The Saban Research Institute Leadership
The Saban Research Institute
Leadership
Pat Levitt, PhD
Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and Director, The Saban Research Institute
Jodi S. Ogden, MBA, CRA
Vice President, Chief Research Operating Officer, Research Operations
Rohit Kohli, MBBS, MS
Associate Director of Training and Education, The Saban Research Institute
Bridget Fernandez, MD
Associate Director of Clinical Research, The Saban Research Institute
Jessica Wisnowski, PhD
Assistant Director of Research Communication, The Saban Research Institute
Vidya Rajagopalan, PhD
Assistant Director of Research Technology, The Saban Research Institute
CSO Office
Juli Wu, PhD
Associate Director, Research Advancement and Information
Research Theme Leaders
Best Starts to Life
Discovery to Pediatric Care Innovation
Theme leader update coming soon.
Disease Models and Mechanisms
Theme leader update coming soon.
Prevention and Personalized Care
Theme leader update coming soon.
Research Program Leaders
Developmental Neuroscience and Neurogenetics Program
Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Department/Division Programs
Cancer and Blood Disease Institute
Nutrition and Obesity Program
The Heart Institute
The Vision Center
Research Operations Leadership
Directors
Karen Niemeier
Associate Vice President, Research Operations
Matt McPeck, MPA
Executive Director, Research Operations
Shannen Nelson, RN, MSN, CCRP, CCRC
Executive Director, Clinical Research Operations
Chris Del Vecchio, JD
Director, Technology Commercialization
Barbara Driscoll, PhD
Director, Laboratory Science
Sharon Tang
Associate Director, Clinical Research Support Office
Ani Voskertchian, MPH
Associate Director, Clinical Research Support Office
The Clinical Research Support Office (CRSO) is a productive, cost-effective service program that supports clinical research studies & trials from start-up to closeout.
Virgil Swanier
Associate Director, Post Award & Research Finance
The Research Finance Team promotes financial stability within Research Operations by delivering high-quality financial data, standards and analysis to support all external customers and stakeholders for CHLA.
Lilit Amirkhanyan
Director, Research Administration
The Grants team provides support to Principal Investigators and division staff by reviewing, approving and submitting proposals and accepting awards for sponsored projects.
The Research Services team provides Pre & Post Award research administration support to Principal Investigators who have no division-level support.
Tigran Garoian
Associate Director, Clinical Research Administration
The Contracts & Clinical Research team support clinical research by negotiating contracts and budgets with industry, nonprofit, state and federal entities.
Erika Orozco
Associate Director, Research Operations
The Research Operations administrative team supports all teams within Research Operations. This also includes the Research Space and Facilities team who supports faculty and staff with lab and space needs to improve the utilization of research space.
Managers
Bennie Harris
Manager, Programs & Analytics
The Programs and Analytics team supports the research community by managing research data analytics, strategic initiatives and core facilities.
Virginia Mason, MPH, PMP
Manager, Research Education & Training
The Training, Education, Career Planning & Development (TECPAD) team supports research trainees across various career stages and at different academic levels.
Sonia Badrinath
Manager, Post Award & Research Finance
The Post-Award team provides oversight and guidance of award administration to ensure compliance with sponsor terms and conditions as well as to CHLA policies and procedures.
Christina Du, DVM
Manager, Animal Care Facility
Mara Levy-LaPointe, CIP
Manager, Institutional Review Board
Mohit Mehra
Manager, Data Science and Data Engineering
Candice Mulder, MPH, CCRP, CIP
Manager, Clinical Research Regulatory Affairs