Mr. Fujimoto also administers PHREI's firewalls, data encryption implementations, antivirus systems, and software patch management systems to ensure network and data security.
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry / University of Hawaii John a. Burns School