Community Engagement and Building Trust to Ensure Diversity, Equity, Inclusion in Clinical Research

Adrelia Allen, PharmD, is a 22-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry working in sales and clinical research at Merck. She has held positions of increasing experience as a Clinical Research Associate, Clinical Trial Project Manager, and Clinical Research Manager (CRM). She is currently the Executive Director of Clinical Trial Patient Diversity, where she is responsible for the strategy and execution of activities for the diverse representation of patients in clinical trials. Dr Allen has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Florida A&M University College of Pharmacy.

Tesheia Johnson, MBA, MHS, is Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of YCCI and the Director for Clinical Research for Yale School of Medicine, where she provides leadership and direction in the area of clinical research. Her career has focused on the development of clinical research programs and support infrastructure. She is the co-founder, along with community leaders of the AME Zion Church and Junta for Progressive Action, of the Yale Cultural Ambassadors program, launched more than ten years ago with a mission to catalyze the sustainable advancement of patient diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical research. Prior to assuming her current position, she held positions as Assistant Dean for Clinical Research at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and Director of Clinical Trials at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She has served as a consultant for several academic centers interested in establishing clinical research programs and as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health.Ms Johnson is nationally recognized for her expertise in the design and setup of clinical research programs. She has been an invited speaker at many national and international conferences on topics such as developing funding for central support for clinical research, staffing models for clinical and translational research, training programs for research professionals, clinical research regulation, and contracting and budget negotiation. She has served as Chair and co-Chair for several National Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Consortium Group/Committees. She sits on the external scientific advisory boards for the CTSAs at Stanford University, NYU, Washington University, Rockefeller, the Universities of Buffalo, Colorado, Florida, Rochester and Washington and at University College London Hospitals’ Biomedical Research Centre. Ms Johnson also one of the team leaders chairing the, Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI) on clinical trials diversity. She serves as the Yale Leader for the School of Medicine partnership with the FDA Office of Minority Health and Health Equity which also focuses on diverse participation in clinical research.

Karen Peterson is the Founder and Chief Patient Advocate of Karen’s Club, Ms Peterson was inspired to help other patients of color, understand the complex and sometimes skeptical world of clinical trials.  A Stage IV Triple Negative Breast cancer survivor, Ms Peterson is also a founding member of the Patient Community Council at Foundation Medicine, a consultant for Blue Note Therapeutics and a Cancer Research Institute- Immuno Advocate.  Ms Peterson was the featured patient speaker at the Biden Cancer Initiative’s 2019 presentation at ASCO, and the 2020 Inaugural AACR Cancer Disparities Progress Report presented to Congress.  Her inspiring story has been shared with Cure, Essence, Health and People magazines as well as ABC Radio Networks “Perspective” and The Today Show.  Lastly, Ms Peterson successfully completed the exclusive 2021 Robin Hood/Blue Ridge Labs Fellowship Program, where she co-created (with her partner Nava Friedman) the highly anticipated advocacy platform https://www.karensclub.org/

Ash Rishi is founder and CEO of COUCH Health, a global creative health engagement agency that serves to make health research inclusive. Its focus covers a range of solutions, including patient insights and engagement through to recruitment and retention within health research. Mr Rishi has over 15 years of experience in the industry, navigating the diverse needs of big pharma through to smaller biotech companies. With experience that covers the full medicine lifecycle, from pre-clinical to lifecycle management, his passions lay in working to make research more inclusive and has founded Demand Diversity a non-profit in 2023.

Angela Rochelle, Account Director, Head of Diversity Initiative in Clinical Trials, is the leading advocate for diversifying patient representation in Clinical Trial Experience (CTE) at Langland, where she brings her considerable expertise to the agency’s established legacy of excellence in clinical trial recruitment and experience. Prior to joining Langland, Angela spent time at some of the country’s leading multicultural advertising agencies working with high-profile clients such as Unilever, General Motors, Walmart, and Proctor & Gamble. Her 20+ years of industry experience also involved successful roles in healthcare advertising account management, including recent clinical research and patient advocacy work with Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck. As part of her work at Langland, Angela collaborates with the agency’s established clinical trial inclusivity taskforce—a team committed to designing and deploying clinical trial communications that proactively address common barriers experienced by underrepresented communities, and advising on best practices throughout the agency’s US, UK, and Australia offices.

Ebony Scott recently joined the Walgreens Boots Alliance RWE Clinical Trials team in the role of Senior Manager, Patient & Community Engagement Digital Optimization. For 13+ years she has collaborated on research initiatives that addresses health disparities, inequities, and the underrepresentation of communities of color in research. Prior to her current role, she led the health equity efforts at the Lupus Research Alliance (LRA), and its clinical trials management affiliate Lupus Therapeutics (LT) as the Director of Health Equity. One of the major initiatives she developed at LRA/LT was Project CHANGE by LT: Community-based Health Action Network to Generate Trial Participation and Eliminate Disparities, which utilizes a community-based approach in targeting health inequities and disparities that negatively impact participation in lupus clinical trials among African American/Black lupus patients. Ms Scott began her career as a research assistant at Weill Cornell Medical College within the Center for Integrative Medicine. Later, she held the roles of research coordinator and program manager in the Division of Comparative Effectiveness and Decision Science within the Department of Population Health at New York University School of Medicine. At both academic institutions, Ms Scott led the recruitment efforts, implementation, and management of research initiatives that targeted traditionally underserved and most vulnerable populations which addressed health disparities in New York City. Ms Scott was also a member of the Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities policy area at MDRC in the dual role of resource manager and research associate. There she collaborated across policy areas to complete projects and programs aimed to improve the financial security and increase access to training/educational supports for adults nationwide. As a member of the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advocacy Council (JEDI AC) she collaborated with colleagues across levels of personal and professional expertise to raise awareness, advocate for, and celebrate diversity and equity within the workplace. Furthermore, she was responsible for the management of federal and foundation funded research initiatives. Ms Scott earned a BA in psychology and criminology from Notre Dame of Maryland University in 2009 and in 2015 graduated from Fordham University with a MSEd in mental health counseling.