Maria Frazer

BS, CCRC; Sr. Clinical Research Project Manager: UR-EPPIC-Net, DISRUPT Pain Program, and Translational Pain Research Program

Maria Frazer oversees the departments divisions of Translational Pain Research Program and DISRUPT Pain Program, and is the main point of contact for the UR-EPPIC-Net NIH HEAL program. Since 2008, she has managed multiple research projects by ensuring timely study start-up activities, maintaining regulatory compliance, and executing clinical trial activities. Ms. Frazer is published in JAMA Open, Journal of Pain, Pain Reports, Pain Medicine, Neurology, Spine, Geriatrics & Aging, the Netter Neurology Atlas, Molecular Therapy, and Glia. Her work is also included in over 30 abstract presentations at both national and international conferences. She holds a Clinical Research Coordinator Certification (CCRC) through the Academy of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from SUNY Fredonia. She maintains Good Clinical Practice (GCP) compliance through CITI Program. Her prior experience in basic science research with the URMC Center for Neural Development and Disease has provided a strong foundation for clinical research.

Valerie Chiodo

RN, BSN, CCRC; Human Subject Research Coordinator, Translational Pain Research Program

Valerie Chiodo has 30+ years of clinical research experience in the areas of Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery and Pain Management. She is currently responsible for initiating and managing both multi-center industry sponsored clinical trials and investigator-initiated trials.  She is actively involved in patient recruitment, enrollment, and scheduling, as well as, the planning, implementing, conducting and monitoring day-to-day oversight of several clinical studies. Valerie Chiodo received her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Alderson-Broaddus University and is licensed in the state of New York. She is certified as a Clinical Research Coordinator (CCRC) through the Academy of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP). She maintains Good Clinical Practice (GCP) compliance through CITI Program.

Jenine Hoefler

MS; Sr. Human Subject Research Coordinator, Translational Pain Research Program

Jenine Hoefler manages the study start-up, regulatory, and financial aspects of the Translational Pain Research Program.  Since 2006, she has coordinated a wide array of research studies, serving as clinical research coordinator, project manager, and clinical research manager.  Ms. Hoefler holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Psychology from State University of New York College at Geneseo and Master’s degree in Health Care Administration from University of Rochester.  She maintains Good Clinical Practice (GCP) compliance through CITI Program. 

Jennifer Gewandter

PhD, MPH; Assistant Professor. Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Principal Investigator. UR-EPPIC-Net

Jennifer Gewandter, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the University of Rochester and an Associate Director of the FDA Public-Private partnership, ACTTION. Her research is focused on optimizing the design, execution, and transparent dissemination of clinical trials for pain and peripheral neuropathy treatments as well as researching interventions for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and chronic low back pain. She is a PI of the University of Rochester’s Clinical Hub of the NIH-funded Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) and is the PI of an NIH-funded, multi-site RCT of a TENS intervention for CIPN. She has co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications including those published in PAIN, The Journal of Pain, and Neurology and she is a co-section editor of the Neuropathic Pain Section of Pain Medicine. Finally, she has provided guidance to multiple companies on clinical trial design aspects including, entry criteria, study outcomes, analysis methods, and general design considerations.

Dr. Gewandter has mentored over 20 medical students, residents, fellows, and clinical faculty in research design and scientific writing. She is also the founder and director of the University of Rochester’s Junior Women Faculty Group that organizes lectures on topics related to career advancement and opportunities to promote peer and near-peer mentoring for women faculty.

