Jane Hiatt joined Merck in 1999 and is currently the Executive Director, Site Management and Monitoring, Early Stage Development. Ms Hiatt is responsible for the monitoring organization in the US across a diverse portfolio and the clinical trial execution within the Phase 1 Portfolio. Her background includes over 30 years of drug experience in CRO and large pharma environments, starting in data management followed by progressive roles in clinical trial operations and management. Ms Hiatt is a member of ACRP and SCRS.

Eric Hoberman is the Head of Digital Clinical Operations Excellence at Biogen Digital Health, leading a team that owns global study management for DHT in company sponsored trials. In a previous role at Biogen, Mr Hoberman led clinical operations on a large-scale digital health research program called MS PATHS (Multiple Sclerosis Partners Advancing Technology and Health Solutions).

Prior to joining Biogen, Mr Hoberman provided clinical operations leadership in small biotech, medium and large pharma, and in the clinic as a research nurse. He began working on DCTs over a decade ago with ePRO mobile devices in endocrinology, and his main areas of focus since then have been in oncology and neuroscience.

Mr Hoberman received his MBA in Healthcare Administration from Rivier University and his BA in Philosophy from Saint Anselm College. He also holds an active RN license in the state of New Hampshire.

Having held leadership and executive positions at clinical research organizations, specialty providers, and healthcare entities, Colleen Yoke has more than 25 years of experience in the areas of business development, organizational management, and executive team building. Ms Yoke was a key member of an executive team that built a successful early-phase research site that was later acquired by a major research corporation, and she has contributed to best practice standards for the Association of Clinical Pharmacology Units (ACPU). She holds a bachelor’s degree of science from the University of Tennessee and is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business Executive Leadership course.

Peyton Howell is Chief Executive Officer of Parexel and a member of the company’s Board of Directors. She has more than 30 years of pharma services and healthcare industry experience and currently represents the company as Chairperson of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO).

Ms Howell served most recently as Chief Operating and Growth Officer responsible for Parexel’s operational delivery, strategy and growth. From 2018 to 2022 she was the company’s Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, implementing its patient-focused strategy and launching its Biotech business unit. During her tenure, Ms Howell has made a significant impact in growing Parexel’s customer relationships, delivering strong growth in gross new business awards during a period of significant change in the life sciences industry.

Ms Howell’s healthcare industry experience includes senior leadership positions with AmerisourceBergen (now Cencora), a Fortune 20 company, most recently as President for Health Systems and Specialty Care Solutions, a $50 billion business unit. Prior to AmerisourceBergen, she was a founder of Lash Group, growing the company from an early innovator of patient access services to nearly 5,000 employees and serving as President for nearly 10 years following its acquisition by AmerisourceBergen.

Ms Howell serves on the Board of Directors of Tandem Diabetes Care (NASDAQ: TNDM), a medical device manufacturer. She holds a Master of Healthcare Administration from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Health Communications from the University of Illinois. In 2022, Ms Howell was recognized with PharmaVoice’s highest distinction as a Red Jacket honoree, which distinguishes an elite group of leaders viewed as the most inspiring in the life sciences industry.

Michael Ibara is Chief Data Officer at Elligo and has over 20 years of experience in clinical research and development. Throughout his career, Mr Ibara has sought to improve healthcare by bringing together healthcare data and digital technologies. His interests include regulatory and policy implications for digital healthcare, exploring factors needed to allow interoperability of healthcare data for all stakeholders involved, and implications for the use of big data, machine learning, and natural language processing to improve our ability to perform regulated clinical research.

Before Elligo, Mr Ibaral was the Head of Digital Healthcare for the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium. There, he led the FDA eSource project and Healthcare Link efforts with registries, clinical trials, and mobile health to enable use of real-world data from healthcare for regulated research and decision making. Prior to CDISC, Mr Ibara was Head of Business Development Coordination and Innovation and also Head of Pharmacovigilance Innovation at Pfizer, where he worked for 15 years.

Andrea Jackson is a Partner at Northpond Ventures. Ms Jackson joined Northpond in 2020 after 12 years of operating and finance roles in small and large scientific and technology companies. Her work at Northpond focuses on leading the people operations and portfolio management of the investment team.

