Internal Advisory Committee

The Internal Advisory Committee is made up of faculty at Tulane University Medical Center, Xavier University, and the Tulane Department of Biomedical Engineering. This committee is comprised of senior faculty members, all of whom have considerable experience in the training of individuals for clinical research. During the selection process, each candidate for the CRCA Training Program will be interviewed by two members of the Internal Advisory Committee. The Internal Advisory Committee will meet 3-4 times per year during which time they will review each trainee's progress as well as the status of the CRCA Program in general. Lastly, the Internal Advisory Committee and Core Faculty are the governing board to select trainees.

All the day-to-day operations of the Program will be the responsibility of the Program Director, the Associate Program Director and the Core Faculty, we will take advantage of the meetings of the Internal Advisory Board to solicit input and advice regarding all of the educational components of the Program including core curriculum, seminar series, mentoring process, and research projects. In addition the Internal Advisory Committee will review the progress of each trainee and of the Program itself on a yearly basis at the retreat. All the members of the Internal Advisory Committee, listed below, have established records of clinical research training and funding.

Paul Whelton, M.D. , M. Sc. - Dr. Whelton is the Senior Vice-President for the Health Sciences at Tulane. He received a M.B., B. Ch., and B.A.O. degrees with honors from the National University of Ireland, University College Cork. He was recruited to Tulane in 1999 from The Johns Hopkins University where he was a Professor of Medicine and Biostatistics and Epidemiology. He has published 207 papers and is on several journal editorial boards and NIH committees. He is very familiar with the development of clinical research training programs since he played a leadership role in the development of what may have been the first masters degree clinical research training program in the United States while at Johns Hopkins. He also directed clinical research training opportunities at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions both as Director of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, the NCRR-funded Outpatient GCRC, and the Medical Institution's Program in Clinical Epidemiology. While there, he has supervised 44 trainees in clinical research areas. He also, as reviewed, leads a major program in clinical hypertension research with over $3.5 million dollars in funding.

Roy C. Orlando, M.D. - Dr. Orlando is Professor of Medicine and Physiology and Chief of the Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Tulane University Medical Center. Dr. Orlando received his M.D. degree from Georgetown University. There are 12 clinical research projects ongoing in the Section including studies of treatment for esophagitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Hepatitis C infection, vomiting secondary to chemotherapeutic agents and primate model of hepatocyte regeneration. Dr. Orlando has also trained several clinical investigators while at the University of North Carolina and now at Tulane. He has $870,000 in NIH funding and is a NIH MERIT awardee. He also has a VA Merit Review Grant.

Jeannette Magnus, M.D., Ph.D. - Dr. Magnus is Clinical Professor of Public Health and Head of the Maternal and Child Health Section, Dept. of Community Health Sciences, TSPHTM. She received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tromso in Norway. She is the Director and PI of the DHHS-funded Tulane/Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women's Health ($185,000). She is also Co-PI of a CDC grant to develop a community action plan to reduce cardiovascular risk factors in African American Women in New Orleans ($250,000). She has trained 9 MD clinical investigators.

Gerald Berenson, M.D. - Dr. Berenson is Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Epidemiology at Tulane University Medical Center and Director of the Tulane Center for Cardiovascular Health. He received his M.D. degree from Tulane University where he was elected to AOA. He is best known as the developer and long-time PI of the NIH-funded Bogalusa Heart Study. He is internationally recognized for this clinical research program on the early natural history of arteriosclerosis. He has over 690 publications. Dr. Berenson is also the PI of a newly funded 5-year NIH RO1 grant to study the evolution of cardiovascular risk with normal aging. The total amount of funding to Dr. Berenson is approximately $3.6 million.

Donald Krogstad, M.D. - Dr. Krogstad is the Henderson Professor and Chair, Department of Tropical Medicine, TSPHTM and Professor of Medicine and Parasitology, Tulane School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Tulane Center of Infectious Diseases. He has many publications and is very experienced in both the conduct and training of investigators in clinical research of infectious diseases. For example, he is funded by several grants from the NIH to link a cohort-based study of human infection and disease to entomologic data in transmission, to develop a cadre of sub-Saharan African health scientists and to develop aminiquinoline antimalarials. He has trained 25 Ph.D.s and 150 MPHT over the past 5 years and has $1.8 million in research funding.

Wayne Harris, Ph.D. - is Dean of the College of Pharmacy at Xavier University of Louisiana. He received his Ph.D. degree from The University of Kansas with a concentration in medicinal chemistry. As pointed out in his letter of support, 10% of the graduating class of the College of Pharmacy (100-110 students) continues in postgraduate education and training. He is very enthusiastic that both students and faculty at Xavier may utilize the CRCA Program to further their education and training in clinical research. Dr. Harris will coordinate the activities of the CRCA Program at Xavier including the recruitment, selection and monitoring CRCA trainees from Xavier. Also, as a member of the Core Faculty, he will be involved in the direction of the Program, serve as a Program co-mentor, and serve as a consultant to the Program in the recruitment of trainees from underserved populations.

