CTU Team

Amanda Baer

Senior Director of Clinical Research Operations
 baer2@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
 (215) 349-5023

Amanda has been at Penn for 17+ years and has broad experience in a diverse range of therapeutic areas.  She has extensive experience managing phase I—IV clinical trials and leads a highly productive DOM Clinical Trials Unit consisting of research project managers, coordinators, assistants, and regulatory manager. She has served on the Penn IRB as well as on numerous advisory committees and task forces to improve clinical research and human subjects protection.  She brings her entrepreneurial spirit to the team and specializes in Research Operations, Strategy, Process Improvement and Mentoring.

Haideliza Soto-Calderon

Associate Director
 haideliza.soto-calderon@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
 (215) 662-4491

Haideliza is an Associate Director with 20+ years of experience in research. She has experience in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Haideliza has project managed phase I-IV clinical trials for investigational devices and drugs in gene therapy, cardiology, hematology, infectious disease (COVID-19), pulmonary, gynecological cancer, rheumatology, sleep, and translational medicine. She excels in working with sick patients, subject retention, and has vast experience completing and maintaining regulatory documentation. She has overseen a multisite clinical trial for the American Society of Hematology.

Melissa Fernando

Senior Project Manager
 fernand@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
 (215) 662-2025

Melissa is a senior project manager with over 15 years of research experience at Penn Medicine. She has over 10 years of experience in end-to-end clinical trial management. She has a successful track record of running complex multi-center research trials both within the US and internationally. Her key experiences include leading multi-site study launch; project and database management; coordination and implementation; and regulatory management and documentation. Melissa is passionate about leading and developing teams, working on trials in innovative areas, and delivering impactful benefits for patients.

Liz Beothy

Project Manager
 eabeothy@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
 (215) 615-0310

Liz is a Project Manager with 20+ years of experience in human subjects research at Penn Medicine, in areas such as ENT, surgery, cardiology, radiology, oncology, sleep medicine, and psychiatry.  She has dedicated her career to advancing medical practice through scientific inquiry.  Prior to joining the CTU, Liz spent 7 years as the research manager and compliance officer for the Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, overseeing all aspects of the department’s clinical research program.  She has extensive experience with regulatory compliance and IRB submissions, as well as the management and conduct of industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated drug, device, tissue, observational, and retrospective studies from start-up to closure, and the recruitment, training, and mentorship of high-caliber clinical research personnel. 

Lauren Vincent

Regulatory Specialist
 laurv@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Lauren is a Regulatory Specialist with 7+ years of experience in research. Before joining the DOM CTU in 2021, she worked as a clinical regulatory coordinator in the Lipid/Atherosclerosis Clinical Trials Unit. She has extensive experience in regulatory and monitoring. Lauren has a B.S. in Public Health from Temple University, a Master’s in Regulatory Affairs from University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s in Bioethics from University of Pennsylvania.

Lauren is the 2025 winner of the Society for Penn Clinical Research Professionals' CREATE Award for Distinguished Performance in a Regulatory or Monitoring & Compliance Role!

Yvette Frimpong

Clinical Research Coordinator
 yvette.frimpong@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Before joining the CTU in September 2019, Yvette graduated from Penn with a Bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. While at Penn, she genotyped mouse DNA at a CHOP cancer research lab and, later, was a research assistant with a psychology research lab, where she recruited child and adult participants and conducted studies involving number cognition. In the DOM CTU Yvette has gained a wealth of experience including work in lipids, Huntington’s disease, pulmonary, imaging, and others.  Yvette hopes to accumulate a diverse skill set while at the CTU so that she can one day become a well-rounded physician and help advance healthcare in Africa.

