ICTR-CAP - Key Persons
Allan Brasier, MD, ICTR Executive Director, is also Senior Associate Dean in the School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH).
Dr. Brasier joined UW ICTR in 2018. He received his MD degree from the University of California, San Francisco, a clinical and research fellowship in Adult Endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is dually boarded in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology/Metabolism. He was founding Director of the Institute for Translational Science at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he developed systematic approaches for the advancing translational research. This work in Translational Teams is now being applied and advanced at ICTR and has led to development of approaches to enhance reproducibility in science and skills-based training in research leadership.
In addition to his contributions to Translational Teamwork, Dr. Brasier is internationally recognized for his original and high-impact research on mechanisms of innate inflammation and its role in advancing pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. His pioneering work applies systems-level bioinformatics to integrate information from high- throughput studies to generate novel mechanistic insights about innate inflammation and its central role in organ fibrosis. These studies inform translational research programs in viral induced inflammation, airway remodeling, and inflammatory bowel disease.
In advancing the ICTR strategic plan, Dr. Brasier is responsible for working with partners Marshfield Clinic, four UW schools (School of Medicine & Pubic Health, Nursing, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine), and the College of Engineering to expand university and academic partnerships. He spearheads the Precision Medicine Strategic Alliance Program in partnership with the SMPH Human Proteomics Program, and leads development of the Leadership and Skills Enhancement for Research (LASER) training program.
Amanda Dailey, MS, is a Population Health Fellow with UW-Madison and will spend half of her time working with the All of Us Research Program in Milwaukee and the other half with the City of Milwaukee Health Department. Originally from Cleveland, OH, Dailey graduated with her MS Degree in Clinical Epidemiology from Kent State University. Her passions primarily lie in racial disparities within health care and clinical research in general. She is looking forward to the community outreach associated with this fellowship and is eager to learn everything research-related in the next two years of the fellowship.
Job Titles:
- Position Title: Faculty, Dissemination & Implementation Launchpad
Job Titles:
- CCHE Associate Director
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Angela Byars-Winston is a CCHE Associate Director, a tenured Professor in the UW Department of Medicine, Director of Research and Evaluation in the UW Center for Women's Health Research, and Faculty Leader in the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research. Her research examines cultural influences on academic and career development, especially for historically minoritized groups in the sciences, engineering, and medicine with the aim of broadening their participation in STEMM (+M = medicine) fields. Dr. Byars-Winston was Principal Investigator on an NIH R01 grant to measure and test critical factors in research training interventions for mentors of ethnically diverse mentees in biological science and co-led a renewal of that R01 grant to investigate and intervene on research mentors' cultural diversity awareness. She is currently Principal Investigator on a grant through the NIH National Research Mentoring Network leading the Culturally Aware Mentorship initiative.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director With the UW All of Us Research Program
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Bashir Easter, PhD, is Assistant Director with the UW All of Us Research Program (Milwaukee site) and oversees the day-to-day operations of the UW All of Us Milwaukee team.
In 2020, he completed his doctoral research focusing on African American adolescents' internal and external experiences caring for a family member living with dementia. His interest in this topic is personal. He is the one in his family caring for his mother who was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 55. Following this diagnosis, he intensified his research in this area and became the first Dementia Care Specialist for the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, working with community partners to make a significant impact in creating a dementia-capable system and dementia-friendly community.
Easter earned his PhD from Capella University, an MBA from Concordia University, and a BS from Cardinal Stritch University. He also received an Associate of Science degree in business management from the Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Radiology
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Elizabeth Burnside, MD, MPH, Deputy Executive Director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) is also Associate Dean in the School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH).
Dr. Burnside is also a Professor of Radiology in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Her degrees include an M.D. combined with a master's in Public Health as well as a master's degree in Medical Informatics. As a result, her research investigates the use of computational methods to improve decision-making in the domain of breast imaging in the pursuit of improving the population based screening and diagnosis of breast cancer. This multidisciplinary research is facilitated by affiliate appointments in the Departments of Industrial Engineering, Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, and Population Health Science at UW.
