The CTTI staff supports the development and execution of projects and the dissemination of project results. In addition, staff members organize and support the activities of the Executive and Steering Committees. Below, you will find a list of our staff members:
Ms. Bingham provides administrative support for the executive director of CTTI and the Executive Committee. She has over 25 years of administrative experience working in clinical research, architecture, financial planning, and manufacturing organizations.
Ms. Bland designs and manages all member communication and engagement activities for CTTI. She also oversees CTTI member events.
Ms. Bland has 20+ years of experience in global event management and facilitating the seamless end-to-end delivery of executive learning and development programs. Prior to joining CTTI, she spent seven years at Duke Corporate Education, where she worked as a senior program manager and served clients such as Boehringer Ingelheim, AbbVie, Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, Citibank, and Rolls-Royce. Ms. Bland also worked as an account manager for Digiton Corporation, where she oversaw the communication and compliance account for Glaxo SmithKline. Prior to this work, Ms. Bland was the event manager of the Walk for Hope and assistant executive director for Foundation of Hope, helping to raise money for treatment of mental illnesses. She has a BA in communication and public relations from North Carolina State University and is a certified functional medicine health coach through FMCA.
Dr. Calvert is responsible for senior operational leadership and oversight for the core activities of the CTTI projects group. She collaboratively develops and implements strategies to support CTTI’s project managers and multistakeholder project teams as they develop solutions to improve clinical trials, and ensures the alignment of project objectives with CTTI’s mission, vision, and goals.
Prior to joining CTTI, Dr. Calvert was a clinical pharmacist and project leader in the Outcomes Group at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. At the DCRI she managed projects, conducted a randomized intervention to improve medication adherence, and served as the anticoagulation monitor for a multicenter clinical trial. She also practiced as a clinical pharmacist at the Duke Outpatient Clinic from 2007 to 2015. Dr. Calvert received a PharmD from the University of Pittsburgh and completed a specialty residency in primary care pharmacy practice at Duke University Medical Center and Health System.
As CTTI’s lead social scientist, Dr. Corneli oversees the CTTI social science team and works closely with the CTTI project teams to provide guidance on the design, implementation, analysis, and write up of CTTI’s quantitative and qualitative research studies. She is an associate professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine, at Duke University. She is also a faculty member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
A social scientist by training, Dr. Amy Corneli has conducted qualitative and mixed-method research in multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and in the U.S. She has a long trajectory of working with populations who are disenfranchised due to race, ethnicity, sexuality, and/or gender, and of engaging stakeholders in research to inform clinical trials and practice, socio-behavioral interventions, questionnaire/scale development, and the translation of proven interventions into practice. In addition to her CTTI role, Dr. Corneli is the 1) founder and Director of QualCore, a group of PhD- and master-level social scientists who provide scientific direction and interviewing and analysis expertise in qualitative research to Duke investigators, and 2) co-founder and Director of The BASE (Bioethics and Stakeholder Engagement) Lab, a group of faculty and staff that partners with clinical investigators at Duke to conduct research with key stakeholders to inform the planning, conduct, interpretation, and reporting of clinical research. Her investigator-driven research portfolio focuses on qualitative and implementation science research in HIV prevention and other infectious diseases (gonorrhea and COVID-19).
Ms. Faulkner works collaboratively with CTTI’s strategic communications manager, leadership, and projects team to develop and execute internal and external communication strategies for CTTI projects that resonate across the clinical trials enterprise.
Prior to her current role, Ms. Faulkner served as a communications specialist at the Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) where she crafted compelling narratives for complex medical research projects. She also served in a similar role in the Dean’s Office at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, delving deeper into the realm of academic medicine, maintaining collaborative relationships with faculty members, researchers, and other healthcare professionals. She holds a BA in communications from Campbell University.
Ms. Franzetti manages the development and implementation of CTTI projects. In collaboration with team leaders, she creates project plans and budgets, and manages the implementation of those plans.
Prior to joining CTTI, Ms. Franzetti was a senior scientist for Merck where she planned, executed, statistically analyzed, and reported on infectious disease studies from discovery through testing in support of antibacterial development. Earlier in her career, she worked in clinical research, first as a research technician and later as a study manager at Charles River Laboratories, where she was responsible for complex preclinical research studies. She also worked as a research associate for the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, where she planned and executed all in vivo bacterial and viral studies. Ms. Franzetti has a BS in Biotechnology and Conservation from Delaware Valley University.
