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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
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
Program in Developmental Neuroscience and Neurogenetics
Department/Division Programs
Cancer and Blood Disease Institute
Dramatic advances in cancer research and treatment over the past two decades have made it possible for more children to survive this disease. This reality fuels the lifesaving scientific research and clinical trials conducted at the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute (CBDI) of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The Institute has pioneered many of the diagnostic and treatment advances that have improved survival rates for children worldwide.
Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine
The Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine Research Program of The Saban Research Institute seeks to discover the basic mechanisms of human organ development, repair and regeneration. Recent advances in developmental biology hold great promise in many areas of human adult and child health, where organ regeneration, stem cell-based therapy or tissue engineering could be lifesaving.
Nutrition and Obesity Program
The Nutrition and Obesity Program offers families access to the latest medical studies, known as clinical trials, aimed at finding better ways to diagnose and treat childhood diabetes and obesity. Many treatments used today are based on the results of past clinical trials. Our scientific and clinical experts take the best ideas from the laboratory to the patient in the form of promising new treatments.
The Heart Institute
We offer an integrated inpatient and outpatient suite of services that combines experts in cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, cardiothoracic transplant, cardiothoracic intensive care and cardiovascular acute care on a single floor in a state-of-the-art healing environment. With fewer steps for families to navigate, our patients receive care that is more streamlined and less stressful. We treat from fetus to adulthood and serve as a major tertiary referral center for all congenital heart defects.
The Vision Center
The Vision Center at Children's Hospital Los Angeles is an international referral center for children with complex eye diseases and is the only program of its kind in the United States with expertise in virtually every pediatric ophthalmologic subspecialty.
Working in six separate institutes, its physician-scientists are helping children to see every day through the latest medical and surgical treatments, as well as cutting-edge research that will change the lives of families across the globe.
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
Associate 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