Meet the team

Leadership

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  Laura Gibson, MD

  Principal Investigator

  Infectious Disease and Immunology
  Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  Laura Gibson, M.D., is an Adult and Pediatric Infectious Disease physician at UMassMemorial Health and a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at UMass Chan Medical School.

  As a clinician, she serves a variety of patient populations, including the immunocompromised, pregnant women, and children. As a physician-scientist in Adult and Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology spanning more than 15 years, Dr. Gibson combines all-age patient care and translational research.

  Over the course of her 30-year career, she has mentored numerous students, residents, postdoctoral trainees, and faculty, and is the recipient of several grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease focused on immunology and the pediatric population, COVID-19 antigen testing and cytomegalovirus (CMV). Dr. Gibson has also presented at international, national, regional, and local conferences on advances in the diagnosis and management of congenital CMV infection, and how to improve prevention and treatment of the disease.

  Her work to raise awareness of CMV led her to create the Massachusetts Congenital CMV Coalition (MCC), a non-profit organization of professional and community stakeholders, and parents of children with CMV infection. Through this work, she is involved in several activities to screen for newborn testing programs and created the congenital CMV testing and management guidelines to serve as a resource for providers in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In fact, her work resulted in the filing of a bill in February 2021 with the Massachusetts State Legislature to mandate pre-natal CMV education and universal CMV screening for all newborns in Massachusetts.

  In March 2022, UMass Chan Medical School announced Dr. Gibson would lead a research collaboration with Moderna, Inc., on a comprehensive study of cytomegalovirus (CMV) transmission in group childcare, education, and household settings.

  The CMV Transmission and Immune Tracking (CMV TransmIT) Study will examine how CMV spreads among children in large group early education and care settings, and between those children and their household members, with an aim to characterize immune responses to CMV infection over time. Findings from the study will inform the design of prevention strategies that reduce CMV transmission to pregnant caretakers and will support CMV awareness campaigns.

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  Karen Del’Olio, MPH

  Research Program Manager

  Infectious Disease and Immunology
  Department of Medicine
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  Karen Del’Olio, MPH is a seasoned mixed-methods researcher with over 20 years of diverse experience in the biotech, pharmaceutical industry, and academic settings. Her expertise spans clinical research strategy and operations, patient advocacy, community-engaged research, and partnership building. Karen has a robust background in participant recruitment and retention, study branding, regulatory documentation, and the development of participant-facing materials with a strong emphasis on health literacy. Her work also includes designing survey instruments, conducting focus groups, facilitating community engagement studios, and collaborating closely with Community Advisory Boards, key informants, and community partners.

  Karen is currently responsible for directing the day-to-day operations of study staff, overseeing team development, including EEC center relations, and leading protocol development and implementation. She leads all aspects of clinical research projects, from participant recruitment and enrollment, and data collection to ensuring regulatory compliance, budget management, reporting, and communication. Her role extends to progress tracking, program evaluation, and disseminating research updates, ensuring the smooth operation and successful outcomes of clinical trials.

  In addition to her operational role, Karen is the Principal Investigator of a health literacy research study aimed at developing community-engaged clinical research tools. Throughout her career at UMass Chan Medical School, she has led two major clinical research initiatives within the Center for Clinical and Translational Science: the Community Engagement and Collaboration Core, and the Community Health Equity and Engagement team for the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics COVID-19 Test Us Clinical Studies Core. Her extensive experience at UMass Chan also includes key roles in Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Cardiovascular Medicine, and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing.

  Karen's clinical research acumen extends to advising a gene therapy start-up on National Institutes of Health grant management and managing a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant. She has also overseen a pharmaceutical training program for a major pharmaceutical company and worked as a tobacco treatment specialist in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, contributing to public health communications resources. Her broad experience has made her a trusted advisor to research physicians, clinical research teams, and community-engaged research colleagues across the country.

  Beyond her primary roles, Karen has served on numerous committees, including the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Summit Committee and the Community Engagement Studios Adopters Group through Vanderbilt University. She has been Chair/Co-Investigator of the Survey Development Committee for UMass Chan’s Community Engagement Committee, a Scientific Abstract Reviewer for the Annual Community Engaged Research and Engagement Symposia at UMass Chan, and a reviewer for the UMass Chan Annual Service Awards. Karen is an active member of the Community Engagement Managers National Knowledge Brokers Group, the national organization Partners for the Advancement of Community Engaged Research (PACER), and the Society of Clinical Research Associates, Inc. (SOCRA).

