Get to Know VeraSci

Your Thought Partner in Scientific Discovery

As clinical trials grow in scope and complexity, VeraSci provides the scientific and operational clarity needed for optimal trial performance and accelerated drug development. We are a global clinical, cognitive, and functional assessment services and technology company devoted to applying rigorous standards for key endpoints in multi-site clinical trials in many different indications.

The VeraSci leadership team is composed of world-renowned scientists, industry thought leaders, and operational experts. We pair scientific expertise with operational dedication to get it right, on time, every time.

Meet the Leadership Team Behind VeraSci

 

Luca Pani, MD

VP, Regulatory Strategy and Market Access Innovation
Read Bio
Luca Pani, MD

Luca Pani, MD

VP, Regulatory Strategy and Market Access Innovation

Dr. Luca Pani is the former Director General of the Italian Medicines Agency and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Committee for Human Medicines (CHMP) and of the Scientific Advice Working Party (SAWP) for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in London. Luca is a recognized expert in basic and clinical pharmacology and regulatory science with particular emphasis on health technology assessments linked with novel negotiation strategies for the reimbursement of precision medicines. In his roles, he negotiated the reimbursement for the world's first gene therapy (Strimvelis®) and implemented very advanced Managed Entry Agreements linked to regulatory validated registries for real-life data follow-up and further evaluations based on bioinformatics. His current interests lie in virtual reality assessment tools to detect early signs of pathological ailments and designing decision tree algorithms to negotiate drug pricing under conditions of uncertainty by using clinical and sensor-generated data to continuously populate the unknown variabilities of effectiveness and by linking them to outcome values dynamically recorded in real-world evidence. He is a Professor of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy and a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, University of Miami. Dr. Pani earned his medical degree from the University of Cagliari, psychiatry degree from the University of Naples, and completed post-doctoral training in molecular biology and pharmacology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Georgetown University.

Kathleen Anne Welsh-Bohmer, PhD, ABPP

Distinguished Scientific Advisor for Neurodegenerative Disorders
Read Bio
Kathleen Anne Welsh-Bohmer, PhD, ABPP

Kathleen Anne Welsh-Bohmer, PhD, ABPP

Distinguished Scientific Advisor for Neurodegenerative Disorders

For more than 25 years, Dr. Kathleen Anne Welsh-Bohmer’s research activities have been focused around developing effective prevention and treatment strategies to eliminate the onset of cognitive disorders occurring in later life. As one of the true leaders in Alzheimer’s Disease scientific research, Dr. Welsh-Bohmer brings vast expertise to her work with VeraSci. Through a special contract with Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Welsh-Bohmer serves as a distinguished scientific advisor for Neurodegenerative Disorders at VeraSci and leads a team of scientists and operational experts in developing new tools for assessing cognitive and clinical changes and supporting clinical trials in MCI, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological and age-related disorders. Dr. Welsh-Bohmer’s prior work included oversight of the neuropsychology scientific operations of a Phase III global clinical trial to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease entitled the “TOMMORROW” study. Her current activities as a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology within the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) center around developing methods to enhance early diagnosis and speed drug discovery in Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative conditions. Therapeutic Focus: Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's Disease Dementia, Cognitive Aging, Vascular Cognitive Impairment, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia

Alexandra Atkins, PhD

VP, Scientific Development
Read Bio
Alexandra Atkins, PhD

Alexandra Atkins, PhD

VP, Scientific Development

Dr. Alexandra Atkins is a psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in cognitive assessment, clinical trial methodology, and the cognitive neuroscience of memory. Over the past seven years, she has worked alongside Dr. Keefe to spearhead the development of valid and reliable assessments of cognition and function for use in CNS clinical trials and clinical practice. As Vice President of Scientific Development, Dr. Atkins provides scientific oversite to VeraSci project teams across CNS indications and serves as PI on several ongoing technology-based research initiatives supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Dr. Atkins has received National Research Service Awards from both NIMH and NIA to support research using cognitive testing in conjunction with functional neuroimaging techniques to examine the cognitive and neural mechanisms of memory distortion and executive functioning. Her current interests include the strategic use of innovative technology to support valid clinical ratings in clinical trials and improving assessment of subtle functional impairments in prodromal MCI/AD. Dr. Atkins earned her PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan and completed her research fellowship at Duke University’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. Therapeutic Focus: CNS Disorders