Dr. Burnside's research has secured continuous NIH funding since 2006 garnering a total of $4.6 million in extramural funding. She served as a charter member on the Biomedical Imaging Technology (BMIT) Study Section at the NIH. Dr. Burnside is a subspecialty trained breast imager with an active clinical practice providing all imaging and interventional procedure utilized for the early diagnosis of breast cancer. In addition to her role as a clinician scientist, Dr. Burnside has developed a track-record of mentoring clinician scientists and trainees from translational disciplines, also supported by NIH funding.
As the ICTR Director for Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, Casper Bendixsen, PhD, provides leadership across ICTR initiatives for Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS) faculty and staff. As the Site PI, he oversees ICTR programs within MCHS including staffing, budgetary decisions, program evaluation, and research initiatives. Bendixsen facilitates integration of programs at MCHS with UW-Madison and actively works with ICTR Co-Directors to create the necessary interdisciplinary interactions needed for substantive collaborations.
Bendixsen's experiences as a researcher and a leader have primarily been on studying and improving the human condition with rural and agricultural environments. These varied initiatives have included the methodological and philosophical contributions possible for anthropologists in the field, attitudes towards vaccination in rural communities, efforts to further translate research findings into useful technologies, and pediatric injury prevention research.
Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, PhD, is Faculty Director of the UW Collaborative Center for Health Equity, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Professor of Kinesiology and Medicine. Her multidisciplinary research addresses the effects of aging on functional independence and quality of life. The central goal of her research is to contribute to the understanding of quality of life and well-being in older adults by examining the impact of cognitive and physical impairment on performance of complex activities of everyday life. Her research explores questions of functional performance, caregiver burden, and treatment outcomes in a variety of populations ranging from normal aging to neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and stroke. She is particularly interested in the aging process in African Americans. The ultimate aim of these studies is to support the development and implementation of more effective interventions for persons with cognitive loss and their families.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Advancing Health Equity and Diversity
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Dr. Stephanie Budge is the faculty director of the Advancing Health Equity and Diversity (AHEAD) program. In this role, she leads the affiliated AHEAD Program Directors in developing a ‘community of scholarship' in which research career development and networking opportunities for early to mid-career scholars reflect:
Structured opportunities to acquire familiarity about health equity research occurring within and across the AHEAD affiliated programs;
Dr. Budge is a licensed psychologist and an associate professor with a primary affiliation to the Department of Counseling Psychology. Her primary research interests include working with LGBTQ populations-specifically transgender individuals' emotional and coping processes and their experiences of psychotherapy. She also focuses on psychotherapy process and outcome research, primarily regarding therapist effects and effectiveness of interventions.
Job Titles:
- Elder, Edmund ( Ed )
- Title
- Title: Director, Lenor Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station
Dr. Edmund (Ed) Elder obtained sixteen (16) years of experience in the pharmaceutical and drug delivery industry prior to joining the UW School of Pharmacy in 2006. As Director of the Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station, he is responsible for providing pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical R&D support and educational programs for researchers, both on and off campus. As Interim Director of the ICTR IND/IDE Consultation Service he is responsible for providing support to campus researchers pursuing regulatory filings related to their clinical research. Dr. Elder also holds appointments as Sr. Lecturer in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health where he serves as the Biotechnology Operations Course Coordinator in the MS in Biotechnology Program and is an Affiliate in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division at the UW School of Pharmacy where he teaches the process and science of drug development in the PhD program.
Job Titles:
- Title: Assistant Researcher, NRMN ICTR Mentorship Initiatives
Job Titles:
- Director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer 's Institute
- Title
Gina Green-Harris, MBA, is Co-Primary Investigator and Co-Director for the UW All of Us Research Program. Alongside her role as inaugural Director of the award-winning Center for Community Engagement and Health Partnerships (CCE) Regional Office in Milwaukee, she oversees the UW All of Us Milwaukee team, which focuses on serving underrepresented African American and Latinx communities. Among other responsibilities, she oversees community advisory boards for both the Madison and the Milwaukee sites, and leads the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training for the UW Program.
Through CCE, Green-Harris also serves as the Director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute. As a champion of health equity, she helped guide CCE to further advance research in the African American community in a culturally inclusive manner. Green-Harris has participated in many research programs, received many awards, and has been appointed to various university and community committees. Most notably, she currently serves as Chair of the State of Wisconsin Governor's Health Equity Council and the NIH Community Engagement Recruitment and Retention of Underrepresented Groups Steering Committee.
