LeaAnn Carson

LeaAnn Carson supports clinical and translational research and programs

LeaAnn Carson, MS, RD, is part of the Research Development Core and Clinical Partnerships Core as Clinical Partnerships Manager for IHSI. We asked LeaAnn to share more about her role managing programs and partnerships to support clinical and translational research.  

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
My background is in clinical dietetics and I started my professional career at Carle as a registered dietitian. After several years as a clinician, I had the opportunity to step into a research role as a study coordinator in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Since coming to the university, I have gained experience in university compliance as a human subjects research specialist in the Office for the Protection of Research Subjects. I joined IHSI in 2016, working first with the Cancer Center at Illinois, followed by the Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance. In my current role as Clinical Partnerships Manager, I oversee the education programs and assist with research collaborations and translation engagements involving clinical partners.

What are some examples of how the Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance contributes to research development on campus? 
The Alliance supports research on campus by bringing together Illinois researchers and clinical partners for specific education and research opportunities. These grand challenges have provided funding and resulted in trusted research teams that continue to collaborate on new projects. Undergraduate and graduate fellowships further establish research collaborations, develop tools and algorithms for clinical practice, and result in patent disclosures. The Alliance education programs are training biomedical researchers to conduct translational research.

What other Alliance efforts are you involved in? 
In addition to managing the education programs, I also assist with strategic visioning, project development and contract agreements, relationship building, and launching new ideas. The Alliance is planning a twice-yearly speaker series and research chalk talks to facilitate research collaborations. Stay tuned for information on those new efforts!

Tell us about your passions or any projects or activities that you are particularly excited about right now.
The Alliance is gearing up to offer the Introduction to Computational Genomics course the week of June 6-10. The week-long virtual course for Mayo Clinic and Illinois-affiliated clinicians and scientists is now in its tenth year and continues to grow each year. Illinois instructors teach the core lecture/lab modules and Mayo Clinic instructors add clinical/translational genomics lectures.

What do you like most about your work?
I really enjoy working with the Alliance student educational programs. The Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program is such a great experience for Illinois undergraduate students interested in a biomedical research career. I enjoy meeting the students each year and when they return to campus in the fall, they share their summer research projects in a poster session and talk about the overwhelmingly positive experience they had at Mayo Clinic. The Alliance Fellowships for Technology-Based Healthcare program allows some of our top graduate students the opportunity to work with their Illinois advisor and a Mayo Clinic PI to conduct research on new technologies and clinical tools that aim to advance individualized medicine and impact patient care. The fellowship program is both highly valued and successful, and we are working to expand and grow the program.

I am also part of IHSI’s Research Development Core, and I enjoy working with the RD team on faculty development and grant seeking training programs such as the DoD Grant-Seeking Workshop and the NIH Grant Writing Series.

What advice do you have for beginning, mid-career, and/or established health sciences researchers?
Don’t overlook the variety of resources offered by IHSI to support health research on campus!  In addition to the Research Development and Clinical Partnerships Cores at IHSI, the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Core offers biostatistical consulting and analysis services, and Illinois REDCap is a browser-based tool data collection tool capable of handling high risk data.

Please reach out if you would like assistance in making connections with clinical partners.

You can contact LeaAnn at lcarson@illinois.edu.