Guest List
Duke Collaborators
Svati H. Shah, MD, MHS
Director of Duke Kannapolis Research
Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean for Genomics
Director of the Precision Genomics Collaboratory
Director of the Adult Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic
Vice-Chief of Translational Research in the Division of Cardiology
Duke Scholars Profile
Dr. Svati Shah has a long history of working with the MURDOCK Study cohort since the inception of the Community Registry, as well as the Kannapolis team. She has been the Duke PI of Project Baseline since 2017 and now serves as our Faculty Executive charged with ensuring Duke Kannapolis serves as a nexus of human genomic and biomarker discovery, population genomics, genomics ethics, health data and implementation science, all in support of precision health integrating the Duke School of Medicine with the Duke Health System. Dr. Shah is responsible for establishing the overall vision and mission of the group and has overall accountability for our measurements of success.
Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH, Director of Duke CTSI
Nanaline Duke Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine
Director, Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Associate Vice Chancellor for Translational Research
Vice Dean for Translational Science
Duke Scholars Profile
Dr. Ebony Boulware is a general internist, physician-scientist and clinical epidemiologist focused on improving health and health equity for individuals and communities affected by chronic health conditions such as kidney disease. A national thought leader in health equity, she has identified patient, clinician, system, and community-level barriers that result in disparate outcomes for Black and other minoritized individuals. Using pragmatic trials, she has developed successful interventions, shaped guidelines, raised physician awareness and changed clinical practice. Throughout her work, Dr. Boulware has sought to improve transparency and trustworthiness in science and medicine.
Dr. Boulware is also the Chief of the Duke Division of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine, and she directs the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute as Vice Dean for Translational Science, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Translational Research. Her research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes for Health, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and other organizations throughout her career. She has published over 190 manuscripts, book chapters, and editorials, and she mentors numerous students, residents, fellows, and faculty members. Dr. Boulware is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Boulware has been a tireless supporter of Duke Kannapolis and has been instrumental in navigating the growth and success of the group.
Susanna Naggie, MD, MHS
Vice Dean for Clinical Research
Associate Professor of Medicine
Vice Dean for Clinical Research
Member in the Duke Clinical Research Institute
Duke Scholars Profile
Dr. Susanna Naggie completed her medical education at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and her internal medicine training at Duke University Medical Center (DUMC), where she also served as a Chief Resident in Internal Medicine. She completed her Infectious Diseases (ID) fellowship training at Duke and then joined the faculty in the Division of ID. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine with Tenure and currently holds joint appointments at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI, Director of ID Research), and at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (DVAMC). Dr. Naggie has dedicated her academic career to the care of patients with HIV and viral hepatitis, with a research program focused on understanding the mechanisms of accelerated liver fibrogenesis in this population and the extrahepatic health outcomes attributed to HCV in persons with HIV infection.
In addition to her investigator-initiated research program, Dr. Naggie is also involved in multiple clinical trials and clinical registries with a particular focus on HIV and liver disease. She is the prior co-Chair of the AASLD/IDSA HCV Guidance Committee and is currently Chair of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group Viral Hepatitis Transformative Science Group Committee and a member of the DHHS Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in Adults and Adolescents Living with HIV and the CDC/NIH/IDSA-HIVMA Opportunistic Infections Guideline Committee. For the past two years Dr. Naggie has served as the Medical Director of the Duke Department of Medicine Clinical Research Unit.
Opeyemi Olabisi, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator for the Duke APOL1 Research Biorepository (collaboration with CTSI and Duke Molecular Physiology Institute)
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Medicine, Nephrology
Member of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute
Duke Scholars Profile
Dr. Opeyemi Olabisi is the principal investigator of the Duke APOL1 Study, based in Durham and now Kannapolis. His research could pave the way for innovative prevention and treatment of APOL1-associated kidney disease. He partnered with Duke Kannapolis and the MURDOCK Study to recruit people with African ancestry living in and near Cabarrus County.
“We are excited to launch the second site for our study and enroll people from Kannapolis, Concord, Charlotte and the surrounding area,” Olabisi said. “There is an urgent need to understand why some people who carry the variant APOL1 gene avoid kidney disease, as well as the molecular pathways of disease activated by the mutation.”
The APOL1 gene was discovered in 2010 and is a major contributor to the high percentage of African Americans on dialysis, Olabisi said. While 17 percent of the U.S. population suffering from kidney disease are African American, up to 40 percent of the patients on dialysis are African-American, he said. Half of people on dialysis don’t live more than three years. “That's where my sense of urgency comes from,” said Olabisi, a rising star who was jointly recruited to Duke University in 2019 by the Department of Medicine and the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute.
