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Advisory Committees

Brief paragraph about importance of the advisory committees’ oversight of ACCEL.

Internal Advisory Committee

  • Vicky Funanage, PhD (Chair), Director of Biomedical Research at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware
  • Bethany Hall-Long, Lieutenant Governor for the State of Delaware
  • Tammy L. Loucks, MPH, DrPH, Science Development Officer at the South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research (SCTR) Institute; Associate Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina
  • Melissa Harrington, PhD, Associate Vice President for Research at Delaware State University
  • Charles G. Riordan, PhD, Vice President of Research, Scholarship & Innovation at the University of Delaware
  • Marlene A. Saunders, DSW, MSW, Chair of the ACCEL Community Advisory Council
  • Omar A. Khan, MD, MHS, FAAFP, President & CEO of the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance (DHSA)
  • Brian Levine, MD, Associate Chief Academic Officer and Designated Institutional Official for the Institute for Learning, Leadership & Development (iLead); Associate Medical Director of LifeNet/CareNet Transport ChristianaCare Health System; and Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson Medical College
  • Thomas Shaffer, MSE, PhD, Associate Director of Nemours Biomedical Research and Program Director of the COBRE Center for Pediatric Research at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware

External Advisory Committee

  • Scott A. Waldman, MD, PhD (Chair), Associate Deal of Clinical and Translational Research, the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Thomas Jefferson Medical College
  • Daniel J. Rader, MD, Edward S. Cooper, MD/Normal Roosevelt and Elizabeth Meriwether McLure Professor, Chief of the Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics, Associate Director for the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, and Director of Preventive Cardiovascular Program at the University of Pennsylvania
  • James Padbury, MD, William and Mary Oh – William and Elsa Zopfi Professor of Pediatrics for Perinatal Research, Program Director of the COBRE for Perinatal Research, Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
  • Nicholas Stergiou, PhD, Isaacson Chair and Professor, and Director of the Biomechanics Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska Medical Center
  • Saundra H. Glover, PhD, MBA, Professor of Health Services Policy and Management at the Arnold School of Public Health of the University of South Carolina
  • Steven L. Wolf, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology, Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine

Community Advisory Council

The Community Advisory Council (CAC) collaborates with the ACCEL Program to clarify the best approaches to solving health problems, reach people statewide with new research information and build connections for research in the broad community.

The CAC adds value to the Community Engagement & Outreach Core in its mission to engage the community in translational research by simplifying the message from ACCEL to the community; helping ACCEL with circular feedback from the project to the community and back; clarifying and developing a common language; clarifying the process for building trust and sharing power between the academic/medical research community and the broader community; and, helping with overcoming existing barriers in reaching the community.

The CAC in involved in clinical research issues in the ACCEL Program’s priority health issues. They review and disseminate information to others in their networks and communities. The CAC works collaboratively with the ACCEL Program to develop approaches to solve problems and advocate for practical application of research.

  • Marlene A. Saunders, DSW, MSW, LMSW (Chair)
  • Gwendoline B. “Gwen” Angalet, PhD, CEO of GBA Consulting
  • Octavia “Penny” Dryden, Executive Director of the Community Housing & Empowerment Connections Inc., and Chairperson for the Delaware EJ community Partnership and Delaware Concerned Residents for EJ@CHEC
  • Cecelia Rich, MPA, Founder of the Village Tree Inc.
  • Terry-Ann Richards, Administrative Assistant at the University of Delaware with CRESP
  • Shay Scott, MA, Chief Executive Officer at Southbridge Medical Advisory Council Inc. (Henrietta Johnson Medical Center)
  • LaVaida Owens White, MSN, RN, FCN, Coordinator for the Delaware Region Health Ministries Network