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Dr. Cinthia E. Sanchez joined the Duke CTSI in November 2020. As the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program Director, she provides strategic leadership and administrative coordination for the CTSA. Prior to joining CTSI, Dr. Sanchez worked as a program manager at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI), managing multiple research contracts funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and assist in evaluating SARS CoV-2 research proposals as part of the RADx Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) initiative funded by the National Institute of Health. Prior to Duke, Dr. Sanchez worked as the senior operations manager for the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience (PIIN), providing oversight over the institute's daily operations and acted as a liaison between colleges, departments, institutes, centers, and global partners. Dr. Sanchez also served as the pre-college outreach and undergraduate retention administrator for the Minority Engineering Program (MEP). In her role with MEP, she was responsible for designing, implementing, and coordinating outreach and retention programs specifically targeted to underrepresented minority pre-college and undergraduate students, parents, and educators. She also developed intervention strategies for academic improvement and success for all students in the College of Engineering. As the National Society of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates (NAMEPA) program chair, Dr. Sanchez researched, developed, and managed national programs for outreach, recruitment, and retention and recruited institutional partners and corporations to support the organization.
She earned her PhD in Biological Sciences from Purdue University in 2014. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she received her bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla. Dr. Sanchez has extensive research experience in the areas of molecular virology and cell biology. Her doctorate thesis project, “Genetic variations of dengue virus and its role in viral replication and infectivity,” has been presented at various national conferences.