  Karen’s professional development includes extensive training in public health, community-engaged research through the Harvard Catalyst, tobacco treatment research, and community engagement studios. She holds an MPH with a focus in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, completed through the Family Medicine Division, UMass Chan Program.

Research Nurse Coordinator Team

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  Cheryl Hamel, RN, BSN

  Research Nurse Coordinator

  Infectious Disease and Immunology
  Department of Medicine
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  Cheryl Hamel, RN, BSN, is a Registered Nurse with 29 years of nursing experience. Cheryl’s background in nursing includes a focus in Emergency Medicine. The patients that she has cared for in her community range from newborn to elderly, however, the pediatric population is Cheryl’s most beloved. In addition to her work in emergency medicine, Cheryl has been a clinical nursing instructor for the UMASS Graduate accelerated program. Cheryl taught medical surgical nursing to prospective Nurse Practitioners for the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing.

  Cheryl graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She is certified in Pediatric Advanced Life Support, Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support. Cheryl is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association, the American Organization for Nursing Leadership and the Massachusetts Nursing Association and has been a long-time resident of Uxbridge.

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  Lisa Tran, RN, BSN

  Research Nurse Coordinator

  Infectious Disease and Immunology
  Department of Medicine
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  Lisa Tran, RN, BSN, graduated with her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Baker University. Since graduation, she has worked in Coronary Care, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Mohs and Reconstructive Surgery. She is also a member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals.

  Lisa is a Research Nurse Coordinator for the Cytomegalovirus Transmission and Immune Tracking Study at UMass Chan Medical School. Working on the CMV TransmIT Study, she assists in the study’s development, implementation, and helps disseminate evidence-based health information to the community.

Laboratory Team

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  John Holik, Research Associate

  Microbiology & Physiological Systems
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

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  Tim Kowalik, PhD

  Co-Investigator

  Microbiology & Physiological Systems
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  After earning a BS in Biology at Belmont Abbey College, Timothy Kowalik, PhD attended graduate school at Utah State University where he earned an MS and a PhD studying the genetic relatedness of US serotypes of bluetongue virus (BTV), a significant pathogen that causes birth defects and still birth in ruminants including economically important livestock such as cattle and sheep. He furthered his virology research as a postdoctoral fellow at UNC-Chapel School of Medicine studying HCMV under the late Eng-Shang (Clark) Huang, PhD, a founder of HCMV molecular biology and antiviral research. Subsequently, he studied cell cycle and transformation using viruses as perturbants under Joseph R. Nevins, PhD, at Duke University Medical School. In 1996, he joined the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology (now Microbiology and Physiological Systems, MaPS) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (now UMass Chan Medical School) as an Assistant Professor where he continued studies of basic HCMV virology and cell growth control by viruses, including the discovery of a missing receptor (OR14I1) that defines CMV tropism. In 2009, he partnered with Laura Gibson, MD and Jeffrey Jensen, PhD to develop genome wide ultra-deep sequencing of HCMV to infer histories of congenital transmission and within host evolution. He collaborates with Sallie Permar, MD, PhD to perform similar studies of RhCMV evolution in congenital transmission. Likewise, he has had undertaken complementary studies of EBV evolutionary dynamics during infectious mononucleosis (with Katherine Luzuriaga, MD) and influenza virus evolution in vitro (with the late Robert Finberg, MD). During his training and faculty career, Dr. Kowalik’s research has been recognized by awards from the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fund, the Leukemia Society of America, the American Heart Association, and the Worcester Foundation. Dr. Kowalik is presently Dr. Marcellette G Williams Distinguished Scholar and a tenured Full Professor at UMass Chan, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Data Team

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  Bruce Barton, PhD

  Director of Quantitative Methods Core

  Population & Quantitative Health Sciences
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

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  Elizabeth Orvek, MS, MBA

  Application Database Developer

  Population & Quantitative Health Sciences
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

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  Stephen Lammi, MS

  Bioinformatician

  Infectious Disease and Immunology
  Department of Medicine
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  Stephen Lammi, MS, has over 7 years of research experience working in the biomedical field focused on immuno-oncology, protein engineering and bioinformatics. Contributing to both industry and academic research, Stephen’s focus has been on addressing questions involving cancer and the role of human biology in complex diseases.