William P. Horan, PhD

VP, Clinical Science
Read Bio
William P. Horan, PhD

William P. Horan, PhD

VP, Clinical Science

As a Vice President of Clinical Science, Dr. Horan uses his expertise in cognition, social neuroscience, and symptom assessment to provide scientific and operational support for clinical trials in psychiatric disorders. Prior to joining VeraSci, Dr. Horan was Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and Chief of the Psychosis Section at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. Over the past 20 years, his clinical research has focused on understanding and developing treatments for motivational, social cognitive, and neurocognitive disturbances that impact functional outcomes in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric conditions. Specific interests include negative symptoms, translational affective and social cognitive neuroscience research, and development of novel physiological and behavioral tasks for use as endpoints in clinical trials. His research has been funded by NIMH, VA, and foundation grants, and he served as a Principal Investigator in the NIMH Collaboration to Advance Negative Symptom Assessment in Schizophrenia. He is on the Editorial Boards of Schizophrenia Bulletin, Schizophrenia Research: Cognition, and Journal of Abnormal Psychology (Associate Editor). He has over 130 peer-reviewed articles and has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher (Top 1% in Psychiatry/ Psychology). Therapeutic Focus: Schizophrenia, Psychoses, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Mild Cognitive Impairment

Mark Skeen, MD

Senior Medical Scientist
Read Bio
Mark Skeen, MD

Mark Skeen, MD

Senior Medical Scientist

Dr. Mark Skeen is a Senior Medical Scientist at VeraSci. Dr. Skeen is a neurologist with broad clinical training and experience. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Neurology, and Clinical Neurophysiology and has broad clinical experience in neurology clinical trials in several disease states. He has over 30 years of clinical experience from general internal medicine to neurology subspecialty care and for the past 15 years his focus has been multiple sclerosis and related autoimmune conditions. He is recognized as a thought leader in multiple sclerosis and has been recognized for both clinical and teaching expertise. Dr. Skeen also serves as a Professor of Neurology at Duke University Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Neurology. He has many longstanding partnerships throughout the pharmaceutical industry and brings a distinctly clinical neurologic perspective to VeraSci. Therapeutic Focus: Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroinflammatory Diseases, Movement Disorders, Epilepsy, Stroke

Travis H. Turner, PhD

Senior Clinical Director, Movement Disorders
Read Bio
Travis H. Turner, PhD

Travis H. Turner, PhD

Senior Clinical Director, Movement Disorders

Dr. Turner is a clinical neuropsychologist who provides expertise in designing trials that reliably measure the complex cognitive and psychiatric symptomatology in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders. With over a decade of experience performing comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations in a Movement Disorders specialty clinic, Dr. Turner is keenly aware of the challenges inherent to assessing cognitive and psychological symptoms in this population. Accordingly, his research endeavors have focused on developing tools and techniques with improved sensitivity and reliability for detecting changes associated with disease progression and response to treatment. Some examples include validation of behavioral saccade measures in Parkinson’s disease (Michael J Fox Foundation), facial emotion recognition (NIMH), computational modeling of working memory (Veterans Affairs, CSR&D), and tele-neuropsychology (Veterans Affairs, ORH). Therapeutic Focus: Parkinson's Disease, Atypical Parkinsonisms, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Frontotemporal Dementia, Huntington's Disease, Dementia Psychosis, Nootropics

Adam W. Vaughan, PhD

Senior Director, Psychological Assessments
Read Bio
Adam W. Vaughan, PhD

Adam W. Vaughan, PhD

Senior Director, Psychological Assessments

Dr. Adam Vaughan is Senior Director of Psychological Assessments at VeraSci. He is one of our project managers in the VeraSci Innovation Lab, which focuses on R&D of our proprietary tools. Adam also represents our company at various conferences and works on our rare and orphan disease studies. Prior to joining the team at VeraSci, Adam worked as a school psychologist in the public-school system, assessing and evaluating a full range of children and adolescents with special needs and behavioral issues. Adam received his bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Doctoral Degree in Psychology and Psychometrics from Auburn University. Therapeutic Focus: Childhood Disorders, Rare & Orphan Diseases