Sean Jensen currently serves as Director of Site Relationship Management for Merck Research Laboratory’s Global Clinical Trial Organization (MRL-GCTO). His team is responsible for partnering with and supporting key strategic sites across the US to position Merck as partner of choice. Mr Jensen is a hands-on strategic leader with experience in operations, strategy, partnerships, and finance across the biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Outside of work he enjoys reading, writing, and adventuring with his wife and two dogs.

Ryan Jones is CEO of Florence Healthcare. Florence advances cures for disease by enabling clinical trial sites to do their best work.

As the site-enablement category leader, Florence was chosen as the system of record for Pfizer’s COVID-19 trials, is an AJC Best Place to Work, a Deloitte Fast 50 winner, an Inc. Top 500 fastest growing company and a DPharm Innovation winner.

Before joining Florence, Mr Jones was president of Pubget (acquired by the Copyright Clearance Center), a research platform serving clinicians at over 600 hospitals and research institutions worldwide. Mr Jones joined Pubget from Microsoft’s SharePoint team, where he helped the web’s largest sites make information understandable and accessible with document management technology.

Mr Jones has an AB from Dartmouth College and an MBA from UC Berkeley, where he was a Price Fellow. In his free time, he is a pretty good pilot and a terrible golfer.

Elan Josielewski is a Senior Principal and head of Operations of Patient Centered Solutions at IQVIA.  Prior to joining IQVIA, Mr Josielewski was the VP of Patient Centered Sciences at ICON; the integration of: Oxford Outcomes, Mapi Patient Centered Sciences, Mapi Language Services and The Mapi Research Trust. Prior to ICON, he was the Executive VP of Corporate Development and Marketing at Mapi Group, as well as, Vice Chairman of the Mapi Research Trust. Mr Josielewski has over 30 years of business leadership in Lifesciences, Engineering and Defense industries. Nearing a quarter century of specific experience across entire Clinical and Post-Approval Drug and device lifecycle; including Phase I – IV to Commercialization CRO services from 10 years at PharmaNet, Central Labs(MDS Central Labs), Clinical and Specimen Logistics (Marken), Cold Chain, EDC, eCOA (CRF Health), eConsent, Clinical Outcomes assessments and Real World Evidence (Mapi).

Nareen Katta works as the Head of Data Science and Analytics at AbbVie. Mr Katta has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. In his current role, he is responsible for building and executing the advanced analytics strategy that covers both Scientific and Business Operations, across Clinical Development Continuum, Geostrategy and Study start-up, Centralized and Risk Based Monitoring, Site Engagement, Business Performance, Precision Medicine, Patient Safety and R&D. In addition, Mr Katta is actively engaged in evaluating the opportunities created by the technology trends like big data, automation, machine learning and AI, digital health etc. and strategically instantiating them at AbbVie to drive organizational transformation. He has an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas at Arlington.

Sarah Dobson joined Starmind almost 6 years ago, focusing on customers in the pharmaceutical and CPG industries. Supporting them through initial conversation to implementation and expansion. 

Cheryl Kechichian, RN, BS, currently works at the Butler Hospital Memory and Aging program in Providence, RI as a Research Nurse Coordinator. She has spent the last 16 years working as a Clinical Nurse Research Coordinator representing subjects with memory disorders.  She has worked with several different sponsors for several studies and initiated them from startup to closeout.  Some of the trials had up to 45 participants with varying stages of memory loss. The study medication was either in pill form, injectable or given intravenously.

As a coordinator, the job has many moving parts. Many of the responsibilities and roles of this position have changed over the years. Everything from start-up to close out and all the duties in between, inclusive of enrollment, screening, consenting, scheduling, assessments, training, data entry, safety assessments, adverse event reporting, medical records and data gathering, regulatory, source creation, contracts, out-reach and many other duties as needed.

In her previous work history, Ms Kechichian has worked in a variety of settings, inclusive of Hospitals, Rehab facilities, Homecare, Insurance and medicine, Medical Software development and testing and finally, Research in the clinical setting.