She received her MBA from Franklin University in Columbus, OH and her BS at Central State University in Wilberforce, OH. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Clinical Investigations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Job Titles:
- Title: Data Manager, Evaluation & Tracking
Heidi Brown, MD, is faculty with the Dissemination and Implementation Launchpad. As an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, she is board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery. Her primary research focus is on improving access to effective treatments for pelvic floor disorders. Her current and past funding sources include the National Institutes of Health, the Wisconsin Partnership Program, and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at UW. She is a current member of the Editorial Board of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery and is an author for Up To Date, Inc. She serves on committees for the American Urogynecologic Society and the International Urogynecological Association. She has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles and is a recipient of numerous academic awards for her excellence in research, teaching, and patient care.
Jack Champeau, MS, Professional Programs Director for Clinical & Health Informatics, provides servant leadership to assure CHI program alignment with UW-Madison, SMPH, and ICTR missions. He is the principal liaison between CHI, University leadership, and outside entities to ensure program advancement.
Before joining ICTR, Jack worked across the UW System since 2005 establishing 12 academic degree programs and directing university summer sessions and credential outreach activities. His background leading professional development, stakeholder engagement, and student advancement initiatives made ICTR a good fit for his abilities. He also previously served as an Academic Director in an Organizational Leadership program; developing curriculum, teaching, and overseeing faculty for coursework in business communications, project management, and leadership.
He served as six-term Board President for the Janesville Virtual Academy public online charter school and three-term elected governance chair at UW-Stevens Point. He has lobbied at the State Capitol for economic development in Rock County, and volunteered for Junior Achievement, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Boys & Girls Club of Portage County.
Jennifer Hawkins, Retention Lead, is with the All of Us Research Program (UW-Madison site). In addition to directing retention efforts for the local site, she is a member of the AoU-UW Call Center staff, where she speaks directly with participants and those seeking to learn more about AoU. She also joins Community Engagement staff and Research Coordinators at community events.
Hawkins recently held a position with the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (EXHALE study) before joining the AoU-UW team. Hawkins received her BA in Communications (Communication Science & Rhetorical Studies) from UW- Madison.
Job Titles:
- Title: Director, Office of Clinical Trials
Joel Hetelle, Site Manager, oversees operations for the All of Us Research Program (UW-Madison site). Hetelle began working on the All of Us Research Program as a Study Coordinator in June 2018, shortly after its national launch. As Site Manager since July 2021, Hetelle works in close coordination with leads across the program to oversee many aspects of recruitment/enrollment, communication, staff training, and ongoing collaboration with site partners in inpatient and outpatient and community settings.
Prior to joining the All of Us Research Program, Hetelle worked at Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. During his time there, he coordinated clinical trials and observational studies focused on ending Alzheimer's Disease without losing another generation.
Job Titles:
- Title: Director, Clinical & Health Informatics Institute
Job Titles:
- Researcher With the Institute for Clinical
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Julie M. Hau is a Researcher with the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She works on research projects to study and advance the science of mentorship. Projects are supported by the National Research Mentorship Network (NRMN) and the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER). She has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Job Titles:
- Research Coordinator
- Title
Kelley Baumann, Research Coordinator, is with the All of Us Research Program (UW-Madison site). In this role, she collects physical measurements and blood and urine samples for participant enrollment and organizes email and text campaigns for participant recruitment and retention. She is excited about the program's initiatives to boost equity in medicine and science.
Baumann previously worked as a project manager at Epic Systems, where she collaborated with healthcare provider organizations to improve race, ethnicity, and language (REaL) data collection to better reporting on health disparities.
Baumann earned her BA in Neuroscience from Amherst College with a certificate in Culture, Health, and Science.
Majid Afshar, MD, MS, is a Faculty Leader for the ICTR Learning Health Systems Initiative and Assistant Professor in the SMPH Department of Medicine in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics and serves as a Physician Informaticist for UW Health. As a clinical informatician, he works closely with UW Health to develop innovative informatics approaches to improve health outcomes and healthcare delivery. Dr Afshar received his MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago, in addition to an MS in Research Methods and Epidemiology, also from Rush University.