Victoria Villalta-Gil, PhD

Clinical Scientist
Read Bio
Victoria Villalta-Gil, PhD

Victoria Villalta-Gil, PhD

Clinical Scientist

Dr. Villalta-Gil has more than 15 years of experience in evaluating clinical outcomes and assessing neurofunctional, cognitive, and social determinants of mental health disorders. She has designed and led multiple descriptive studies aiming at deepening our knowledge of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders in clinical populations and settings. She has also designed and implemented the methods, testing protocols, and study design of studies that utilize complex neuroimaging data. She held a leading role in one of the first studies funded under NIH’s RDoC initiative in which over 200 pairs of twins with high psychopathology traits were extensively assessed with behavioral experiments, clinical and cognitive measures, and neuroimaging techniques. She has acted as the subject expert for a study aiming at developing and testing innovative strategies to increase the recruitment and retention of ethnic and racial minorities in clinical trials.

Jan Sedway, PhD

VP, Scientific Operations
Read Bio
Jan Sedway, PhD

Jan Sedway, PhD

VP, Scientific Operations

Dr. Jan Sedway is the VP of Scientific Operations at VeraSci.  She is a licensed clinical psychologist with experience in a range of psychiatric and cognitive disorders, including specialization in affective, anxiety, and eating disorders. Dr. Sedway has over 25 years of clinical trials experience and has focused largely on the importance of precise measurement of study outcomes. She has been engaged in pharmaceutical industry trials for 14 years and has been involved in the delivery of rater training, data surveillance, eCOA, and linguistic validation services for over 100 studies, phases I through IV, across many indications.

Chris Brady, PsyD

VP, Clinical Science
Read Bio
Chris Brady, PsyD

Chris Brady, PsyD

VP, Clinical Science

Chris Brady, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 25 years of clinical experience and over 20 years of rater training experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She has extensive scientific and operational experience and has been responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing scale training programs, data review and eligibility review across Phase I-IV clinical trials in psychiatry, neurology and analgesia. Dr. Brady works frequently with global thought leaders on scale selection and training. In clinical practice, Dr. Brady treated and assessed children and adults in school, residential treatment, hospital and outpatient settings. She has administered the full range of neuropsychological testing batteries across the age range to develop diagnoses and treatment plans for individuals with cognitive, developmental, and psychological issues. Dr. Brady was Director of Rater Training at an investigational site where she worked for over five years, administering scales for affective disorder and Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials. Dr. Brady was the Lead Scale Scientist on the first industry sponsored clinical trials in Autism where she worked with key opinion leaders to develop ADI-R and ADOS training programs for clinical research sites which have continued to be used in subsequent trials. She has facilitated advisory board meetings with individuals and their study partners on the topic of clinical trials in the area of Autism Spectrum Disorders and provided protocol consultation related to the information gathered. Dr. Brady’s special interests include assessing language, protocol development, training on symptom rating scales and diagnostic tools and interviews skills training.

Timothy Clayton

VP, Product Development
Read Bio
Timothy Clayton

Timothy Clayton

VP, Product Development

Tim Clayton has been developing and delivering successful software products, devices and data solutions for over 25 years, with more than 13 years focused in clinical research and medical device industries. His deep knowledge of C-DISC data standards, clinical data management processes, database, cloud and software development technologies was acquired through hands on building and management of clinical data warehouses, analytics and B2B solutions supporting the world’s top pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining VeraSci, he was Director of Product Development at the world’s largest CRO, where his products received numerous industry awards and recognition for excellence and innovation. In his role as Vice President of Product Development, Mr. Clayton manages the development of our technology products and solutions. He is a Certified Scrum Master and received his BS in Computer Science from Ramapo State College.

