CTSA Cores

The Duke CTSI is supported in part by the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Award, NIH Award UL1TR002553. The CTSA initiative is led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health. The CTSA designates several core capabilities for grant-holding institutions to address. Programs and teams who support these capabilities at Duke, and key contacts for each, are included below.


 

Provides oversight, leadership, integration, coordination, and dissemination of all Duke CTSA programs and activities. Acts as a central collaborative platform to catalyze discoveries across Duke’s academic health center and entire University campus. More about the Administrative Core.

Susanna Naggie, MD, MHS
Department of Medicine
Director, Duke CTSI

Jennifer Li, MD
Department of Pediatrics
Co-Principal Investigator, Duke CTSA

Jim McNamara, MD
Department of Neurobiology
Co-Principal Investigator, Duke CTSA

Cinthia Sanchez, PhD
Program Director, Duke CTSA
cinthia.sanchez@duke.edu

Joe McClernon, PhD
CTSI Associate Director, Partnerships and Integration
Interim Faculty Co-Lead, Team Science
francis.mcclernon@duke.edu

Julie McKeel
Director of Strategic Communications, Duke CTSI
julie.mckeel@duke.edu

Jenni Clark
Grants and Contracts Manager, Duke CTSI
jenni.clark@duke.edu

 

Housed in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (B&B) and the CTSI, BERD helps investigators identify quantitative/qualitative collaborators. As appropriate, they connect investigators with quantitative and qualitative partners across Duke and partner institutions. When there are not sufficient collaboration resources available, BERD builds and house teams of collaborative methodologists who work on long term collaborations with clinical and translational investigators.

David Page, PhD
Director, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core
Professor and Chair, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
david.page@duke.edu

Lesley Curtis, PhD
Director, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core
Professor and Chair, Population Health Sciences, Professor in Medicine
lesley.curtis@duke.edu

Gina-Maria Pomann 
Assistant Professor in Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
gina-maria.pomann@duke.edu

Grounded in a health equity perspective, CERI seeks to improve relevance and uptake of scientific discoveries through stakeholder engagement. Programs and services promote community-engaged research through cultivating meaningful and equitable research-community stakeholder partnerships, enhancing capacity to conduct stakeholder-engaged research, and fostering trust and transparency in research via improved knowledge, information sharing, and power sharing.

Mina Silberberg
Director, Community Engaged Research Initiative
Family Medicine and Community Health
mina.silberberg@duke.edu 

Julius Wilder 
Co-Director, Community Engaged Research Initiative
Department of Medicine
julius.wilder@duke.edu

Leonor Adalgisa Corsino
Co-Director, Community Engaged Research Initiative
Department of Medicine
leonor.corsino@duke.edu

Connects trainees, shares resources, and increases efficiencies to enhance the career development of Duke research scholars. Programmatic goals include: (1) Connecting scholars with resources opportunities, and each other; (2) Creating synergy by strengthening connections among career development programs; (3) Sharing best practices and resources for program diversity among scholars, mentors, and programs.

Friederike Jayes, PhD, DVM
Director, Community of Scholars Core
Obstetrics and Gynecology
friederike.jayes@duke.edu

Clarissa Diamantidis, MD
Faculty Co-Director, Community of Scholars
Department of Medicine, General Internal Medicine and Nephrology
clarissa.diamantidis@duke.edu

 

Supports the development of novel methods and proof-of-concept evaluation of therapeutic agents, biomedical devices, diagnostic tests, and technologies. The goal is to transform translational research by promoting basic and clinical investigator collaboration, offering funding, providing project management support and technical knowledge, and facilitating access to resources and expertise within and outside Duke University.

Barry Myers
Director, CTSI Accelerator Core
Biomedical Engineering
barry.myers@duke.edu

Vonda Rodriguez
Duke CTSI
vonda.rodriguez@duke.edu

Eman Ghanem
Duke CTSI
eman.ghanem@duke.edu

Provides a basis for data science discovery and engineering of translational biomedical informatics applications. Aims are to form and fund teams to address new health data science questions through an incubator program; develop new data science methods and informatics applications and implement and disseminate data science tools.

