Directory

Nicholas Eberlein is joining CTSI to work on behalf of the Research Networks and Recruitment Innovation Center. Nicholas has been a Duke employee since 2012 and worked at the Duke Early Phase Research Unit for his entire Duke career before joining CTSI. His work centered on identifying, recruiting, and enrolling research participants into phase 1-3 clinical trials. During his time with the DEPRU, Nicholas led the design and implementation of an online research participant registry that has enrolled approximately 5,000 volunteers since its inception.

Ms. Eckstrand graduated from Ohio Northern University with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, and completed Pharmacy Residency at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, New York. She conducted graduate work at the SUNY Buffalo School of Pharmacy where she was also a Clinical Instructor in Pharmacy Practice. She completed the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 10X10 Program at Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU), and other graduate coursework in informatics at Stanford. She is a Six Sigma–Black Belt, and a TeamSTEPPS Certified Master Trainer.

Professor of Medicine

My general interests are in the improved quality of care for chronic illness, using diabetes as a model. While I have performed research on screening for, diagnosis of, and clinical severity of unrecognized diabetes in patient care settings, my current line of work is in using health system interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease and to improve outcomes from co-morbid diabetes and hypertension.

Salimah El-Amin, DrPH, serves as the assistant director of equity in research at the Center for Equity in Research. In this role, she provides support and direction for diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism efforts across the research process at the CTSI. Prior to this role she led DE&I initiatives across Strategic Education, Inc. She was previously employed with Duke University from 2015-2018 in the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity.

Primary Care Research Consortium

Christina Faison joined the CTSI in November 2021 as a Senior Clinical Research Specialist with Duke Primary Care clinics. Her introduction to Duke Health began in 2009 when she became involved in hematology research, in what is now known as the Apixiban drug study through a mentorship program through the NC School of Science and Mathematics. 

Taryn Cavanaugh Faulk joined CTSI in February 2022 and serves as the Senior Program Coordinator on the Workforce Development Core. In this role, Taryn develops and coordinates programmatic activities for the Community of Scholars and the Clinical Research Internship Program (CRISP). 

Deborah Fidelman, MBA, EdS, joined Duke CTSI in July 2020. She has worked for Duke School of Medicine for eight years in the Office of Biomedical Graduate Education, with a strong focus on finances, the Duke Scholars in Molecular Medicine (DSMM) program, the Chancellor’s Scholars program, and Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) courses for Basic Sciences PhD students. 

Emily Ford joined Duke CTSI in September 2014. As a communicator, she works with the community engagement and study teams based at Duke Kannapolis, the CTSI research site located on the North Carolina Research Campus. She also supports the CTSI Communications infrastructure. She has a background in journalism.

Wilburt C. Davison Distinguished Professor

Director, Office of Physician-Scientist Development 

Research interests include:

• Molecular genetics of glomerular disease
• Genetic risk factors for childhood onset idiopathic nephrotic syndrome

Eman joins the Duke CTSI Accelerator team after a six-year tenure as Director of Programs at Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, where she provided leadership and direction for the planning, execution, and evaluation of a broad array of programs. Prior to Sigma Xi, Eman was Co-Director of the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) program at The University of Texas-Austin, where she also served as the Research Educator for the Supramolecular Sensors Stream.