Sonia Sharma

BDS, PhD; Research Assistant Professor. Department of Neurosurgery, Early Career Investigator. UR-EPPIC-Net

Sonia Sharma, BDS, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Rochester. Dr. Sharma has clinical specialty training in Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) and Orofacial Pain. Her research expertise includes epidemiological research methods in chronic pain, pain and health measurements, and understanding complex causal relationships between injury and pain. She has prior research experience with the Orofacial Pain Prospective Evaluation and Risk Assessment (OPPERA) research group on identifying risk factors for first-onset TMD. Her research is focused on orofacial pain, chronic overlapping pain conditions, and injury, and are published in PAIN, Journal of Dental Research, Journal of Orofacial Pain and Headache, and Clinical Journal of Pain. She has also contributed to several books. She is an Early Career Investigator of the University of Rochester’s Clinical Hub of the NIH-funded Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) and a collaborative researcher within the DISRUPT Pain program. Her interests lie in bridging translational gaps between research and clinical practice using innovative clinical trial designs to address the mosaic of treatments needed for better patient care and in developing evidence-based practice guidelines for pain conditions.

Rachel De Guzman

BS; Human Subject Research Coordinator, DISRUPT Pain Program

Rachel De Guzman is a Health Project Coordinator for the DISRUPT Pain Research Program. She graduated from Nazareth College with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health, and a minor in Analytics. She previously interned for the Special Olympics, in which she was engaged with NY state-wide health data, tasked with data entry, collection, and analysis for the Healthy Athletes Program. Her experience with technology, research, and data has helped her contribute to large grant applications and other research projects. Rachel is currently involved with DISRUPT Pain Research general coordinating, study visits, data collection, and data analysis.

Alexander Yoo

MD; Instructor, Department of Neurology

Dr. Yoo is a board-certified neurologist with a specialty interest in headache medicine. He completed his medical degree at University of Virginia School of Medicine, and thereafter underwent his residency training at University of California San Francisco where he was chief resident. He then joined as faculty at UCSF where he attended for several years at the UCSF Headache Center, providing specialist care for patients suffering from disabling head and facial pain disorders. Dr. Yoo is currently a fellow in the Experimental Therapeutics Program at Rochester University where he works with Dr. Markman and his research group to identify and study new treatment options for a variety of chronic pain disorders.

Paul Geha

MD; Assistant Professor. Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neuroscience

Dr. Geha has expertise in the neuroscience of pain, pleasure and feeding, and multimodal neuroimaging. He uses a broad range of neuroimaging techniques, and behavioral testing to study the neurobiology of acute and chronic pain, analgesia, and obesity. Dr. Geha’s research program focuses on understanding mechanisms of neuro-adaptation in chronic pain and obesity, neural response to analgesic treatment, and brain derived long-term predictors of clinical outcomes. He has a particular interest in studying the interaction of pain and food pleasure in the brain limbic system and how this interaction can be used to understand co-morbidities of chronic pain like obesity and substance dependence.

Michael B. Sohn

PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology (DBCB)

Dr. Michael B. Sohn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology (DBCB). He received his PhD in Statistics from the University of Arizona, and prior to joining the DBCB, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Pennsylvania. He has developed numerous methods, including a GLM-based ordination method and compositional mediation models. His research interests include causal inference, high dimensional data analysis, compositional data analysis, longitudinal data analysis, machine learning, and metagenomics. He also has considerable experience as a biostatistician in various collaborative studies.

Toni Heininger

MS; Grants Research Administrator. DISRUPT Pain Program, Translational Pain Research Program, UR-EPPIC-Net

Toni Heininger, MS is the Sponsored Grants Research Administrator for the Translational Pain Research group.  She has 15+ years of experience in research administration.  Her time as a research administrator has given her the opportunity to collaborate, manage and work closely with research staff, negotiate clinical trial startup, manage research expenditures, accounts and produce financial projections and prepare and submit many proposals to multiple federal and industry sponsors.  Prior to working as a research administrator Toni spent time as both a health project coordinator and a research accountant.  Her main goal as a research administrator is to support the faculty and staff in the Translational Pain Research group in all their current and future research activities.  She has a BA in Sociology from SUNY Geneseo and an MS in Medical Management from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester.  She is a member of NCURA and is pursuing certification as a research administrator.