Jenna Piunti

VP, Program Development
Read Bio
Jenna Piunti

Jenna Piunti

VP, Program Development

Jenna Piunti has been with VeraSci since 2009, and her leadership has been instrumental to the growth and success of the company. In her role as Vice President of Program Development, Ms. Piunti serves as the primary point of contact for project initiation, including contract execution, operational planning, and outsource partnering. She also provides oversight for key business development activities and provides supervision to our project management team. Ms. Piunti has extensive project management experience in Phase II and Phase III clinical trials, with a special emphasis on international trials in Asia and South America. Ms. Piunti received her BA in English from Siena College.

Trina Walker, RN

VP, Clinical Assessment
Read Bio
Trina Walker, RN

Trina Walker, RN

VP, Clinical Assessment

Trina Walker is a clinical assessment specialist and project manager with more than 15 years of experience in the mental health field. In addition to direct practice work with patients, she has held research positions at Duke University Medical Center and John Umstead Hospital where she investigated neurocognition in severe mental illness. Ms. Walker has supervised data collection for numerous domestic and international multisite clinical trials, including the CATIE schizophrenia and dementia trials. She has also worked alongside Dr. Keefe in developing several cognitive instruments, including the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), and the Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale (SCoRS). In her role as Vice President of Clinical Assessment, Ms. Walker is responsible for overseeing all aspects of clinical data review, data quality assurance and training and for managing the scientific and operational execution of several active clinical trials. She received her BA in Rehabilitation Therapy and AD in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Therapeutic Focus: Schizophrenia, Alzheimer's Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment

Sybil Fortner, MA

Senior Director, Clinical Assessments
Read Bio
Sybil Fortner, MA

Sybil Fortner, MA

Senior Director, Clinical Assessments

Sybil Fortner is Senior Director of Clinical Assessments at VeraSci. She reviews clinical data for multiple trials, assists with creating training plans for clinical staff, allocating clinical duties and ensuring that clinical staff (including Local Language Experts) are adequately trained and calibrated on the necessary clinical assessments. Prior to VeraSci, Ms. Fortner worked as a Senior Clinical Rater for Collaborative Neuroscience Network, LLC administering diagnostic and psychiatric symptom rating scales to adults participating in Phase I-IV psychiatric clinical trials. Sybil graduated with a Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology from the University of Denver. Therapeutic Focus: Schizophrenia, Mood Disorders, Dementia and Age-Related Memory Disorders

Susan Lloyd

VP, Operations and Global Language Solutions
Read Bio
Susan Lloyd

Susan Lloyd

VP, Operations and Global Language Solutions

Susan Lloyd is responsible for managing the development and growth of VeraSci’s Global Language Solutions. She leads the division’s operational, business development and quality control functions. Ms. Lloyd brings over 25 years of management experience in business development, strategic planning, program administration and financial and operations management in the consulting field. Ms. Lloyd has overseen projects for local, state and federal governments, educational institutions, national associations and private industry. Ms. Lloyd has been at VeraSci for the last seven years. Prior to joining VeraSci, she was a Vice President of Business for a national consulting firm dedicated to furthering higher education. Ms. Lloyd holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Mississippi.

Richard Keefe, PhD

Richard Keefe, PhD

Co-Founder

Read Bio »

Dr. Richard Keefe co-founded NeuroCog Trials, now VeraSci, in an effort to bring transformative, scientifically rigorous innovation to neurocognitive data collection in clinical trials. He has over 25 years of experience in clinical psychology, neuroscience, and drug development, and is globally recognized for his expertise in novel strategies for measuring treatment-related changes in human performance and behavior. Dr. Keefe’s legacy of responsive, engaged leadership and his commitment to scientific integrity continues to be at the core of our company culture and service model. In addition to his role at VeraSci, Dr. Keefe is Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences at Duke University Medical Center, and serves on the Editorial Board of Psychological Medicine, Schizophrenia Research, and Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience. He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and on the Scientific Board of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. Dr. Keefe was President of the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology from 2012 to 2014. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers on cognition and CNS disorders. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Princeton University and received his PhD in clinical psychology from NYU. He completed his clinical psychology internship at Yale University School of Medicine.

