The TACL Operations Center is located at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and is responsible for protocol development and project management, data collection, data reporting through our statistical core and management of all regulatory requirements necessary for successful and safe clinical trial conduct. All clinical trials conducted in TACL are vetted through the Steering & Prioritization Committee and the Scientific Review Committee.
TACL Medical Director: Alan S. Wayne, MD
Alan S. Wayne, MD, serves as Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Pediatrician-in-Chief at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Wayne is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. An internationally renowned pediatric hematologist-oncologist, Dr. Wayne previously served as Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology and Director of the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at CHLA. Prior to joining CHLA/USC in 2013, Dr. Wayne served for 14 years as Clinical Director of the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
TACL Associate Medical Director: Deepa Bhojwani, MD
Deepa Bhojwani, MD is the Associate Medical Director of TACL consortium and Director of the Leukemia/Lymphoma program within the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Her research background is in relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and includes studies of molecular pathways leading to relapse and identification of potential new therapeutic targets using high-throughput genomics. Dr. Bhojwani is a prolific clinical investigator focused on developmental therapeutics for leukemias and lymphomas. She serves as an associate professor in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplantation of the Department of Pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
Administrative Director: Erika Shin-Kashiyama, JD
Erika Shin-Kashiyama, JD, is the Administrative Director of TACL Consortium and Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases (CCCBD) Regulatory Affairs. Ms. Shin-Kashiyama has over 16 years of biotechnology and life-science industry experience, and she has overall responsibility for administration of TACL Consortium. She manages TACL Consortium’s relationship with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for INDs, adverse event reporting, and clinical protocol compliance as well as negotiation and maintenance of all consortium and industry sponsor related contracts.
Consortium Statistician: Yueh-Yun Chi, PhD
Yueh-Yun Chi, PhD holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor of Research in the Department of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine at of the Keck School of Medicine of the USC. She received her Ph.D. in Biostatics in 2005 from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in 2007 at the Department of Biostatistics of the University of Washington. Dr. Chi is currently the Director of the Biostatistics Core for the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She was the faculty statistician for the Soft Tissue Sarcoma Committee (2015-2020) and Renal Tumor Committee (2014-2020) of the Children’s Oncology Group to oversee study design and monitoring, data management and quality assurance, and statistical analysis and interpretation. She also served as the Director for the Data Management and Biostatistics Core (2013-2018) for a project grant funded by NIH/NICHD to investigate the corpus luteal contribution to maternal pregnancy physiology and outcomes in ART using fundamental, clinical, and epidemiological approaches. Dr. Chi’s primary statistical methodological research interests have been in the areas of joint modeling of longitudinal and survival data, diagnostic accuracy, statistical inference for high-dimensional data, and power and sample size methods for longitudinal studies and adaptive designs.
Clinical Trial Operations Research Monitor: Atoossa Fahimi, MD
Atoossa Fahimi serve as TACL Reserach Monitor, her primary roles and responsibilities include conducting risk based central remote/onsite monitoring and supporting study data review/Quality Assurance/GCP compliance at TACL Operations Center. Atoossa is an interdisciplinary physician-scientist with over 20 years of clinical experience in medicine, neuroscience, and pharmacogenomics. More than 10 years of experience in designing, conducting, monitoring and coordinating variety of translational and clinical qualitative and quantitative studies in neuroscience in academia and industry.She serves as an editorial panel member for the CPQ Medicine journal and a member of the review board of the Journal of Integrative Neuroscience.
Clinical Trial Operations Senior Coordinator: Ellynore Florendo
Ellynore Florendo supports TACL Operations Center as a Clinical Trial Operations (CTO) Coordinator. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California Berkeley and her Master’s degree from the University of Southern California. She brings a broad spectrum of clinical research experiences, including coordination and monitoring of numerous clinical trial studies as well as managing the regulatory component of these studies and the creation of databases. She has worked in the division of Hematology/Oncology, Medical Genetics, Neurosurgery and Plastic Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She will be the study contact person and be involved in the coordination of TACL studies.
Clinical Trial Operations Coordinator: Sean Bujarski
Sean Bujarski supports TACL Operations Center as a CTO Coordinator. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Los Angeles before working in clinical research for seven years. He has experience with building datasets for a variety of projects including assay development and predictive modeling, as well as data coordination for observational, pilot, and phase one clinical trials.
Clinical Trial Operations Coordinator: Rosie Drulias
Rosie Drulias RN supports TACL Operations Center as a CTO Coordinator. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from California State University, Los Angeles. She is an experienced Oncology Research Nurse that has managed trials from feasibility to close out for NCI, TRIO-US consortium, and other pharmaceutical sponsored trials.
Clinical Trial Operations Coordinator: Suganya Rajendran
Suganya Rajendran supports TACL Operations Center as a CTO Coordinator. She has a master’s degree from University of North Texas with strong understanding of GCP, ICH guidelines, and FDA regulations. She has experience with managing and coordinating many clinical trials. She is proficient with screening and enrolling study patients, maintaining essential regulatory documents, case report forms, and complying with regulatory reporting guidelines.
Clinical Trial Operations Coordinator: Nehah Raza
Nehah Raza supports TACL Operations Center as a CTO Coordinator. She received her bachelor's degree from New York Institute of Technology and then obtained master's degree in biomedical sciences from Rutgers University. She is experienced in clinical research study start up, data entry and Trial Master File maintenance. She has managed study actvation, regulatory document maintenance, and IRB in support of clinical research studies.