Email this pageInstitute Leadership – Profiles and Photos
Thomas Pearson, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., is the CTSI Principal Investigator. He is the Albert D. Kaiser Professor of Community and Preventive Medicine and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research. His major research interests are in the epidemiology and prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with a special interest in the international trends of coronary heart disease and stroke. Pearson received his medical degree, doctorate and master's degree in public health at The Johns Hopkins University, where he also completed residency training in preventive medicine and internal medicine and fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine and cardiovascular pathology. From 1988 to 1997, he was the Director of the Mary Imogene Bassett Research Institute in Cooperstown, New York. He also held the Clark Chair in Health Research position and Professor of Public Health and Medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. From 1998 to 2007, Dr. Pearson served as Chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
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Key Function Directors and Co-Directors 
Nancy M. Bennett, MD, MS, is Director of the Community Engagement Key Function and Director of the Center for Community Health. She is a Professor of Medicine and of Community and Preventive Medicine. Dr. Bennett also serves as Deputy Director of the Monroe County Department of Public Health. The Center for Community Health fosters community health research, provides infrastructure for community health planning and improvement, supports innovative approaches to working with local residents and agencies to improve health, and provides community-based, interdisciplinary educational opportunities for health professional students. The Center has established partnerships with community agencies, and promotes community engaged research among faculty throughout the URMC. The work of the Center is guided by a broad-based Community Advisory Board and a Community Health Faculty Committee. Dr. Bennett received her medical degree from New York University School of Medicine and her masters in epidemiology from Columbia University School of Public Health. She completed her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in NYC, and a fellowship in General Medicine at Columbia. She has directed numerous public health research studies and community based interventions in communicable and chronic disease prevention.
Gary Chadwick, Pharm.D., M.P.H, is an advisor to the Regulatory Support Key Function of the 
CTSI and an Associate Provost at the University of Rochester. Dr. Chadwick is the Director of the Office for Human Subject Protection, which is responsible for the operation and support of the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) system. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service for over 26 years. He served in the FDA and in the Office for Protection from Research Risks at the NIH. He was the founding Chair of the ARENA Council for Certification of IRB Professionals. He earned his BS in Pharmacy from the Ohio State University, his PharmD from the University of Tennessee, and his MPH from the Uniformed Services University.
Ann Dozier, RN, Ph.D., is the Director of the Evaluation Working Group within the CTSI. Dr. Dozier's current research and fieldwork focus on community level evaluation and maternal child health outcomes. The latter includes data analysis, program evaluation and data driven program planning through her work with a federally funded Healthy Start Project. Dr. Dozier's work extends to evaluation of system level changes, within MCH this encompasses health and human service integration. Internationally this comprises evaluation of the impact of technology on communities in the developing world, with particular emphasis on health and the environment. Dr. Dozier also serves as Director of the Department's Research Services Group, Associate Director in the Public Health Practice Division and Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine.
Kevin Fiscella, MD., is Co-Director of Community Engagement for the Clinical and Translational Research Institute. He is tenured Associate Professor of Family Medicine, Community & Preventive Medicine, and Oncology and also Associate Director of the Rochester Center to Improve Communication in Health Care. He received his Medical Degree from the Medical College of Virginia and his Masters in Public Health and health services research training from the University of Rochester. His research focuses on identifying and addressing causes of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in health care, particularly as they pertain to quality improvement. He is currently directing a randomized trial of patient navigation sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and conducting a randomized trial of concurrent peer review to improve ambulatory care for low-income and minority diabetic and cardiovascular disease patients sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Susan Fisher, Ph.D., is the Co-Director of the Design, Biostatistics and Clinical Research Ethics Key Function of the CTSI. Dr. Fisher is also Chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine and Chief of its Division of Epidemiology. Dr. Fisher received a Bachelor of Science degree from Johns Hopkins, a Master’s Degree in Biostatistics from Georgetown University and a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Illinois School of Public Health. As Assistant Chief of the Veterans Administration Cooperative Studies Program at Hines, Illinois for 10 years, Dr. Fisher has extensive experience in the design, conduct, and analysis of national, multi-center clinical trials. Dr. Fisher’s major area of independent research has been in the field of oncology with a particular interest in virally-induced malignancies, with particular interest in HIV malignancies, particularly lymphomas. As the Director of EpiCore, the Epidemiological Consultation in Research program developed as a component of the CTSI, Dr. Fisher and her colleagues provide methodologic and analytic consultation in epidemiology to investigators conducting translational and clinical research. Specific areas of focus include: risk estimation, sample size calculations, study design, field work, survey development, data management, and standard statistical analyses including multivariate modeling and survival techniques. EpiCore faculty also collaborate in the planning, development, and conduct of federally-funded grant proposals.