Ms. Geercken manages CTTI’s websites, e-newsletters, and social media channels. Working closely with CTTI staff, she keeps the websites dynamic and current, and works with the communications manager to coordinate the distribution of news and materials to members, staff, and external audiences via email, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vimeo, and other platforms. She also plays an important role in measuring and analyzing CTTI’s online metrics in an ongoing effort to improve and enhance CTTI communications.
Prior to CTTI, Ms. Geercken spent 18 years in digital media at The McClatchy Company, most recently as a social media specialist. During her tenure at McClatchy, she created compelling research presentations and collateral that drove revenue for a national advertising network, and worked closely with digital staff in newspaper newsrooms to help them stay at the forefront of digital change. In addition, she has served as a board member for a local Little League baseball organization, where she managed all communications for the league. Ms. Geercken earned a BA in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mr. Hallinan manages the development and implementation of CTTI projects. In collaboration with team leaders, he creates project plans and budgets, and manages the implementation of those plans.
Prior to joining CTTI, Mr. Hallinan directed patient communication and engagement programs at the nonprofit Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation, where for five years he led efforts to help the research enterprise better understand and meet the needs of the participants who make research possible. Among his other initiatives, Mr. Hallinan worked with leading industry sponsors to implement programs for routinely providing plain-language summaries of clinical trial results to research participants in more than 40 countries. His experience also includes science curriculum development at the Education Development Center, as well as basic research in organic chemistry and biology. He earned a BA in Biology and a BA in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, has been recognized by CenterWatch as an innovator changing the face of the clinical trials industry, and has also been a National Science Foundation IGERT fellow as well as an AmeriCorps volunteer.
Ms. Hanger coordinates with the Executive Committee in the development and execution of strategies to accomplish CTTI’s mission. She provides senior oversight and management of CTTI operations and organizes efforts to leverage the participation of member organizations and external stakeholders.
Ms. Hanger has deep experience convening organizations to solve complex problems related to evidence generation and is passionate about data ethics and transparency. Prior to CTTI, she worked at health technology companies focused on patients. Notably, she served as vice president of the online patient research network PatientsLikeMe (PLM), where she led partnerships to utilize patient-generated health data in life sciences and regulatory settings. Prior to PLM, Ms. Hanger worked in advisory services for Avalere Health, where she helped biotech, pharma, and professional societies create more effective research strategies. She has also held positions within the Health Outcomes Group at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and at the Congressional Budget Office. Ms. Hanger graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ms. Holliday is responsible for cultivating CTTI’s public profile through brand strategy, content development, events, media relations, and thought leadership. She is currently leading the development of the communications strategy for CTTI’s Transforming Trials 2030 vision in collaboration with the CTTI team and CTTI’s global agency of record.
Ms. Holliday is a communications expert with 20+ years of experience in branding, reputation and crisis management, executive communications, media relations and public affairs within the healthcare, higher education and non-profit sectors. She has served as a trusted advisor to business executives, scientific pacesetters and university chancellors. In a career that has taken her to five continents, she has received national and international accolades for her communications leadership, including earning a Silver Anvil Award, considered the PR industry’s highest level of achievement. She holds a BA in English from North Carolina State University.
Ms. Kehoe manages the development and implementation of CTTI projects. She has convened teams around Disease Progression Modeling, Embedding Trials into Health Care Settings, and the use of digital health technologies to advance Novel Endpoint Acceptance. Along with her CTTI colleagues, Ms. Kehoe is accelerating progress towards the Transforming Trials 2030 Vision.
Ms. Kehoe has over ten years of experience in clinical research. Prior to joining CTTI, she was a rare disease specialist in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and served as a clinical trial lead at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she coordinated both physician-driven and industry-sponsored trials. She also served on the hospital’s institutional review board, where she reviewed human research protocols to ensure they met relevant ethical standards. Ms. Kehoe is a certified genetic counselor with extensive experience in both pediatric and adult genetic counseling. Early in her career, she worked in the pharmaceutical industry, first in early phase drug development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology) and then in post-marketing laboratory surveillance at Sanofi Genzyme. Ms. Kehoe has a bachelors from the University of Virginia and a masters in genetic counseling from Boston University School of Medicine.
Ms. Merrill currently manages CTTI’s membership and engagement team. She also plans, develops, and implements strategic initiatives that support the implementation of systematic improvement processes, drive adoption of CTTI’s recommendations and resources, and demonstrate the impact of CTTI’s work on the transformation of clinical trials.