Michelle Chui, PharmD, PhD, Co-Director of the ICTR TL1 program, is the Hammel-Sanders professor in the Social and Administrative Sciences Division and director of the Sonderegger Research Center for Improved Medication Use at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, School of Pharmacy. She is a pharmacist and health services researcher whose specific expertise is in applying human factors engineering approaches and utilizing a systems perspective to improve medication safety in the outpatient setting. She has published over 70 papers on medication safety topics ranging from the impact of technology implementation, to the effect of subjective workload, to barriers to health care provider collaboration.
Job Titles:
- Title: Assistant Director, Dissemination & Implementation Launchpad
Job Titles:
- Title
- Title: Research Data Analyst, Clinical & Health Informatics Institute
Pam Asquith, PhD, Program Lead, NRMN | ICTR Mentorship Initiatives, oversees cross-CTSA mentorship initiatives, supports mentorship work in SMPH and other emerging campus efforts, and facilitates career training opportunities for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty.
As the former Administrative Director of the ICTR Research Education and Career Development Core (now Workforce Development), she worked on the team led by Chris Sorkness and Chris Pfund to advance mentorship research and training at UW ICTR. Dr. Asquith subsequently served as Administrator of the Health Disparities Research Scholars Postdoctoral Training Program in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and became a Master Facilitator with the National Research Mentoring Network.
In 2018, she assumed the additional role of Associate Director of Mentoring Programs in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology where she was involved with mentoring and faculty development efforts at the department and school level, currently serving on two SMPH mentoring workgroups focused on enhancing mentorship experiences for early career faculty.
Job Titles:
- Title: Administrative Director, Workforce Development
Robert Greenlee, PhD, MPH, is Assistant Director for the ICTR Community-Academic Partnerships (CAP) Core, and provides leadership at Marshfield Clinic, focusing on promoting community engagement and population research.
Dr. Greenlee is an established epidemiologist and tenured research scientist at the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute (MCRI), with experience in collaborative health and translational research.
In addition to work on the MCRF-ICTR team, and the CAP Steering Committee, he also serves on the Faculty Governance Committee for the UW ICTR Graduate Program in Clinical Investigation. He was Vice-Chair of the committee from 2010-2011. He also participates on the Graduate Program's Admissions Subcommittee. In addition, he is MCRF's director of the joint Comparative Effectiveness Research Initiative.
Robert Hagan, PhD, is a Project Manager in the ICTR Office of Therapeutics Discovery and Development where he provides drug development, project management, and regulatory affairs guidance. Hagan is a seasoned pharmaceutical industry professional with proven performance in product development, project management, and technical leadership. His expertise was built in firms including Nexcyon Pharmaceuticals (Madison, WI), NanoBio Corporation (Ann Arbor, MI), and Pharmacia & Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis (now Pfizer Global Research and Development). Notably his experience includes moving products from concept to commercialization.
Prior to his 17+ years in the pharmaceutical industry, Hagan served as a Captain in the US Air Force, where he was Chief of Analytical Research at the Clinical Investigation Facility, David Grant Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, California.
Hagan earned his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina and his BS in Zoology from Clemson University. He is also certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP)
Samantha Bath, Engagement and Outreach Specialist, is with the All of Us Research Program (UW-Madison site). She works primarily on partnering with community organizations that serve older adults, and is part of AoU-UW Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.
Prior to joining AoU at the beginning of 2021, Samantha worked extensively in non-profit administration, both in her home country of South Africa and in the United States. She's excited to be a part of a team partnering with different organizations to promote health equity and improve representation in healthcare.
Sarah Esmond, MS, lends project management to Center offerings, to ensure alignment of health equity-related programming with CCHE mission and research and others programs occurring in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and through other UW Health Sciences schools and campus entities including the UW Office of Community Relations, Morgridge Center for Public Service, the Waisman Center, the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, Area Health Education Centers and the UW Native Nations Initiative. She serves on the South Madison Partnership Advisory Board and contributes to multiple national workgroups and networks.