  Stephen graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2016 and a Master of Science in bioinformatics from Brandeis University in 2023. His focus now is on supporting research and discovery using bioinformatics tools and data analysis to help understand the biological mechanisms behind cytomegalovirus (CMV) and its transmission within the community. He looks forward to contributing to a dedicated team of researchers and nurses with the goal of decreasing the spread of CMV and increasing awareness of its effects within our communities.

Administrative Team

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  Anne Davenport

  Project Manager

  Infectious Disease and Immunology
  Department of Medicine
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  Anne Davenport manages Regulatory and Compliance and Institutional Review Board (IRB) submissions for the CMV TransmIT Study. Anne ensures regulatory requirements of the IRB, the study sponsor, and other federal entities are met. She has been with UMass Chan and its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health, for five years. She previously served as the project coordinator for the NIH-funded program, Center for Advancing Point-of-Care Technologies in Heart, Lung, Blood and Sleep Disorders. Over the course of Anne’s career as an administrative professional she has also contributed to the causes of non-profit cultural institutions, independent schools and community health organizations.

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  Cindi Callaghan

  Project Manager

  Academic Services Group
  Department of Medicine
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  Cindi Callaghan has more than 20 years’ experience as a project manager in academia and the private sector.

  As part of a group at UMass Chan Medical School focused on developing and producing an HIV vaccine to be used in Phase II human clinical trials, Cindi oversaw in excess of $17M in funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). She is pleased to contribute to the CMV Transmission and Immune Tracking Study team working on the most common congenital viral infection in the United States which can cause severe disease in babies who were infected with CMV before birth.

  Cindi spent over 10 years helping to manage and grow the International Society for Vaccines. In her community, she has served on the town’s fiscal appropriations committee and chaired a school building committee. She graduated from Northeastern University with a B.S. in Business Management.

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  Judy Terry

  Administrative Coordinator

  Infectious Disease and Immunology
  Department of Medicine
  UMass Chan Medical School
  Worcester, MA

  Full bio

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  Judi Terry is the Administrative Coordinator for the CMV TransmIT Study at UMass Chan Medical School where she assists with the daily operations of the study.

  She is a highly experienced Administrator Coordinator in the Education field. Working many years within a Guidance office of a Regional District High School, one of the most rewarding roles of her job was to be the first point of communication for students, teachers, parents and the community. Multi-tasking, coordinating schedules and prioritizing students was a daily ritual.

  Judi brings these skills to UMass Chan Medical School and the CMV TransmIT Study. She is not new to UMass Chan Medical School. She previously assisted the Development office to plan the Annual Winter Ball, worked as the Administrative Assistant at the Employee Assistance Program office, and was the Administrative Assistant for the Department of Emergency Medicine/Disaster Management.

Communications and Media

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  Lauren Howe

  Media Inquiries

  Principal + Owner
  empHowered PR, LLC

  Full bio

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  Lauren Howe is an award-winning public relations and communications professional with more than 20 years of experience working in the healthcare, manufacturing and non-profit industries. Lauren has the unique ability to make strong connections with executives and business leaders to understand what drives their decisions and creates communications tools to achieve business goals. By working collaboratively with all levels in an organization, Lauren’s guidance and strategic acumen can expand and enhance a business’s reputation and influence in the marketplace and with their stakeholders.

  In 2014, she was recognized by the Worcester Business Journal as a “40 Under Forty” award recipient and is a graduate of the prestigious “Leadership Worcester program, Class of 2017. She is also the recipient of many industry awards, including a Public Relations Society of America Philadelphia Chapter Ladle for her work in corporate philanthropy, and Silver Bell from the Publicity Club of Boston for an online media campaign for a medical device company.

  Lauren holds a master’s degree in Organizational and Professional Communication, as well as a graduate certificate in Health Care Leadership Communications from Regis College. Additionally, she graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she majored in Journalism, and earned an associate degree from Mount Wachusett Community College.

  Lauren also walks the talk and is an active member of the community, serving on the boards of the American Red Cross of Central and Western Massachusetts, and Why Me Sherry’s House. Lauren served on the board of directors for Girls Inc. of Worcester and was chair of the Girls Inc. of Worcester Centennial Celebration in 2016. A passionate cyclist, Lauren spends the first weekend in August each summer riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge.

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