Vanderbilt University
Joanne Spitz, MA, CRA (Co-Chair): Ms. Spitz is the Executive Director of the Research Development and Support (RDS) team within Vanderbilt’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation. Prior to this role, she served as the Senior Director of Grant Initiatives, Corporate and Foundation Relations at Baylor University, resulting in a significant increase in Foundation and other private support for faculty researchers. Ms. Spitz also spent over 30 years in research development and pre- and post-award administration at Washington University in St. Louis in multiple departments and schools, including Neuroscience, Biology, and the Olin Business School. While at Olin, she worked for 11 years as the administrator of an interdisciplinary research network sponsored by The MacArthur Foundation. She was also instrumental in the establishment of a new grants program for the Olin School and served as its first Grant Development Manager.
Donna Ingles, MS, MPH (Organizing Committee Member): Ms. Ingles is an Associate Director of Research Development on Vanderbilt’s RDS team. She has nearly 20 years of grant development, writing, and editing experience, and has held positions focused on pre- and post-award support, as well as research project management. Ms. Ingles is the former Assistant Director of Operations for the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, where she focused on optimization of pre- and post-award processes, project development, and implementation, as well as research development capacity-building in low- and middle-income countries. She also held previous roles at Moffitt Cancer Center, in Drug Discovery and then in Epidemiology, culminating in a senior staff position within the Center for Immunization and Infection Research in Cancer.
Phil Ko, PhD (Organizing Committee Member): Dr. Ko is an Associate Director of Research Development on Vanderbilt’s RDS team. He brings 16 years of research experience in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience conducted at Yale, Harvard, and Vanderbilt. He has held faculty positions at Vanderbilt and Austin Peay State University, a rural-serving institution in Clarksville TN. Following his scientific and academic career, he pivoted to science policy and research administration, serving the NSF as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). At NSF, he managed communications and analytics with the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), specifically for the Science and Engineering Indicators team, in cooperation with the National Science Board Office. He also served as Science Officer for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs within the Department of Defense
Tennessee State University
Quincy Quick, PhD (Co-Chair): Dr. Quick serves as the Associate Vice President of Research and Sponsored Programs and Chief Research Officer at TSU. As a scientist, Dr. Quick has studied novel targets and therapeutics for the treatment of glioblastomas for the past 20 years and has been an active NIH grant reviewer, as well as reviewer and editor for several journals. Dr. Quick has also served as a research mentor and/or coordinator on several NIH and NSF funded developmental training grant programs that include, RISE, MARC, NIMH-COR, HBCU-UP, and served as the co-program director for the TSU-NERVE program, an NIH funded developmental training program to increase the number of students that earn PhDs in neuroscience. As part of these initiatives, Dr. Quick has mentored more than 80 students at the PhD, Master’s, and undergraduate levels. This service and productivity have led to Dr. Quick being acknowledged as one of the most inspiring black scientists in the US by Cell Mentor. Furthermore, in his role as AVP of Research and Sponsored Programs, Dr. Quick mentors and supports research efforts and development of faculty at all levels.
Phyllis Danner, PhD, CRA (Organizing Committee Member): Dr. Danner currently serves as the Executive Director of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) at TSU. She is responsible for RSP accounting and budgeting, HR management, funding agency reporting and compliance, grant budget assistance, and grant submissions
Fisk University
Sajid Hussain, PhD (Co-Chair): Dr. Hussain is Associate Vice Provost for Innovation and Information Technology (CTO) and Discipline Coordinator of Data Science, Fisk University. In 2009, he joined Fisk University as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. Dr. Hussain served as Chair of the Department of Business Administration at Fisk from 2010-2013. Prior to Fisk, he worked as Associate Professor and Assistant Professor in the Jodrey School of Computer Science at Acadia University in Canada. Dr. Hussain’s research applies machine learning techniques for interdisciplinary research projects related to healthcare, bioinformatics, digital humanities, and criminal justice. His research is supported by the NSF, NIH, and other sources.
Sufyan Baksh, PhD, MBA (Co-Investigator): Dr. Baksh is Fisk’s new Executive Director of Innovation and Distinguished Professor of Business
Lena Winfree (Co-Investigator): Ms. Winfree is the inaugural John Lewis Center Tech/Data Science Fellow at Fisk, focused on shaping the evolving data, science, and tech fields toward ensuring full and equitable access to Black communities as consumers and producers.