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Caren Gadigian

Caren Gadigian

Co-Founder

Read Bio »

Caren Gadigian co-founded NeuroCog Trials, now VeraSci, in 2004, bringing her extensive knowledge of finance and business to spearhead the company’s successful development and rapid expansion. She has over 20 years of experience working with private equity firms, providing investment management and operational expertise across a variety of industry sectors.

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Luca Pani, MD

Luca Pani, MD

VP, Regulatory Strategy and Market Access Innovation

Read Bio »

Dr. Luca Pani is the former Director General of the Italian Medicines Agency and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Committee for Human Medicines (CHMP) and of the Scientific Advice Working Party (SAWP) for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in London. Luca is a recognized expert in basic and clinical pharmacology and regulatory science with particular emphasis on health technology assessments linked with novel negotiation strategies for the reimbursement of precision medicines. In his roles, he negotiated the reimbursement for the world's first gene therapy (Strimvelis®) and implemented very advanced Managed Entry Agreements linked to regulatory validated registries for real-life data follow-up and further evaluations based on bioinformatics. His current interests lie in virtual reality assessment tools to detect early signs of pathological ailments and designing decision tree algorithms to negotiate drug pricing under conditions of uncertainty by using clinical and sensor-generated data to continuously populate the unknown variabilities of effectiveness and by linking them to outcome values dynamically recorded in real-world evidence. He is a Professor of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy and a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, University of Miami. Dr. Pani earned his medical degree from the University of Cagliari, psychiatry degree from the University of Naples, and completed post-doctoral training in molecular biology and pharmacology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Georgetown University.

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Kathleen Anne Welsh-Bohmer, PhD, ABPP

Kathleen Anne Welsh-Bohmer, PhD, ABPP

Distinguished Scientific Advisor for Neurodegenerative Disorders

Read Bio »

For more than 25 years, Dr. Kathleen Anne Welsh-Bohmer’s research activities have been focused around developing effective prevention and treatment strategies to eliminate the onset of cognitive disorders occurring in later life. As one of the true leaders in Alzheimer’s Disease scientific research, Dr. Welsh-Bohmer brings vast expertise to her work with VeraSci. Through a special contract with Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Welsh-Bohmer serves as a distinguished scientific advisor for Neurodegenerative Disorders at VeraSci and leads a team of scientists and operational experts in developing new tools for assessing cognitive and clinical changes and supporting clinical trials in MCI, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological and age-related disorders. Dr. Welsh-Bohmer’s prior work included oversight of the neuropsychology scientific operations of a Phase III global clinical trial to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease entitled the “TOMMORROW” study. Her current activities as a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology within the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) center around developing methods to enhance early diagnosis and speed drug discovery in Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative conditions. Therapeutic Focus: Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's Disease Dementia, Cognitive Aging, Vascular Cognitive Impairment, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia

x
Alexandra Atkins, PhD

Alexandra Atkins, PhD

VP, Scientific Development

Read Bio »

Dr. Alexandra Atkins is a psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in cognitive assessment, clinical trial methodology, and the cognitive neuroscience of memory. Over the past seven years, she has worked alongside Dr. Keefe to spearhead the development of valid and reliable assessments of cognition and function for use in CNS clinical trials and clinical practice. As Vice President of Scientific Development, Dr. Atkins provides scientific oversite to VeraSci project teams across CNS indications and serves as PI on several ongoing technology-based research initiatives supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Dr. Atkins has received National Research Service Awards from both NIMH and NIA to support research using cognitive testing in conjunction with functional neuroimaging techniques to examine the cognitive and neural mechanisms of memory distortion and executive functioning. Her current interests include the strategic use of innovative technology to support valid clinical ratings in clinical trials and improving assessment of subtle functional impairments in prodromal MCI/AD. Dr. Atkins earned her PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan and completed her research fellowship at Duke University’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. Therapeutic Focus: CNS Disorders

x
William P. Horan, PhD

William P. Horan, PhD

VP, Clinical Science

Read Bio »