Sarah Cohen

Clinical Research Coordinator
 sarah.cohen1@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Sarah is a Clinical Research Coordinator with 2 years of experience.  She has worked in genetics and orthopedic surgery with teenagers and their families, and has experience fielding calls at a crisis center.  Currently in DOM CTU Sarah is working on projects about adherence to dialysis treatments, blood pressure monitoring, functional status among patients with chronic kidney disease, and sleep apnea.  Sarah specializes in increasing user-friendliness of data collection forms while ensuring their accuracy and validity.   

Maddy Fair

Clinical Research Coordinator
 maddy.fair@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Maddy joined the CTU in June of 2024. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 and spent the following 2 years as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Maddy has wide-ranging clinical research experience, from working with children with insufficient sleep, to adults with overweight and obesity, and to children with conduct problems. As a Clinical Research Coordinator with the CTU, Maddy hopes to hone a diverse skill set to make valuable contributions to studies throughout Penn's Department of Medicine.

Sean McKenzie

Clinical Research Coordinator
 sean.mckenzie@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Sean joined the CTU in October of 2024 after earning a BA in Speech-Language Disorders from San Jose State University. He worked in behavioral health for several years prior to joining the team. As a service coordinator in Philadelphia, his primary focus was assisting low-income families in underserved neighborhoods receive medical services for their children. That experience spurred a strong interest in epidemiology and research in the social determinants of health. He hopes to expand his clinical research skills and utilize this experience to pursue a medical degree in the future.

Elaine Tanel

Clinical Research Coordinator
 elaine.tanel@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Elaine joined the DOM CTU in June 2024 after graduating from Penn with a B.A. in Mechanisms of Disease Biology. During her time as an undergraduate student, she dedicated three years to conducting research on melanoma persister cells at The Wistar Institute. Currently, she is actively engaged in an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis clinical study and an asthma clinical study. She aims to integrate the insights gained from both her academic and clinical experiences to pursue medical school, aspiring to advance equitable healthcare initiatives.

Matthew Loreg

Clinical Research Coordinator
 matthew.loreg@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Matthew joined the CTU in July of 2024 after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Swarthmore College. Prior to joining the team, he worked in Swarthmore's OCD, Anxiety, and Related Disorders Lab and Swarthmore's Resilience and Well-Being Lab where he studied the relationship between OCD and religiosity and conducted a variety of literature reviews. As a Clinical Research Coordinator with the CTU, Matthew hopes to gain valuable clinical experience and help increase the quality and quantity of clinical research conducted at Penn before pursuing a graduate degree in Psychology.

Matthew Scherreik

Clinical Research Coordinator
 matthew.scherreik@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Matthew joined the team in October 2024 after graduating with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Drexel University. Prior to joining the DOM CTU team, Matthew worked as a research assistant in Neurosurgery Clinical Research at Pennsylvania Hospital. While working there, Matthew was exposed to a variety of different projects ranging from an interventional study aimed at alleviating loss-of-control eating to a research study identifying the most effective treatment of perineural cysts. While working in the DOM CTU, Matthew hopes to expand his knowledge and skills to more effectively conduct clinical research. His future goals are pursuing a graduate degree in Public Health and attending medical school.

Aylin Ergin

Clinical Research Coordinator
 aylin.ergin@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Aylin joined the CTU in June 2025 after earning a B.A. and an M.S. in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her master’s research investigated the genetic mechanisms underlying stress-induced sleep in C. elegans. As an undergraduate, she was also involved in a clinical research project studying the role of hypertension and obesity in kidney disease, which motivated her to join the CTU to further expand her skill set. Aylin plans to pursue medical school and hopes to integrate clinical research into her future medical career.

Shristi Mapchan

Clinical Research Coordinator
 shristi.mapchan@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Shristi joined the CTU team in August 2025 after graduating with a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the team, Shristi worked as a research assistant researching transplant nephrology, focusing on developing health access technology and organ donation viability, and psycholinguistics within the Penn Psychology department. While working in the CTU, she hopes to gain further knowledge and experience in clinical research and patient care to bring to her future work as she pursues medical school.