When interviewing out of graduate school, I was looking for somewhere that emphasized the public health aspects of trials.

We collect and analyze data to test new drugs and vaccines.

When I’m not working, I’m at home with two energetic young boys, a youthful golden retriever and an adventurous husband! I am usually trying to keep up with the rest of them in regular outdoor adventures.

I always liked math growing up and wanted to find a way to apply it. Once realizing there was a field of Biostatistics where I could apply mathematical concepts, I was sold!

I’ve supported trials that represent current issues the world is facing including working on opioid abuse trials as well as working on Zika trials. Exploring potential solutions to serious public health problems is exciting and invigorating because you feel like you’re doing something that matters.

I joined Emmes in 2011 as a Biostatistician on the National Eye Institute Support project and the National Institute of Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network project. The work was exciting because in graduate school I had never worked on clinical trials as most of my data analysis was on observational trials. A few years later a leadership opportunity presented itself in the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Research Unit to lead a study for an adjuvant in an influenza clinical trial. After that opportunity and working/leading a few other projects, I was appointed as a co-lead in the Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Therapeutic Unit.

B.S. Mathematics, Villanova University
Ph.D Biostatistics, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chen GL, Coates EE, Plummer SH, Carter CA, Berkowitz N, Conan-Cibotti M, Cox JH, Beck A, O’Callahan M, Andrews C, Gordon IJ, Larkin B, Lampley R, Kaltovich F, Gall J, Carlton K,
Mendy J, Haney D, May J, Bray A, Bailer RT, Dowd KA, Brockett B, Gordon D, Koup RA, Schwartz R, Mascola JR, Graham BS, Pierson TC, Donastorg Y, Rosario N, Pape JW, Hoen B, Cabié A, Diaz C, Ledgerwood JE, for the VRC 704 Study Team. Effect of a Chikungunya Virus–Like Particle Vaccine on Safety and Tolerability Outcomes; A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2020; 323(14):1369-1377. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.2477

Williams Mark S., Baker Marianne R., Guina Tina, Hewitt Judith A., Lanning Lynda, Hill Heather, May Jeanine M., Fogtman Beverly, Pittman Phillip R. (2019) Retrospective Analysis of Pneumonic Tularemia in Operation Whitecoat Human Subjects: Disease Progression and Tetracycline Efficacy. Frontiers in Medicine 6 (229) https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2019.00229. ISSN=2296-858X

Modjarrad K, Roberts CC, Mills KT, Castellano AR, Paolino K, Muthumani K, Reuschel EL, Robb ML, Racine T, Oh MD, Lamarre C, Zaidi FI, Boyer J, Kudchodkar SB, Jeong M, Darden JM, Park YK, Scott PT, Remigio C, Parikh AP, Wise MC, Patel A, Duperret EK, Kim KY, Choi H, White S, Bagarazzi M, May JM, Kane D, Lee H, Kobinger G, Michael NL, Weiner DB, Thomas SJ, Maslow JN. Safety and immunogenicity of an anti-Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus DNA vaccine: a phase 1, open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2019 Sep;19(9):1013-1022. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30266-X. Epub 2019 Jul 24. PMID: 31351922

Houser KV, Yamshchikov GV, Bellamy AR, May J, Enama ME, et al. (2018) DNA vaccine priming for seasonal influenza vaccine in children and adolescents 6 to 17 years of age: A phase 1 randomized clinical trial. PLOS ONE 13(11): e0206837. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206837

Gorse, G.J., Grimes, S., Buck, H., Mulla, H., White, P., Graham, I., Treanor, J.J., Hill, H., May, J., Blackburn, P. (2017). Enhanced Potency and Durability of Antibody Response to Seasonal Trivalent Inactivated Influenza Vaccine (TIV) Combined with a Novel Water-in-Oil Adjuvant System at Reduced Hemagglutinin (HA) Doses. Open Forum Infectious Diseases 4(supplemental 1), S455

Lee, J.D., Nunes, E.V., Novo, P., Bailey, G.L., Brigham, G.S., Cohen, A.J., Fishman, M., Ling, W., Lindblad, R., Shmueli-Blumberg, D., Stablein, D., May, J., Salazar, D., Liu, D., Rotrosen, J. (2016). Extended-Release Naltrexone vs. Buprenorphine for Opioid Treatment (X:BOT) Study Design and Rationale. Contemporary Clinical Trials 50, 253-64.

Vaccine Research Center (VRC) Data Management Support, NIH/NIAID/VRC
Universal Influenza and Clinical Trials Support (UNI), Vaccine Research Center
Influenza Clinical Trial
Encephalitis Vaccine Study
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Data Management and Statistical Analyses, MHRP/WRAIR
Chikungunya Vaccine Study