ADCS Staff

Administration Core

Deborah Tobias, Director of Administration – Directs and coordinates management activities of the ADCS Coordinating Center.

Jeremy Pizzola, Fiscal Manager - Responsible for providing fiscal oversight of ADCS funds including grant awards, gifts, contracts, subcontracts, clinical trial payments, and other financial matters of the ADCS.

Baoyuan Zhao, Manager of Information Technology and Software Development – Responsible for overall planning, organizing, and execution of IT functions for the ADCS Coordinating Center, including directing IT operations, as well as the support and maintenance of existing IT infrastructure and development of new technical solutions. Also responsible for planning, design and developing and implementing complex computer software systems serving for ADCS Coordinating Center.

Kristin Woods, Regulatory Affairs Manager – Regulatory Affairs is responsible for providing management and oversight of regulatory compliance for ADCS clinical trials to promote high quality, ethical research; RA assists ADCS researchers in complying with Federal, State and local IRB policies regarding experimentation involving human subjects and is involved in all aspects of trial execution from protocol development and implementation to FDA submissions.

Jeffree Itrich, M.S.W., M.J., Sr. Recruitment Communications Specialist – Supervises concept and implementation of protocol specific recruitment and retention for each ADCS clinical trial, develops study communications plans, writes press releases/conducts study public relations campaigns, and manages the ADCS website group.

Debbie Stice, ADCS Contracts Coordinator & Events Manager - Serves as a liaison with ADCS clinical trial sites; responsible for initiating site contracts and management of protocol specific site contracts; Oversees coordinating and planning of ADCS Steering Committee Meetings.

Cynthia VanSchaemelhout, Executive Coordinator - Provides executive-level administrative support to the ADCS Director and administration core.

Mayca Roig, MS, MA, MBA, Programmer/Analyst – Responsible for design, development, maintenance, and support of some computer software systems serving for ADCS Coordinating Center, such as the clinical trial electronic site payment systems and financial projections.

Elizabeth Shaffer-Bacareza, Regulatory Affairs Specialist & Events Coordinator – Provides support of regulatory compliance; responsible for coordinating and planning ADCS and ADNI Steering Committee Meetings and Protocol Training meetings.

Ronelyn Chavez,Regulatory Affairs Specialist.

Genny Matthews, Recruitment and Retention Coordinator.

Clinical Operations

Devon Gessert, Director, Clinical Operations – Directs and coordinates all of the activities within the Clinical Operations Group.

Barbara Bartocci, Manager.

Sarah Walter, Project Coordinator.

Tamie Sather, Assistant Project Coordinator.

Joanne Desiere, Assistant Project Coordinator.

Jennifer Patterson, Assistant Project Coordinator.

Silvia Paparello, Assistant Project Coordinator.

Edgar Alminar, Research Associate.

Iris Sim, Research Associate.

Melissa Davis, Programmer Analyst.

Earlita Rattei, Programmer Analyst.

Helena Shevchuk, Statistician.

ADCS Project Coordinators work directly with investigators and other groups within the ADCS to coordinate all aspects of ADCS studies, from protocol development to implementation, startup, maintenance, and close-out and serve as the primary point of contact for questions that arise regarding study procedures.

Larry Janus, ADCS Publications Coordinator – Responsible for design, customization and production of ADCS publications including study related materials such as recruitment materials, procedures manuals, and newsletters.

Traves Butterworth, Office Manager – Provides general administrative support, including fielding calls from sites, responsible for certifying ADAS raters.

Data Core

Ron Thomas, Director, Data Core.

Rema Raman, Associate Director, Data Core.

Gustavo Jimenez, Director, Informatics.

Shelia Jin, Statistics.

Lisa Simon, Quality Assurance.

Medical Operations

Adam S. Fleisher, M.D., Medical Director - Handles oversight of clinical trial safety monitoring and reporting.

Michael Rafii, M.D., Ph.D, Associate Medical Director - Supervision of medical safety coding and liason with site clinicians regarding medical inquiries.

Kim Hyun, Ed.D., Medical Analyst - Reviews and analyzes safety-related laboratory, medication and protocol reports, and serves as an ADCS statistical resource.

Curtis Taylor, Ph.D., Medical Analyst - Reviews, codes and analyzes study medical safety data, disseminates oversight reports, assists in preparing grants, protocols and secondary publications, and serves as an ADCS statistical resource.

Mario Schittini, M.D., MPH, located in Bronx, NY - Lead Monitor -Responsible for management of ADCS Monitoring Group and site monitoring.

Karen Croot, B.A., located in San Diego, CA - Manager Responsible for assisting Lead Monitor with management of ADCS Monitoring group and site monitoring.

Viviana Messick, B.S., located in San Diego, CA – Manager. Responsible for assisting Lead Monitor with management of ADCS Monitoring group and site monitoring.

Aakriti Kainth, B.S., located in San Diego, CA – Responsible for site monitoring.

Edwin Canas, B.S., located in Bronx, NY - Responsible for site monitoring.

Lindsay Cotton, MPH., located in San Diego, CA - Responsible for site monitoring.

Josephine Faragalla, B.S., located in San Diego, CA - Responsible for site monitoring.

Gina Garcia Camilo, M.D., ., located in Bronx, NY - Responsible for site monitoring.

Janet Kastelan, M.A., located in New York, NY - Responsible for site monitoring.

Alan Pamoleras, B.A., located in San Diego, CA - Responsible for site monitoring.

Rebecca Ryan-Jones, Ph.D., located in St. Petersburg, FL - Responsible for site monitoring.

Pamela A. Saunders, Ph.D., located in Washington, DC - Responsible for site monitoring.

Andrew Vigario, M.S., located in Bronx, NY - Responsible for site monitoring.

Biomarker Core

Robert A. Rissman, Ph.D., Biomarker Core Director (ADCS Laboratory and Biospecimen Repository) Manages the acquisition of acquisition, analysis, storage and distribution of samples from ADCS clinical trials.

Seti Moghadam, M.S., Biomarker Core Technician– Performs multiplex bioassays on collected samples, and maintains freezer inventory and distributes collected samples from clinical trials. Performs ApoE4 genotyping and other analyses for ongoing trials.

Nickey Lee, B.S., Biomarker Core Assistant– Assists with multiplex bioassays, freezer inventory and biospecimen sample requests from clinical trials.

Imaging Core

James Brewer, M.D., Ph.D., Imaging Core Director – Manages the acquisition, de-identification, quality control, storage, organization, and analysis of PET and MRI data associated with ADCS clinical trials.

Erik Kaestner, B.S., Imaging Core SRA – Assists with management of the ADCS Image Repository. Site liaison for imaging data acquisition and upload.