Michael Pencina
Director, Data Science Core
Duke Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
Vice Dean for Data Science and Information Technology
michal.pencina@duke.edu

Shelley Rusincovitch
shelley.rusincovitch@duke.edu

Provides infrastructure support for research teams and CTSA Cores to promote equity, anti-bias, and anti-racism across all aspects of the research process and environment. Services include curriculum development and training, consultations to support the development of intentional and strategic diversity recruitment plans, and resources and tools to promote an anti-racist and anti-bias research environment.

Keisha Bentley-Edwards, PhD
Director, Equity in Research (EIR) Core
Department of Medicine, Duke Cancer Institute, Duke Global Health Institute
keisha.bentley.edwards@duke.edu

Dane Whicker, PhD
Director, Equity in Research (EIR) Core
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
dane.whicker@duke.edu

As part of the CTSA Administration core, ESP applies principles of continuous quality improvement and evidence-based decision-making throughout and across CTSA functions. ESP aims to advance CTSA opportunities for organizational learning and understanding of impact. The primary focus is on the Duke hub but ESP also contributes to CTSA nationally, including participation in the CLIC-CTSA Program Evaluators Group.

Joe McClernon
Director, Evaluation & Strategic Planning Core
francis.mcclernon@duke.edu

Jessica Sperling
Co-Director, Evaluation & Strategic Planning Core
jessica.sperling@duke.edu

Focuses on innovative approaches that accelerate and transform scientific discoveries through data and applications that fuel translational research, data science and precision health; expand capacity for conducting collaborative network research and sharing network best practices; and provide access to opportunities for informatics training and professional development.

Warren Alden Kibbe
Director, Informatics Core
Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
warren.kibbe@duke.edu

William Ed Hammond
Director, Informatics Core
Duke Center for Health Informatics
william.hammond@duke.edu

(1) Provides junior faculty scholars with fundamental transdisciplinary research skills required for successful translational research careers; (2) Prepares junior faculty scholars to successfully employ fundamental team science approaches to enable innovation and impact; (3) Promotes a highly diverse translational research workforce.

Laura Svetkey
Director, KL2 Core
Department of Medicine
laura.svetkey@duke.edu

Kimberly Johnson
Director, KL2 Core
Department of Medicine, Geriatrics
kimberly.s.johnson@duke.edu

Rasheed Gbadegesin
Director, KL2 Core
Department of Medicine, Pediatrics
rasheed.gbadegesin@duke.edu

Stephanie Molner
Duke CTSI
stephanie.molner@duke.edu

Run by the Duke Office of Clinical Research (DOCR), ensures rigorous and efficient conduct of clinical research while partnering with and protecting research participants. DOCR supports Clinical Research Units and Oversight Organizations with tools and training, and houses multiple research support services, including the Duke Early Phase Research Unit (DEPRU) and Duke Research at Pickett (R@P).

Susanna Naggie, MD
Co-Director, Participant & Clinical Interactions (PCI) Core
Vice Dean for Clinical Research
susanna.naggie@duke.edu

Shruti Raja, MD, MHS
Co-Director, Participant & Clinical Interactions (PCI) Core
Faculty Director, Duke Early Phase Research Unit (DEPRU)
shruti.raja@duke.edu

Denise Snyder
Duke Office of Clinical Research
denise.snyder@duke.edu

Stephanie Freel
Duke Office of Clinical Research
stephanie.freel@duke.edu

Catee Mullen, MS
Director, Research Operations, DOCR
catee.mullen@duke.edu

Marissa Stroo
Director, Research Operations - Data, DOCR
marissa.stroo@duke.edu

Donna Hammel
DEPRU
donna.hammel@duke.edu

Hub of our participation in several research networks and our recruitment innovation team, supporting Duke Research by ensuring our robust involvement in the Trial Innovation Network (TIN), Accrual to Clinical Trials (ACT), and PCORnet as well as providing operational oversight for the Primary Care Research Consortium (PCRC). RIC provides guidance, tools, and training in effective outreach, engagement, recruitment, and retention to Duke research.