In Dane County, Sarah works collaboratively with leadership of Urban Triage Inc, Allied Wellness Center, and Kujichagulia Center for Self Determination as part of community-campus partnerships to eradicate disparities in health and wellness. Sarah is also part of an Advancing Healthier Wisconsin award with the Milwaukee AHEC to support Community Health Workers (CHWs) contributing to research in academic health centers. .
Sarah co-founded the Health Equity Leadership Institute and the Advancing Health Equity and Diversity programs at UW, as well as the UW Native American Center for Health Professions. She established CCHE's Research Ambassadors serving in Milwaukee (with long-time partners at the United Community Center and Center for Urban Population Health) and Madison.
Between 2002 and 2014, Sarah served as the Administrative Director for two NIH/NIMHD Center of Excellence awards to UW. She facilitates research partnerships, community-academic engagement and career development programming - and the administrative infrastructure necessary to support these - in support of health equity scholars addressing disparities in health and health outcomes across diverse communities. From 2015 to 2020, she served as the second Administrative Director for the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
Job Titles:
- Director of Program Evaluation and Research at ICTR
- Title
Shannon Casey, PhD, is Director of Program Evaluation and Research at ICTR. Her career spans over 15 years of managing research projects, teaching statistics and research methods to doctoral students in clinical psychology, evaluating education and health interventions, building measures and evaluation tools, and consulting with private and public institutions. At the center of her work is advocacy for building educational, health, and occupational equity through improving systems using participatory and empowerment evaluation approaches. She embraces that no one individual or group holds the answer to complex societal problems and representatives from multiple constituencies, working together, can develop more comprehensive, sustainable, and fulfilling solutions.
Sheena Hirschfield has a background in business with experience in healthcare and marketing. She has been in the healthcare field for over 13 years, spanning from the clinical and research side of healthcare to the business and marketing side. Sheena holds her MBA with emphasis in Marketing from Walden University as well as a BS in Biology from UW-Madison. She enjoys staying on top of the up-and-coming technology trends and using her creative nature to generate solutions and innovations for stakeholders. Sheena works closely with clinical researchers across campus through the Evidence to Implementation (E2I) award to bring their vision and aspirations to fruition through business plans, marketing plans and materials for program growth into the future.
Job Titles:
- Title: Research Programmer and Analyst, NRMN ICTR Mentorship Initiatives
Job Titles:
- Senior Community Outreach Coordinator
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Tyson Jackson, Senior Community Outreach Coordinator, works with both UW-CCHE and the All of Us UW Research Program. He has served in this role since December 2018 as part of a team that is establishing and maintaining multiple community-academic partnerships.
Jackson develops community relationships for CCHE and All of Us, prioritizing populations underrepresented in health and research focusing on racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ, individuals living in rural areas, those with low socioeconomic status, and those over 65 years old. He lends leadership to Dr. Susan Passmore's Just Research program targeting African Americans 40 years and older to better understand the triggers determining choice to get involved in genetic research.
In 2021, he is particularly excited to pilot his plan for establishing Neighborhood Health Councils on Madison's Northeast side to help coordinate, inform and organize local health initiatives and to increase cross organizational support to enhance the value of information and services provided to area community members around health and research.
Job Titles:
- Title: Research Data Analyst, Clinical & Health Informatics Institute
Job Titles:
- Communications and Marketing Manager for the All of Us Wisconsin Research Program
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Yvette L. Craig is a Communications and Marketing Manager for the All of Us Wisconsin Research Program who is excited about fusing communications and science to increase diverse representation in precision medicine research.
She is a communications savant who strongly believes every word matters.
The Milwaukee native has spent decades growing her craft, covering major events such as the 25 th Anniversary of the March on Washington, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A profound connection to the forgotten, she has won awards for shedding a spotlight on the homeless community.
She transitioned from daily newspapers to online publications and has worked as a speech writer for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's first woman chancellor, Nancy L. Zimpher. In 2019, Yvette took the helm of UMOJA Magazine in Madison. As its publisher and editor, she revamped the publication, growing its readership and community partnerships. She also expanded coverage of positive Black news across Wisconsin and brought interviews from national, prominent civil rights leaders to subscribers' fingertips. For the first time in UMOJA's 30-plus years, she led the effort to have the magazine available digitally.
A Marquette University graduate, she volunteers to coach future journalists and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, and Women In Focus.