John Gerich, MD., is the Director of the Participant and Clinical Interactions Resources Key Function of the CTSI and Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Dr. Gerich is also Program Director of the Institution’s Clinical Research Center and Head of its Diabetes Research Laboratory. Dr. Gerich graduated Cornell University magna cum laude with honors in Classics, received his MD and Residency training in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University and trained in Endocrinology at the University of California in San Francisco under Dr. Peter Forsham. Before coming to the University of Rochester, Dr. Gerich served on the faculty of the University of California (San Francisco), Mayo Clinic, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of California (San Diego) Over the past 30 years, he has trained more than 40 research fellows. Dr. Gerich has received numerous awards and lectureships including: 1975 Rumbrough Research Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Association; the 1975 J. D. Lane Award for Scientific Research from the United States Public Health Service Professional Association; the 1985 Connaught Lectureship from the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Diabetes Association; the 1988 Lilly Award from the American Diabetes Association; the 1990 Rolf Luft Award from the Karolinska Institute; the 1991 Stadie Award from the American Diabetes Association, Pennsylvania; the 1992 Charles H. Best Lecture from the Toronto Diabetes Association; the 2001 Ricardo E. Fernando Medal from the Philippine Society of Diabetologists; and the 2007 Novartis Prize in Diabetes for Long-Standing Achievement.
Robert Holloway, MD., MPH., is Director of the CTSI KL2 Career Development Program and
Co-Director of the Clinical Research Ethics Key Function. He is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Community and Preventive Medicine and Vice Chair of the Department of Neurology. Dr. Holloway received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Dentistry. He completed his neurology residency, received his master's degree in public health, and completed a fellowship in health services research in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Holloway is board certified in Neurology and in Hospice & Palliative Medicine. His major research interests are technology assessment and cost-effectiveness of neurological practices and policies, methods to improve the quality and safety of medical care, and conflicts of interest in research and practice.
David Krusch, MD., is a Co-Director within the Biomedical Informatics Key Function of the CTSI. Dr. Krusch also serves as the Director of Medical Informatics Division and Chief Medical Information Officer for Strong Memorial Hospital, and as a Associate Professor of Surgery and Medical Informatics. Dr. Krusch's research interests include wireless computing and electronic medical records.
Gunta Liders, MA., is a Co-Director of the CTSI Regulatory Support Key Function and the Associate Vice President for Research Administration at the University of Rochester. In this role, she serves as a senior administrative officer of the University responsible for non-financial aspects of sponsored programs administration, including the development and implementation of research policies and processes. Gunta serves on numerous University of Rochester standing committees such as the conflict of interest committee, technology transfer policy committee, institutional biosafety committee, and radiation safety committee. Gunta is the University of Rochester’s primary representative to the Council of Governmental Relations, and serves on its Board of Directors and Chair of its Research Administration and Compliance Committee. Gunta also currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Federal Demonstration Partnership, and on the Board of Directors of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA). She has received two Distinguished Service Awards from both the national and regional chapters of NCURA. Gunta is a chapter author for “Managing Federal Grants: A Guide to Colleges and Universities”, as well as for “Sponsored Research Administration: A Guide to Effective Strategies and Recommended Practices”. She has also served as an external reviewer and financial consultant for the National Institutes of Health.
Richard Moxley III, MD., is a Co-Director of the Pilot and Collaborative Studies Key Function and a Professor in the Neurology and Pediatric Departments. Dr. Moxley is also the Director of the Neuromuscular Disease Center and Associate Chair of the Department of Neurology at Strong Memorial Hospital. Dr. Moxley's research interests include investigation into the cause for muscle wasting and weakness in myotonic dystrophy and related disorders.
David Oakes, Ph.D. is a Co-Director within the Design, Biostatistics and Clinical Research Ethics key function and a Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology. Since coming to Rochester in 1983 Dr. Oakes has become deeply involved in clinical trials. He directs the Biostatistics Centers of the Parkinson and Huntington Study Groups, two consortia of scientific investigators and researchers, and he is committed to advancing knowledge about these diseases through the planning, implementation and reporting of clinical trials of promising therapeutic interventions. Dr. Oakes has also worked in cardiology, infectious diseases and pediatrics, and is the Director of the Biostatistics Core facility for the Environmental Health Science Center at the University of Rochester.
