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.

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.

Deirdre BeVard currently serves as SVP, R&D Strategic Operations for CSL. In this role she leads a multi-functional “nerve center” for R&D designed to leverage and connect capabilities across the organization to integrate the business management of R&D; enable data driven insights & decisions; provide operational excellence; enable high performing teams and embed patient focus into the delivery of a diverse and innovative portfolio. Strategic Operations includes Clinical Development Operations, R&D Project & Portfolio Management, Integrated Business Operations, R&D Enabling Technology, R&D Patient Partnerships, and R&D Japan.

Previously Ms BeVard has led Clinical Development Operations organizations at Nektar Therapeutics, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals.  She also held significant leadership roles establishing innovative models dedicated to bringing clinical trials to community physicians and their patients.  Additionally, her background includes working in a CRO and a start-up software company. This diversity of experience has given her a broad and global perspective of the clinical research industry.

Ms BeVard strives be a servant leader who operates with humble confidence and a healthy curiosity about people, projects and process. Her leadership expertise is in creating inclusive teams and environments that allow for innovation, performance excellence and personal development.  She has been awarded an HBA Rising Star and PharmaVoice 100 of the Most Inspiring People for Change Agent category.

Ms BeVard’s professional passion is in partnering with patients and their providers for increased and optimized opportunities for clinical trials.

Susan Manoff is the Executive Director for Vaccines and Neuroscience in Merck’s Office of the Chief Patient Officer. In this role, Dr. Manoff is responsible for bringing the insights of patients, caregivers, and advocacy groups into Merck. Her work also supports health equity and diversity in clinical research.

Before assuming her current role in 2015, Dr. Manoff served as a Director of Clinical Research in Merck Research Laboratories, where she led teams that designed and carried out clinical development plans for vaccines against a wide range of diseases. Dr. Manoff oversaw vaccine trials spanning all phases of clinical development, and communicated with regulatory agencies, scientific leaders, and advisory groups. Her work contributed to vaccine licensures, labeling, and recommendations for use in countries around the world.

Dr. Manoff’s education and career have focused on improving global health. She received her BA degree from Princeton University, her MD degree from the Yale University School of Medicine, and her MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. After completing residency training in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Manoff practiced medicine in Thailand and the People’s Republic of China. She also served as a medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and as a faculty member of the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Kai Bode is a Principal Scientist at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL). In his role, Mr Bode supports the evaluation and implementation of digital health technologies for clinical research in an effort to mitigate the risk and maximize the potential of innovative solutions.

Susan Burriss is responsible for elevating the voice of the patient, ensuring GSK is focused on putting the patient at the center of their organization and utilizing insights gathered from patients to better inform decision making across the medicines' life-cycle.

Roslyn Schneider, MD is a catalyst toward intentional human-centered medicine development and healthcare.

Dr Schneider is an internist, pulmonologist, intensivist, and patient, transforming healthcare quality and efficiency by partnering with patients who are experts in what they need and want, along with traditionally included experts.

She applies person centered design toward better health outcomes, and to create and communicate with stakeholder communities.

Patient centeredness has been a common thread through Dr Schneider’s clinical practice, hospital administration, academic and industry career, the Global Patient Affairs role she created at Pfizer, independent consulting, in her current role at Theravance Biopharma and Board service with the NJ Chapter of the American Lung Association.

Dr Schneider received an MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and MSc in Pharmaceutical Medicine from Hibernia College in Dublin. She practiced and taught at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York for 20 years and was a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Parthena Psyllos is a Senior Corporate Counsel on the Clinical Development (CD) Legal team at Pfizer, Inc. in New York, where she is the lead counsel for Clinical Innovation. In this role, Ms Psyllos provides support and counsel on legal and regulatory issues impacting Pfizer’s clinical research activities globally, including Good Clinical Practice (GCP) advice and policy support to enable decentralized clinical trials, patient engagement and digital initiatives in clinical development such as eConsent, eSource, mobile apps, wearables and social media. She is also the CD Legal subject matter in several areas, including informed consent, study recruitment, diversity in clinical trials, and patient engagement activities.  Ms Psyllos has held several prior roles supporting clinical development issues at Pfizer. These included negotiating clinical development agreements, handling GCP and regulatory compliance issues in clinical trials, and conducting U.S. compliance investigations.  Prior to joining Pfizer, Ms Psyllos worked at Bloomberg as a Legal Analyst and in private practice at Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel as a litigation associate, with a focus on the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. She has served as Vice-Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law Section. Ms Psyllos has a BA in English and American Literature and Psychology from New York University, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD from Brooklyn Law School. 

Sue Gregory spent over 26 years at Merck in the Office of General Counsel.  Her most recent position was as Managing Counsel in the Regulatory and Commercial group responsible for the Oncology Franchise.

During her time at Merck, Ms Gregory provided legal advice to the US and Global businesses on issues such as advertising and promotion, training and compliance.  She also provided legal advice to the research division on issues relating to clinical studies, marketing authorizations, post-market safety surveillance, compliance, and labeling.

Ms Gregory joined Merck in 1993 and held a number of positions of increasing responsibility.  Prior to joining Merck, she practiced law at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Washington, DC.

Ms Gregory is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Law, Washington, DC, and Duke University, Durham, NC.

Candace Lerman, Esq., is an attorney, consultant, and author of the rare disease blog, RareCandace.com. She earned her Juris Doctorate with a concentration in Health Law at the Shepard Broad School of Law at Nova Southeastern University and a certificate in Healthcare Compliance from Seton Hall University School of Law. In addition, she holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in International Affairs from Florida State University. Ms Lerman researched and repurposed a drug to put her rare blood disorder into remission twice! Inspired by her struggle of living with Immune Thrombocytopenia, she launched the ITP Patient Driven Research Initiative, which works with multiple stakeholders to improve treatments for the ITP community. She works closely with members of Congress on federal healthcare policy and can often be found on Capitol Hill. 

Ms Lerman is Of Counsel to the Lerman Law Firm, assisting clients in healthcare, compliance, and corporate law.  Besides practicing law, Candace consults on projects for pharmaceutical companies and non-profit organizations on topics ranging from patient registries, natural history studies, clinical trial design, patient engagement, Real World Evidence, and patient assistance programs. Coming from a diverse background as both an attorney and patient, she provides unique insights while breaking down the silos that plague drug development.

Kate Harr-Sponsler is Associate General Counsel, Global Commercial, for Spark Therapeutics, Inc., a leading gene therapy company, and an Adjunct Professor of Drug and Medical Device Law at Temple University School of Law.  At Spark, Ms Harr-Sponsler provides broad counsel to the commercial team on a range of patient-related topics including data privacy, patient advocacy, and patient services.  Prior to joining Spark, she was Senior Corporate Counsel at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she supported both global and US commercial teams.  Prior to BMS, Ms Harr-Sponsler held positions in several international and domestic medical device companies, providing counsel on all legal matters as well as holding business analytic and operational roles.  She began her career as a litigator in private practice.  Ms Harr-Sponsler received her BA from Oberlin College and her JD from Temple University School of Law.