As a Vice President of Clinical Science, Dr. Horan uses his expertise in cognition, social neuroscience, and symptom assessment to provide scientific and operational support for clinical trials in psychiatric disorders. Prior to joining VeraSci, Dr. Horan was Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and Chief of the Psychosis Section at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. Over the past 20 years, his clinical research has focused on understanding and developing treatments for motivational, social cognitive, and neurocognitive disturbances that impact functional outcomes in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric conditions. Specific interests include negative symptoms, translational affective and social cognitive neuroscience research, and development of novel physiological and behavioral tasks for use as endpoints in clinical trials. His research has been funded by NIMH, VA, and foundation grants, and he served as a Principal Investigator in the NIMH Collaboration to Advance Negative Symptom Assessment in Schizophrenia. He is on the Editorial Boards of Schizophrenia Bulletin, Schizophrenia Research: Cognition, and Journal of Abnormal Psychology (Associate Editor). He has over 130 peer-reviewed articles and has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher (Top 1% in Psychiatry/ Psychology). Therapeutic Focus: Schizophrenia, Psychoses, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Mild Cognitive Impairment

x
Mark Skeen, MD

Mark Skeen, MD

Senior Medical Scientist

Read Bio »

Dr. Mark Skeen is a Senior Medical Scientist at VeraSci. Dr. Skeen is a neurologist with broad clinical training and experience. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Neurology, and Clinical Neurophysiology and has broad clinical experience in neurology clinical trials in several disease states. He has over 30 years of clinical experience from general internal medicine to neurology subspecialty care and for the past 15 years his focus has been multiple sclerosis and related autoimmune conditions. He is recognized as a thought leader in multiple sclerosis and has been recognized for both clinical and teaching expertise. Dr. Skeen also serves as a Professor of Neurology at Duke University Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Neurology. He has many longstanding partnerships throughout the pharmaceutical industry and brings a distinctly clinical neurologic perspective to VeraSci. Therapeutic Focus: Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroinflammatory Diseases, Movement Disorders, Epilepsy, Stroke

x
Travis H. Turner, PhD

Travis H. Turner, PhD

Senior Clinical Director, Movement Disorders

Read Bio »

Dr. Turner is a clinical neuropsychologist who provides expertise in designing trials that reliably measure the complex cognitive and psychiatric symptomatology in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders. With over a decade of experience performing comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations in a Movement Disorders specialty clinic, Dr. Turner is keenly aware of the challenges inherent to assessing cognitive and psychological symptoms in this population. Accordingly, his research endeavors have focused on developing tools and techniques with improved sensitivity and reliability for detecting changes associated with disease progression and response to treatment. Some examples include validation of behavioral saccade measures in Parkinson’s disease (Michael J Fox Foundation), facial emotion recognition (NIMH), computational modeling of working memory (Veterans Affairs, CSR&D), and tele-neuropsychology (Veterans Affairs, ORH). Therapeutic Focus: Parkinson's Disease, Atypical Parkinsonisms, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Frontotemporal Dementia, Huntington's Disease, Dementia Psychosis, Nootropics

x
Adam W. Vaughan, PhD

Adam W. Vaughan, PhD

Senior Director, Psychological Assessments

Read Bio »

Dr. Adam Vaughan is Senior Director of Psychological Assessments at VeraSci. He is one of our project managers in the VeraSci Innovation Lab, which focuses on R&D of our proprietary tools. Adam also represents our company at various conferences and works on our rare and orphan disease studies. Prior to joining the team at VeraSci, Adam worked as a school psychologist in the public-school system, assessing and evaluating a full range of children and adolescents with special needs and behavioral issues. Adam received his bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Doctoral Degree in Psychology and Psychometrics from Auburn University. Therapeutic Focus: Childhood Disorders, Rare & Orphan Diseases

x
Victoria Villalta-Gil, PhD

Victoria Villalta-Gil, PhD

Clinical Scientist

Read Bio »

Dr. Villalta-Gil has more than 15 years of experience in evaluating clinical outcomes and assessing neurofunctional, cognitive, and social determinants of mental health disorders. She has designed and led multiple descriptive studies aiming at deepening our knowledge of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders in clinical populations and settings. She has also designed and implemented the methods, testing protocols, and study design of studies that utilize complex neuroimaging data. She held a leading role in one of the first studies funded under NIH’s RDoC initiative in which over 200 pairs of twins with high psychopathology traits were extensively assessed with behavioral experiments, clinical and cognitive measures, and neuroimaging techniques. She has acted as the subject expert for a study aiming at developing and testing innovative strategies to increase the recruitment and retention of ethnic and racial minorities in clinical trials.