Adam Goode, PT, DPT, PhD
Principal Investigator for Transitions Low Back Pain study (collaboration with CTSI and Duke Orthopedics)
Associate Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery
Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences
Member in the Duke Clinical Research Institute
Duke Scholars Profile
Dr. Adam Goode is a physical therapist by clinical training and epidemiologist by scientific training. His focus is on understanding the etiology of low back pain and other chronic musculoskeletal conditions and improving the delivery of care for patients with acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions. In his research, he has published in the areas of the relationship between individual radiographic features in the lumbar spine and clinical symptoms, biomarkers and peripheral joint osteoarthritis.
The Transitions Low Back Pain study looks at how acute back pain may transition to chronic back pain. Managed by Duke Kannapolis in collaboration with Duke Orthopedics, the study needs people who have recently experienced sudden low back pain with no specific cause. Goode said Duke Orthopedics partnered with the CTSI team in Kannapolis because they excel at community-based clinical research.
“We want this study to reflect the community and include people from all walks of life who have low back pain,” he said. “As we search for a deeper understanding of musculoskeletal pain, we want to know whether biological factors — such as physical function and inflammation that we measure in the blood — as well as psychosocial factors like quality of sleep can help predict which individuals will transition to chronic low back pain.”
By helping to identify who will develop chronic low back pain, studies like Transitions contribute knowledge and data to the effort to improve treatments for the condition, said Goode, who leads the study with sub-investigator Kenneth Taylor, PT, DPT, PhD.
Deborah Chavis-Keeling, MS
Duke CTSI Chief Administrative Officer
Assistant Dean for Translational Science
Deborah Chavis-Keeling joined the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute in March 2022 as the Chief Administrative Officer and Assistant Dean for Translational Science. She brings her knowledge, expertise, and management skills to help lead the CTSI into the next phase of growth and prosperity.
Julie Eckstrand, RPh
Director of Operations for Duke Kannapolis
Julie 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. Julie brings to Duke Kannapolis 35 years of experience in clinical research, and more than 20 years of operational leadership.
As the operational leader of Duke Kannapolis she provides strategic, operational and program management leadership. She integrates priorities across the CTSI pillars, and across the SOM and within the health system. Her leadership support includes day-to-day operational oversight, representation of Kannapolis in meetings and presentations with internal and external collaborators, funding agencies, other functional group/department directors. In partnership with faculty leadership, she has helped develop, implement and manage the business portfolio for the group.
Julie McKeel
Director of Strategic Communications for Duke CTSI
Julie McKeel is the director of the Strategic Communications Office for the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She joined the CTSI in 2017 after more than 25 years serving in a variety of leadership roles at Duke. She provides strategic, creative, and pragmatic oversight to current, expanded, and new CTSI programs and CTSA Cores. She focuses on a strategic systems-based approach to communication design to create messaging in print, spoken, or digital format that provides a consistent, informative, tailored, and visually compelling audience experience across a variety of channels. In this role, she also develops and executes strategic communication plans across multiple channels to share and highlight the services, cores, resources, and informatics platforms with Duke faculty, trainees, staff, and clinical and translational research partners. She works closely with the Principal Investigators and Core Directors to ensure their vision and plans are communicated and promoted appropriately.
Doug Heron, JD
Associate Vice President for Duke State Relations
Doug Heron has been with Duke since 2014 serving in a variety of capacities in government relations and as Duke’s registered lobbyist in North Carolina. He currently leads Duke State Relations which is responsible for representing the legislative, regulatory and policy interests of Duke University, Duke Health and Duke LifePoint to elected and appointed officials throughout North Carolina. Prior to joining Duke, he worked as a partner and an associate in a government relations practice at a large multi-state law firm in Raleigh, representing clients on a wide variety of matters, including healthcare and higher education. He also served as the director of government affairs and legislative counsel for the North Carolina Bar Association, and prior to that spent several years lobbying in Washington, DC for a large international law firm.
Mr. Heron previously served as the President of the North Carolina Lobbyists Association and is the Chair of the Durham Chamber Public Policy Committee. A graduate of James Madison University, Pennsylvania State University’s Dickinson School of Law and the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, Mr. Heron is a licensed attorney who achieved the rank of Captain in the US Army Reserves Judge Advocate General Corps. Mr. Heron is also a graduate of Leadership North Carolina Class XXV.