Ranee Chatterjee Montgomery
Director, Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC)
General Internal Medicine
ranee.chatterjee@duke.edu

Schuyler Jones
Director, Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC)
Department of Medicine, Cardiology
schuyler.jones@duke.edu

Assists clinical and translational researchers meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory requirements. The Core provides full-spectrum regulatory and quality assurance support, including strategic development; preclinical testing and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidance; regulatory submissions and meetings with the FDA; and regulatory education and training.

Bruce Burnett
Director, Regulatory Affairs Core
Department of Medicine
bruce.burnett@duke.edu

Amanda B Parrish
Office of Regulatory Affairs and Quality (ORAQ)
amanda.b.parrish@duke.edu

Facilitates research that promotes health equity for groups that have traditionally been under-represented in health research or excluded altogether.

Keisha Bentley-Edwards
Director, Integrating Special Populations Core
Department of Medicine, Duke Cancer Institute, Duke Global Health Institute
keisha.bentley.edwards@duke.edu

Dwight Koeberl
Director, Integrating Special Populations Core
Department of Medicine, Pediatrics, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
dwight.koeberl@duke.edu

K.K. Lam
Duke CTSI
kk.lam@duke.edu

Sydney Sullivan
Duke CTSI
sydney.sullivan@duke.edu

Enables equitable and effective boundary-spanning teams across Duke University, Duke Health, and our institutional collaborators by: (1) advancing our understanding of what factors contribute to effective team science by conducting research studies to advance the Science of Team Science; (2) promoting team science skills and concepts across the institution; and (3) developing intentional career paths for post-award support of team science.

Jonathon Cummings
Director, Team Science Core
Fuqua School of Business
jonathon.cummings@duke.edu

Lavanya Vasudevan
Co-Director, Team Science Core
lavanya.vasudevan@duke.edu

Kristine Glauber
Duke CTSI, Duke Office of Research Initiatives
kristine.glauber@duke.edu

Comprises 3 programs: a two-year master’s program in clinical research for medical students, a postdoctoral program supporting research training for outstanding junior scientists, and a pre-doctoral scholarship program offering clinical and translational research experience and training for predoctoral students in medicine.

David Edelman
Department of Medicine, General Internal Medicine
david.edelman@duke.edu

Kevin Thomas
Department of Medicine
kevin.thomas@duke.edu
 

Stephanie Molner
Duke CTSI
stephanie.molner@duke.edu

An innovative collaboration addressing critical roadblocks in clinical research and accelerating the translation of novel interventions into life-saving therapies.

Geeta Swamy
Director, Trial Innovation Center (TIC)
Vice Dean and Associate Vice Provost for Scientific Integrity
geeta.swamy@duke.edu

Catee Mullen, MS
Director, Research Operations, Duke Office of Clinical Research
catee.mullen@duke.edu

Ensures that our research workforce has the skills and knowledge necessary to advance translation of discoveries into improved health outcomes. The Core offers an evolving portfolio of training opportunities to enhance and diversify the workforce, addressing a range of learners—from students to staff to faculty.

Steven Grambow
Co-Director, Workforce Development Core
Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
steven.grambow@duke.edu

Kafui Dzirasa
Co-Director, Workforce Development
Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
kafai.dzirasa@duke.edu

Tracie Locklear
Co-Director, Workforce Development
tlock112@nccu.edu

Katie Dickerson
Associate Director, Workforce Development Core
Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
kathryn.dickerson@duke.edu

Amanda McMillan
Duke CTSI
amanda.mcmillan@duke.edu