x
Jan Sedway, PhD

Jan Sedway, PhD

VP, Scientific Operations

Read Bio »

Dr. Jan Sedway is the VP of Scientific Operations at VeraSci.  She is a licensed clinical psychologist with experience in a range of psychiatric and cognitive disorders, including specialization in affective, anxiety, and eating disorders. Dr. Sedway has over 25 years of clinical trials experience and has focused largely on the importance of precise measurement of study outcomes. She has been engaged in pharmaceutical industry trials for 14 years and has been involved in the delivery of rater training, data surveillance, eCOA, and linguistic validation services for over 100 studies, phases I through IV, across many indications.

x
Chris Brady, PsyD

Chris Brady, PsyD

VP, Clinical Science

Read Bio »

Chris Brady, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 25 years of clinical experience and over 20 years of rater training experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She has extensive scientific and operational experience and has been responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing scale training programs, data review and eligibility review across Phase I-IV clinical trials in psychiatry, neurology and analgesia. Dr. Brady works frequently with global thought leaders on scale selection and training. In clinical practice, Dr. Brady treated and assessed children and adults in school, residential treatment, hospital and outpatient settings. She has administered the full range of neuropsychological testing batteries across the age range to develop diagnoses and treatment plans for individuals with cognitive, developmental, and psychological issues. Dr. Brady was Director of Rater Training at an investigational site where she worked for over five years, administering scales for affective disorder and Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials. Dr. Brady was the Lead Scale Scientist on the first industry sponsored clinical trials in Autism where she worked with key opinion leaders to develop ADI-R and ADOS training programs for clinical research sites which have continued to be used in subsequent trials. She has facilitated advisory board meetings with individuals and their study partners on the topic of clinical trials in the area of Autism Spectrum Disorders and provided protocol consultation related to the information gathered. Dr. Brady’s special interests include assessing language, protocol development, training on symptom rating scales and diagnostic tools and interviews skills training.

x
Timothy Clayton

Timothy Clayton

VP, Product Development

Read Bio »

Tim Clayton has been developing and delivering successful software products, devices and data solutions for over 25 years, with more than 13 years focused in clinical research and medical device industries. His deep knowledge of C-DISC data standards, clinical data management processes, database, cloud and software development technologies was acquired through hands on building and management of clinical data warehouses, analytics and B2B solutions supporting the world’s top pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining VeraSci, he was Director of Product Development at the world’s largest CRO, where his products received numerous industry awards and recognition for excellence and innovation. In his role as Vice President of Product Development, Mr. Clayton manages the development of our technology products and solutions. He is a Certified Scrum Master and received his BS in Computer Science from Ramapo State College.

x
Jenna Piunti

Jenna Piunti

VP, Program Development

Read Bio »

Jenna Piunti has been with VeraSci since 2009, and her leadership has been instrumental to the growth and success of the company. In her role as Vice President of Program Development, Ms. Piunti serves as the primary point of contact for project initiation, including contract execution, operational planning, and outsource partnering. She also provides oversight for key business development activities and provides supervision to our project management team. Ms. Piunti has extensive project management experience in Phase II and Phase III clinical trials, with a special emphasis on international trials in Asia and South America. Ms. Piunti received her BA in English from Siena College.

x
Trina Walker, RN

Trina Walker, RN

VP, Clinical Assessment

Read Bio »

Trina Walker is a clinical assessment specialist and project manager with more than 15 years of experience in the mental health field. In addition to direct practice work with patients, she has held research positions at Duke University Medical Center and John Umstead Hospital where she investigated neurocognition in severe mental illness. Ms. Walker has supervised data collection for numerous domestic and international multisite clinical trials, including the CATIE schizophrenia and dementia trials. She has also worked alongside Dr. Keefe in developing several cognitive instruments, including the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), and the Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale (SCoRS). In her role as Vice President of Clinical Assessment, Ms. Walker is responsible for overseeing all aspects of clinical data review, data quality assurance and training and for managing the scientific and operational execution of several active clinical trials. She received her BA in Rehabilitation Therapy and AD in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Therapeutic Focus: Schizophrenia, Alzheimer's Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment

x
Sybil Fortner, MA

Sybil Fortner, MA

Senior Director, Clinical Assessments

Read Bio »