Katie Lipe
Assistant Director for Duke State Relations
Katie Lipe joined Duke State Relations as the Communications and Outreach Coordinator in July 2019 and was promoted to Assistant Director in March 2022. Prior to joining Duke, she worked as a Legislative Assistant at the North Carolina General Assembly for a Senior House Appropriations Chairman. Before working at the General Assembly, Ms. Lipe participated in a year-long public policy fellowship program at the UNC System Office under President Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education. Ms. Lipe is a proud alumna of East Carolina University where she was a member of the Honors College and graduated with a B.S. in Political Science and a minor in Communication Studies. During her time at East Carolina, she found her interest in legislative affairs through internships with the U.S. Senate and the N.C. House of Representatives.
Cecilia Plez
Research Program Leader for Duke Kannapolis
Born in Argentina and now a resident of Concord, Cecilia Plez joined Duke Kannapolis in January 2010. As the Research Project Leader for Community Engagement, Ms. Plez supports translational population health research efforts in Kannapolis by informing, recruiting, and enrolling the Hispanic population in the area. She previously worked as a teacher and translator in both Argentina and the United States after graduating from UM University in Buenos Aires with a Bachelor of Arts in modern languages.
Douglas Wixted, MMCi
Research Program Leader for Duke Kannapolis
Douglas Wixted has more than 10 years of experience managing biorepositories and data management with Duke Kannapolis. His role includes work on research programs in Duke Kannapolis and other initiatives, centering around informatics, efficient and scalable infrastructure, and maximizing data quality and value. He promotes Duke Kannapolis resources and capabilities across the institution, ensures financial stability of research programs, develops funding opportunities, and monitors fiscal health of supportive projects.
Emily Ford
Clinical Research Communicator for Duke CTSI based at Kannapolis
Emily Ford is a Communications Specialist III with the CTSI Communications team. She facilitates communications strategy and outreach for Duke Kannapolis, such as website building and maintenance, quarterly newsletters, interfacing with SOM communications, media campaigns, study recruitment and communications, and social media management.
Community Partners
N.C. Rep. Kristin Baker, representing District 82, Cabarrus County
https://www.ncleg.gov/Members/Biography/H/764
Cory Brouwer, PhD
Executive Director of Research at NCRC, represents NCRC and the UNC System
Dr. Cory Brouwer’s home campus is UNC-Charlotte, where he serves as the Director of the Bioinformatics Services Division and Associate Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics. He and his team provide a wide range of bioinformatics and computational biology services to the NCRC, UNC-Charlotte and surrounding area life sciences community. Dr. Brouwer received his PhD in Molecular Biology from Iowa State University under the direction of Dr. Ben Bowen, studying the effects of nuclear matrix attachment regions on transgene expression in maize. Dr Brouwer also serves as the Executive Director of Research for the NCRC and coordinates collaborations and reporting to the UNC System and State of North Carolina.
Paul T. Campbell, MD
Interventional cardiologist and internal medicine clinician
Sanger Vascular and Heart Institute, Concord, NC
Dr. Paul Campbell graduated from Temple University and completed his internship and residency and fellowship training at the Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Campbell, part of Atrium Health, is a key local physician partner with Duke Kannapolis and serves as the Kannapolis investigator for the Duke Project Baseline Health Study.
Deepak Kumar, PhD
Interim Associate Provost and Dean of Research and Sponsored Programs at NCCU
Director, Julius L. Chambers Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute (BBRI)
NC Central University Nutrition Research Program, NCRC
https://www.nccu.edu/directory/details.cfm?id=dkumar
Dr. Deepak Kumar partners closely with Duke CTSI in addressing health disparities and achieving health equity in North Carolina. He serves as the scientific leader of NCCU’s research facilities in Kannapolis and Durham.
Dr. Kumar leads the Institute’s 22 research teams with a mission to address health disparities. Dr. Kumar is a cancer researcher with experience at the intersection of health disparities and precision health, and his studies target genetic and epigenetic biomarkers of social determinants. He is also the PI of the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Center for Health Disparities, funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), and co-leads the pilot program of the Duke CTSI-NCCU partnership.
Dr. Kumar has been continuously funded by the NIH without interruption for the last 15 years, with most recent grants coming from NCI (U01) and NIMHD (R01) to study microRNAs as epigenetic markers of prostate cancer disparities and social factors contributing to these disparities. The current focus of his lab includes characterizing molecular targets in prostate, breast and liver cancers, microRNAs as biomarkers in prostate and liver cancer, and enhancing minority participation in health disparities research through student training. Dr. Kumar has worked with Dr. Kristin Newby on characterizing microRNA signatures of “functional” aging in the MURDOCK Study cohort.