Randy Rosier, MD., Ph.D., is the Co-Director of the Pilot and Collaborative Studies Key Function of the CTSI. He is also a Professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, and Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester. Dr. Rosier received his BS degree in physics from Dickinson College in 1972, and came to the University of Rochester the same year to join the MD/PhD training program. He received an MS in biophysics from the University of Rochester in 1977, MD degree in 1978, and PhD in biophysics in 1979. After his Orthopaedic training at the University of Iowa, Dr. Rosier was recruited by Dr. C. McCollister Evarts to return to Rochester to join the faculty of the Department of Orthopaedics and create an Orthopaedic Oncology service. In addition, Dr. Rosier established a molecular biology research program in the area of growth factor regulation of cartilage development and regeneration, and an Osteoporosis Center for the treatment of metabolic bone diseases. In 2000, Dr. Rosier became Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics, and established the Center for Musculoskeletal Research which he directed. The Orthopaedic research program of the Center, which focuses on bone and cartilage healing and regeneration, arthritis and gene therapy, tissue engineering, osteoporosis, and treatments for implant loosening and cancer bone metastasis, has become ranked as the number one NIH funded Orthopaedic research program, growing from 3 to 17 scientists in the group. Dr. Rosier also oversaw construction of a multidisciplinary Musculoskeletal Outpatient Clinic at Clinton Crossings.
Eric Rubinstein, J.D., M.P.H., is the Director of the Regulatory Support Key Function within the CTSI. Mr. Rubinstein comes to the University of Rochester from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where he served in various roles such as Privacy Officer, Director of the Office of Research and Evaluation Policy in the HIV/AIDS Bureau, and Epidemiologist. He earned his MPH at University of Massachusetts School of Public Health, and his law degree at the Suffolk University Law School. Mr. Rubinstein is responsible for creating a process that ensures the efficient review and implementation of research projects. He works directly with investigators to facilitate the translation of a research idea into an implemented research protocol, working through the required regulatory, compliance, and financial steps. He also works with staff in the Office of Human Subject Protection (OHSP), the Office of Research Project Administration (ORPA) and the Office of Research Accounting and Costing Standards (ORACS) to identify actions that would improve efficiency and responsiveness to investigator needs. Finally, Mr. Rubinstein is responsible for developing novel educational programs to improve researchers’ understanding of regulatory issues, especially as they impact clinical and translational research.
Edward Schwarz, Ph.D., is the Co-Director of the Novel Clinical and Translational Methodologies Key Function of the CTSI. He is also Professor of Orthopaedics, Microbiology and Immunology, Medicine, the Cancer Center, Urology, Pathology & Lab Animal Med, Environmental Health Sciences CTR and Biomedical Engineering. He is also the Associate Director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Research and the President of LAGeT Inc. Schwarz earned his doctorate in Microbiology & Immunology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and came to Rochester from the Salk Institute, where he completed an Arthritis Foundation and a National Multiple Sclerosis Society Fellowship in inflammation, signal transduction and gene therapy. His lab currently focuses on inflammatory bone loss. Schwarz has published more than 100 articles on a variety of topics in Orthopaedics and Rheumatology, Tissue Engineering and Gene Therapy.
Peter Szilagyi, MD., MPH., is a Co-Director within the Community Engagement Key Function. Dr. Szilagyi is a Professor of Pediatrics, Chief of the General Pediatrics Division, Director of Ambulatory Pediatrics at Strong Memorial Hospital, Director of the General Pediatrics Academic Fellowship Program and Associate Director of the Strong Children's Research Center. Dr. Szilagyi is a health services researcher and studies methods to improve the quality of care and health outcomes for children and adolescents, and he directs a large research operation in the Robert J Haggerty Health Services Research Laboratory. His major areas of research are: (1) improving immunization coverage for children; (2) evaluating the effect of health insurance or lack of insurance in pediatric health care; and (3) improving the quality of care and outcomes for high risk children including impoverished children, and those with chronic medical or psychosocial problems.