Ms. Merrill has over 30 years of experience in healthcare program and project management. Prior to working at CTTI, she served as a state project director, planner, and liaison for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Earlier in her career, she served as the state Alzheimer’s Specialist and played an integral role in the development of programs that provide critical respite care, education, and support to individuals and families dealing with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Ms. Merrill is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). She earned a Master’s degree in Gerontology and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Appalachian State University.
Ms. Mervin-Blake joins CTTI as a project manager from the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), where she served as senior staff director. Over her 21-year career in clinical research, she has served as director of research recruitment at both Duke and UNC NC TraCS Institute and as a project leader with the Clinical Events Classification group at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
Earlier in her career, she worked in industry with the small biotech company Karobio, where she focused on the discovery of novel therapeutics; with the CRO PPD Discovery, where she focused on preclinical research; and she spent 10 years in basic science as a research analyst. Ms. Mervin-Blake received a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Master of Science in clinical research from the Campbell University College of Pharmacy.
Ms. Morris currently oversees all of CTTI’s events, including the planning and execution of in-person and virtual meetings and conferences. She collaborates with communications managers, project managers and multi-stakeholder project teams to coordinate and budget all events logistics.
Ms. Morris has more than 16 years of experience in Graduate Medical Education program and project management. She joins CTTI from Duke’s Department of Anesthesiology where she managed the anesthesiology fellowships for the past six years. Prior to joining Duke, she worked as an administrative specialist with the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan for nine years. Ms. Morris received a Bachelor of Science in communications and sociology and a Master of Science in human resources and organizational development from Eastern Michigan University.
Ms. Royal provides administrative support to CTTI’s project managers and project teams. She has been with Duke University for over 15 years, working initially with the Department of Orthopaedics. Her administrative experience includes working in clinical research and finance.
Dr. Starling manages the development and implementation of CTTI projects. Along with her colleagues, she is accelerating progress towards the Transforming Trials 2030 Vision.
Dr. Starling has more than 15 years’ experience in public health. She joins CTTI from within the Duke University School of Medicine, where she led mixed methods research studies with clinical investigators at Duke to understand and improve patient experiences in clinical research. Earlier in her career, she was a senior scientist and a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellow with the Public Health Institute in Oakland, CA, conducting research on adolescent health and decision-making. She has also worked as a consultant for Johnson & Johnson and other healthcare companies, where she led client-centered research programs and organizational change campaigns.
Dr. Starling received a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University.
Dr. Swezey works closely with the CTTI project teams and other social science researchers to design, implement, analyze, and report CTTI’s evidence-generating research activities. Along with her role with CTTI, she is a clinical trials project leader at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
Dr. Swezey has 10 years of experience specializing in qualitative research, focused primarily on the sociocultural aspects of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research expertise includes developing data collection instruments, conducting focus groups and in-depth semi-structured interviews, developing codebooks, coding and analyzing data, and writing up results for reports and peer-reviewed publications. She also has seven years of experience working on clinical trial-related research. Prior to joining CTTI, she combined her clinical trial and qualitative research skills as a research associate in the Department of Epidemiology and the Department of Social Medicine’s Center for Bioethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was also a clinical research coordinator on dementia trials in the Department of Neurology at UNC. Dr. Swezey received an MA in anthropology and a PhD in sociology from Michigan State University.
Mr. Williams works to ensure the communications and engagement team has the data, systems, and operational support needed to conduct its work efficiently and effectively. As CTTI’s membership program coordinator, he manages logistics for the annual membership renewal process and implements systems to streamline associated workflows and enhance membership experience.
Mr. Williams’s prior work involves several years in project management and program coordination for the NC Department of Health and Human Services, where he developed and implemented compliance programs, provided communications support, and designed and applied projects cross-functionally. He holds a Master’s degree from Duke Divinity School and a graduate certificate from Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
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- Mark B McClellan, MD, PhD
- John Alexander, MD, MHS, FACC
- M. Khair ElZarrad, PhD, MPH
- Donna R. Cryer, JD
- Pat Furlong
- Steven K. Galson, MD, MPH
- Patricia Hurley, MSC
- Michael Kolodziej, MD
- Theodore Lystig, PhD
- Rod MacKenzie, PhD
- Pierre Meulien, PhD
- Robert Temple, MD
- Spiros Vamvakas, MD
- Bram Zuckerman, MD
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