Andy Langford
Duke Kannapolis Community Advisory Board member
MURDOCK Registry, Volunteer Registry and Project Baseline study participant Concord City Council member
Andy Langford is a retired United Methodist pastor. Born in Charlotte, raised in Durham, educated at Davidson College, Duke University, and Emory University, he served as a pastor for 42 years. He has preached all over the world, including at Westminster Abby in London. Andy has authored 23 books, especially in the area of worship and evangelism. He was the editor of The United Methodist Book of Worship. His last assignment was for 15 years at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Concord. Andy has deeply studied Concord’s history and writes articles for the local paper on the religious communities of Cabarrus County. He has served dozens of local charities and nonprofit organizations throughout the county. Sally and Andy have been married for 41 years and have two daughters and three grandchildren. He enjoys cooking, reading, writing, gardening, golf, and Duke basketball.
Mike Legg
City Manager for City of Kannapolis , NCRC partner
Mike Legg has held the City Manager position since 2004. Prior to 2004, he was Deputy City Manager for a number of years. Mike is a graduate of UNC-Charlotte. His professional career since 1989 has included employment with the City of Charlotte, the City of Cape Coral in Florida, the Western Piedmont Council of Governments in Hickory, and Vice President of Benchmark Inc. in Kannapolis, through which Mike served as the City’s Planning Director for several years. He has worked in various capacities for the City of Kannapolis since 1995. He has been involved in dramatic change in Kannapolis over the past decade with the transformation of the community from a textile-based economy to a regional economy with expanding roots in biotechnology and tourism.
N.C. Sen. Paul Newton, representing District 36, Cabarrus and Union Counties
https://www.ncleg.gov/Members/Biography/S/402
Alicia Primus, DHA, MPH, CHES
Community Impact Director for Cabarrus Health Alliance, NCRC partner
Alicia Primus is a program manager with the Cabarrus Health Alliance, a Duke Kannapolis and NCR partner.
Irene Sacks
Director of Economic and Community Development for City of Kannapolis
Irene Sacks has served as the Economic and Community Development Director for the City of Kannapolis since 2008. She works to attract business activity, and develop and maximize key investments. Her career has included positions in strategic planning, software development, and finance. She is a certified Economic Developer (CEcD) and received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Chiquita Shepard-Knight
Community member and research participant
Chiquita Shepard-Knight is a community advocate and a participant in the MURDOCK Study, the MURDOCK Multiple Sclerosis cohort, the EHR Data Quality Study, the MURDOCK C3PI Study (COVID-19 research), and the Transitions Low Back Pain Study.
Dianne Snyder, DHA, MSN, BSN
Duke Kannapolis Community Advisory Board member
MURDOCK and Project Baseline study participant
Dianne Snyder is the President Emeritus of Cabarrus College of Health Sciences. She actively supports City initiatives and is a member of the Barber Scotia Community Task Force Committee. She serves on the Duke Kannapolis Community Advisory Board and is a participant in both the MURDOCK Study and the Project Baseline Health Study.
Mark Spitzer
Mission Support Executive at NCRC
Mark Spitzer is the Mission Support Executive at the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC), home to more than 200 scientists from eight North Carolina universities conducting research into the role that genetics, plant-based nutrition, exercise, and post-harvest technology play in human health and disease avoidance. He came to North Carolina in November 2015 relocating from Westlake in California.
Mark brings more than 40 years of experience in professional and management roles in academia and multi-national corporations. As an entrepreneur, he built a successful residential remodeling business before returning to corporate life in the late 1990s as Director of Executive Compensation at Computer Sciences Corporation and more recently as Director of Human Resources in the corporate offices of Dole Food Company and Castle & Cooke Inc.
Sandra Torres
Co-founder and President of El Puente Hispano
Project Baseline Steering Committee Community Representative
Volunteer Registry participant
Sandra Torres is a passionate and conscientious public health professional with a let's-make-it-happen approach and more than eight years of experience in grassroots health behavior change. She has demonstrated ability in identifying gaps in services for the Latino community and collaborating to develop and implement programs that address those needs while promoting inclusion and diversity. She serves on the Project Baseline Steering Committee as a community representative to advocate for participants, and she is a participant in the Duke Kannapolis Volunteer Registry.
Kimberly van Noort, PhD
Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs for UNC System
Member of David H. Murdock Board of Directors - NCRC partner
Dr. Kimberly van Noort is the senior vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer for the University of North Carolina System. She brings over three decades of higher education experience and joined the UNC System Office in 2016. Prior to UNC, she was at the University of Texas at Arlington where she served in various roles including associate vice provost for undergraduate studies, director of University College, associate dean of liberal arts and tenured faculty member in the department of modern languages. Dr. van Noort received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in French from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and earned a PhD in French at Boston University. She currently serves on the boards of the North Carolina Arboretum, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the Coastal Studies Institute and the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies.
Margaret Young
Communications Specialist for City of Kannapolis