Sybil Fortner is Senior Director of Clinical Assessments at VeraSci. She reviews clinical data for multiple trials, assists with creating training plans for clinical staff, allocating clinical duties and ensuring that clinical staff (including Local Language Experts) are adequately trained and calibrated on the necessary clinical assessments. Prior to VeraSci, Ms. Fortner worked as a Senior Clinical Rater for Collaborative Neuroscience Network, LLC administering diagnostic and psychiatric symptom rating scales to adults participating in Phase I-IV psychiatric clinical trials. Sybil graduated with a Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology from the University of Denver. Therapeutic Focus: Schizophrenia, Mood Disorders, Dementia and Age-Related Memory Disorders

x
Susan Lloyd

Susan Lloyd

VP, Operations and Global Language Solutions

Read Bio »

Susan Lloyd is responsible for managing the development and growth of VeraSci’s Global Language Solutions. She leads the division’s operational, business development and quality control functions. Ms. Lloyd brings over 25 years of management experience in business development, strategic planning, program administration and financial and operations management in the consulting field. Ms. Lloyd has overseen projects for local, state and federal governments, educational institutions, national associations and private industry. Ms. Lloyd has been at VeraSci for the last seven years. Prior to joining VeraSci, she was a Vice President of Business for a national consulting firm dedicated to furthering higher education. Ms. Lloyd holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Mississippi.

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VeraSci’s Scientific Advisors

Ralph H. B. Benedict, PhD

Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychology Department of Neurology, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences State University of New York (SUNY)

Robert Bilder, PhD

A Clinical Neuropsychologist who has been actively engaged for over 30 years in research on the neuroanatomic and neuropsychological bases of major mental illnesses. He is currently Chief of Medical Psychology – Neuropsychology, and Senior Research Scientist, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital

Jeff Cummings, MD

Director, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Nevada and Cleveland, Ohio; Camille and Larry Ruvo Chair of the Neurological Institute of Cleveland Clinic and Professor of Medicine (Neurology), Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University

Terry Goldberg, PhD

Director of Research in Neurocognition at the Litwin-Zucker Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Prior to his current position, he directed a neurocognitive unit at the NIMH

John Harrison, PhD

Associate Professor at the Alzheimer Centre, VU Medical Centre, Amsterdam and Principal Consultant at Metis Cognition Ltd.

Phil Harvey, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Director, Division of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Miami University

Daniel Laskowitz, MD

Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, Duke University Medical Center, Director of Neuroscience Medicine, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Director, Duke Neurovascular Laboratories

Steve Marder, MD

Professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA; Director of the VISN 22 Mental Illness Research, Education Clinical Center (MIRECC) for the Department of Veterans Affairs; Director of the Section on Psychosis at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute

Dave Rubinow, MD

Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair of Psychiatry; Professor of Medicine; Director, UNC Innovation and Health Care System Transformation; and Director, UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders

Mary Sano, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Director of Research and Development at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital

Laurie Sanders, PhD

Assistant professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, Duke University Medical Center, Director of Neuroscience Medicine, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Director, Duke Neurovascular Laboratories

John Sweeney, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, and Vice-Chair for Clinical Research at the University of Texas Southwestern, focusing on psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and mood disorder and neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and fragile X syndrome. He is also currently Visiting Professor of Radiology at Szechuan University in Chengdu, China

Dave Walling, PhD

Chief Executive and Clinical Officer at Collaborative Neuroscience Network, Inc.

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, MD

MD Professor of Neurology, Jacobs Neurological Institute, SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine Buffalo

Founded in 2004 as NeuroCog Trials (NCT), VeraSci is a privately held, certified woman-owned business, headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.