Cyril Y. Bowers, M.D. - Dr. Bowers received his M.D. degree from the University of Oregon, Portland, OR. He is a Professor of Medicine and Section Chief of Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Tulane Department of Medicine. He has many publications and is known throughout the world for his pioneering and ongoing basic and clinical studies involving Growth Hormone Related Peptides. Most of these studies are being performed in the GCRC.

Jess Thoene, M.D. - Dr. Thoene is the Director and Karen Gore Chair of the Hayward Human Genetics Center and Professor of Pediatrics at Tulane University Medical Center. He received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Thoene joined the Tulane faculty this year. Previously, Dr. Thoene was Professor and Director of the Section of Biochemical Genetics, Dept. of Pediatrics and the Director of the Pediatric Clinical Trials Center of the University of Michigan. In this capacity he has trained five clinical research faculty and was involved in clinical research in Pediatrics.

Richard T. Hart, Ph.D. - Dr. Hart is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tulane University. Dr. Hart's goal is to actively develop interdisciplinary relationships with disease-centered investigations, e.g. as would be provided by the CRCA Program. There are examples of present research activities in the Department of Biomedical Engineering presently that would accommodate the Ph.D. students to develop clinical research careers including biomechanics of lung disease, neuroscience and opthamology. Further evidence for the commitment of Dr. Hart to pursue increases in clinical research activities is his agreement to supply the CRCA with trainees.

Bernard M. Jaffe, M.D. - Dr. Jaffe is Vice?Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Surgical Research at the Tulane University School of Medicine. He is also the PI of the T-32 Training Grant from the NIH in Surgical Oncology ($492,000) which funds 2 surgical oncology trainees per year. He is Associate Director for Education of the TCC and serves on its Executive, Steering, and Planning Committees. He has been responsible for the scientific mentoring and training of 7 basic scientists, 29 surgeons and surgical residents, and many medical students. Dr. Jaffe was the Chair of Surgery at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center prior to his recruitment to Tulane in 1992.

External Advisory Committee

An External Advisory Committee, comprised of experts in clinical research training and recruitment of investigators, has been created. The members of the committee will make a two-day visit to New Orleans during the time of the annual retreat to conduct a thorough review of all aspects of the CRCA Program. During these visits, the External Advisory Committee will first meet with the Program Director and Associate Director and the members of the Core faculty to review all aspects of the Tulane CRCA Program, since the last retreat. The Program Director will also summarize all of the changes made in the Program since the last visit of the External Advisory Committee, emphasizing in particular, those changes that are made in the response of the written recommendations. After meeting with the Program faculty, the External Advisory Committee will meet separately with the trainees. Holding these meetings without the Program faculty will afford the External Advisors an opportunity to hold a frank and open discussion with the trainees to obtain comments that should provide them with as much insight as possible in to all aspects of the CRCA Program at Tulane. The External Advisory Committee will also meet with the Internal Advisory Committee to obtain their perspective on the CRCA Program, faculty and quality and progress of trainees. At the end of the two day session, the External Advisory Committee will also hold a wrap-up session with the Program Director and Associate Director offering the Directors a chance to respond to issues raised during their meetings. Following the visit, the External Advisory Committee will prepare and submit to the Program Director a written evaluation of all aspects of the CRCA Program. The report will emphasize the problems that the Committee was able to identify during their visit. The report will also highlight recommendations for change or modifications that the External Advisory Committee feels might further strengthen the CRCA Program. The members of the External Advisory Committee are:

Josef Coresh, M.D., Ph.D. - Dr. Coresh is Associate Professor at the Departments of Epidemiology, Medicine and Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Coresh directs the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Training Program at Johns Hopkins which includes five post-doctoral students as well as four pre-doctoral students, directs clinical epidemiology courses for the medical students which has encouraged a number of students each year to pursue an MPH, MHH, MHS, or Ph.D training in Epidemiology, the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Course, as well as the GCRC Biostatistics, and Informatics Core. As a member of the Welch Center for Prevention Epidemiology and Clinical Research which was founded by Dr. Paul Whelton, he is very experienced in multidisciplinary training in clinical research and is affiliated with the present K30 CRCA Award to Johns Hopkins University.

Eugene P. Orringer, M.D. - Dr. Orringer is the Verne S. Caviness Professor of Investigative Medicine and Executive Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Dr. Orringer also directs the M.D./Ph.D. Program at UNC and for ten years was the Program Director of the GCRC at UNC. Dr. Orringer has a long career in clinical research involving hematologic disorders, especially in sickle cell disease, but he also has a long-term experience with clinical research and training in his leadership roles in the GCRC and M.D./Ph.D. programs.

David R. Parkinson, M.D. - Dr. Parkinson is Vice-President, Clinical Research and Development of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Dr. Parkinson has extensive experience in clinical trial design and drug development which was gained during his tenure at the NCI. He is leading a major industrial effort in drug development in industry and brings to the external advisory committee the perspective of industry which will help focus and shape the curriculum on an ongoing basis.