Democratizing Clinical Trials with a Community-First Approach

Clinical trials can provide patients with early access to cutting-edge medicines under close medical supervision, yet the majority still do not reflect the increased diversity and complexity of the U.S. and global populations. Join us for an engaging discussion on the latest efforts to disrupt the traditional approach to clinical research and build capacity in communities that are historically underserved to ensure greater equity in access to care.

Moderator

Christina Edwards, MHA
Director, Clinical Trials
Center for Clinical and Social Research, National Minority Quality Forum

Christina Edwards began her academic career at Howard University, earning her Bachelor of Science. She later earned her Master of Health Administration from George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. A research coordinator position at an NYC research clinic would offset her career into the clinical research field.

Years later she ventured into academic research at Weill Cornell Medicine, managing a multisite, NIH funded, pediatric study for children with Crohn’s disease. She later transitioned to the New York –Presbyterian Health System coordinating industry sponsored clinical trials for the Department of Medicine- Pulmonary and Critical Care, now serving as the Clinical Trial Director for Center for Clinical and Social Research at NMQF.

Panelists

Salvatore Alesci, MD, PhD
SVP, Clinical & Social Research Institute
National Minority Quality Forum

Dr. Alesci is a physician-scientist and healthcare executive with over two decades of working experience spanning multiple leadership roles in the government research and biopharmaceutical sectors. His expertise in R&D strategy and translational medicine have been applied to multiple therapy areas and drug pipelines. Dr. Alesci is uniquely poised to lead NMQF's efforts in fostering innovative research to promote health equity.

Dr. Alesci received his M.D. (cum laude) and a Ph.D. in Experimental Endocrine and Metabolic Sciences from University of Messina, School of Medicine (Italy). After his post-graduate training, Dr. Alesci spent almost a decade conducting cutting-edge basic and translational research on the interplay between the neuroendocrine and immune systems at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Alesci left the NIH to join the biopharmaceutical industry in 2006, serving in a number of Translational Medicine leadership roles at Wyeth, Pfizer and Merck. and leading efforts to “de-risk” several drug candidates as they progressed through the pipeline.

More recently, Dr. Alesci has served as Chief Scientist and Strategy Officer and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council at Beyond Celiac.

Lloryn Hubbard
Director, Patient Diversity
PPD Clinical Research, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Lloryn Hubbard is an accomplished clinical operations professional and leader in ensuring diverse populations are represented in clinical research. As head of Patient Diversity at PPD, Lloryn has strategic oversight over the company’s clinical trial health equity efforts and leads a team of specialists focused on optimizing drug development for patient diversity. Prior to PPD, she was a project lead for Health Equity and Population Science at Genentech where she led impactful efforts to address disparities in medicine, including spearheading the development of a portfolio of solutions to embed inclusive research across the drug development life cycle.

Foster Rockwell
Director, Enterprise Learning
PPD Clinical Research, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Foster Rockwell is a talent development professional with over 25 years of experience creating and directing adult learning programs that improve organizational performance. He is the program manager for PPD’s SiteCoach training for research naïve sites and he provides oversight for PPD’s SiteCoach Patient Diversity in Clinical Trials training program.