Sally W. Thurston, Ph.D., is the CTSI Design, Biostatistics and Clinical Research Ethics key function director. Dr. Thurston is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Rochester. Much of her statistical work is motivated by problems arising in environmental and occupational health. Areas of methodological research include modeling multiple outcomes, correction for measurement error bias, exposure assessment, using biomarkers to improve cancer risk estimates, and Bayesian inference. Dr. Thurston works closely with faculty in the Departments of Environmental Medicine, Radiation Oncology and others. She was recently elected a member of the International Statistical Institute. Dr. Thurston received her Ph.D.in Statistics from Harvard University, and was a postdoctoral fellow and research associate in Biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health prior to her appointment at the University of Rochester in 2002.
John Treanor, MD., is the Co-Director of the Novel Clinical and Translational Methodologies Key Function of the CTSI. Dr. Treanor is a Professor of Medicine, and of Microbiology and Immunology. He is the Principal Investigator and Director of the University of Rochester Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU). Recent studies have included evaluation of live attenuated influenza vaccines in infants and young children, evaluation of smallpox, anthrax and genital herpes vaccines in healthy adults, and evaluation of novel inactivated influenza vaccines and of protein-conjugate pneumococcal vaccines in ambulatory elderly adults. In collaboration with Ed Walsh and Ann Falsey, the unit also evaluates the immune response to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in adults using a recently described human infection model. Dr. Treanor has a long standing interest in influenza pathogenesis and vaccine development. He has collaborations with Dr. Eun-Hyung Lee and Timothy Mosmann in studies evaluating aging and the immune response to influenza vaccine, with Dr. Xi Jin on the effect of lipid supplementation on influenza vaccine responses in the elderly, and with Dr. Jan Moynihan on the effects of stress on influenza immune responses in elderly residents of nursing homes.
Dongwen Wang, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the CTSI Biomedical Informatics Key Function, and is Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Assistant Professor of Medical Informatics, and Co-Director of Biomedical Informatics Program (BIP) at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He received his PhD in biomedical informatics from Columbia University and served as a research faculty prior to moving to Rochester. Dr. Wang’s research has been focusing on use of informatics approaches to facilitating the translation of biomedical research into clinical practice. His work involves the modeling of biomedical knowledge and representation of them in computer-interpretable formats, management of biomedical data and knowledge within the context of clinical workflow, and delivery of behavioral interventions to clinicians and patients through information technology to improve healthcare processes and outcomes. Dr. Wang was one of the developers of a computer-based guideline representation model, the GuideLine Interchange Format (GLIF), and the primary developer of the associated GLIF3 Guideline Execution Engine (GLEE). As a generalization of GLIF/GLEE, he developed the Guideline Execution by Semantic Decomposition of Representation (GESDOR) model. His research has been applied to address clinical problems such as improvement of immunization rate, facilitation of post-CABG critical pathway, screening of patients with major depression, assistance of diabetic foot-care, management of HIV/AIDS patients, and implementation of visit reminders in ambulatory mental health care. Dr. Wang has published papers in various biomedical informatics journals and given talks at national and international conferences. He is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and now serving in its Meetings Committee.
Stephen Welle, PhD., is the Director of the Translational Technologies Key Function. Dr. Welle has been with the University since the early 1980s. He heads the Core Laboratory component of the CRC and the Functional Genomics Center, and is also involved in teaching and independent research as a Professor of Medicine in the Endocrinology Unit. He acquired his Ph.D. in Neurobiology with his fellowship in the field of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Dr. Welle has over 100 peer-reviewed publications related to body composition, energy and protein metabolism, aging, muscle biology, and gene expression.
Hulin Wu, Ph.D., is the Co-Director of the Biomedical Informatics Key Function of the UR CTSI. He received his Ph.D. in statistics from Florida State University in 1994. After two years as a visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis (TN), he joined Frontier Science & Technology Research Foundation in 1996 as a Senior Statistician to work for Statistical Data Analysis Center (SDAC), currently Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research (CBAR), Harvard School of Public Health. He served as the Head of Pharmacology/Dynamic Modeling Section at SDAC, Adults AIDS Clinical Trials Group (AACTG) from 1999-2002. He also held an Adjunct Lecturer position at the Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University from 2000-2003. He joined the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester as Full Professor in 2003. He also concurrently holds Full Professor position at the Department of Medicine and Department of Community & Preventive Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Wu founded the Division of Biomedical Modeling and Informatics (DBMI) at the Department of Biostatistics & Computational Biology and he currently serves as the Chief of the Division consisting of about 20 multi-disciplinary investigators including biostatisticians, biomathematical modelers, biocomputing scientists, software developers and bioinformaticians. He is also the Director of the Center for Biodefense Immune Modeling (CBIM) funded by NIAID/NIH with a total budget about $10 million.
