Clinical Technology Expert and Experienced Neuroscientist Join C-Path in Executive Director Roles
Scottie Kern and Dr. Terina N. Martínez Will Both Serve in Dual Positions
TUCSON, Ariz., June 24, 2021 — Critical Path Institute (C-Path) today announced it has named Scottie Kern, as both Executive Director of the Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome (ePRO) Consortium and Associate Director of the Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) Consortium and Terina N. Martínez, Ph.D., as Executive Director of both the Duchenne Regulatory Science Consortium (D-RSC) and Critical Path to Therapeutics for the Ataxias (CPTA).
Kern is an expert in patient-based clinical technologies, with more than 25 years of pharmaceutical sector experience. Dr. Martínez is a neuroscientist and an expert in science communication, research program management and leadership, as well as biomarker and drug development in neurodegenerative diseases.
“We are thrilled to have Scottie join our Clinical Outcome Assessment Program to help us advance C-Path’s mission and vision,” said Senior Vice President of the Clinical Outcome Assessment (COA) Program Stephen Joel Coons, Ph.D. “His unique experience and commitment to leveraging existing and emerging data collection technologies to enhance patient-focused drug development make him the perfect fit to lead the ePRO Consortium and substantively contribute to the PRO Consortium’s COA qualification efforts.”
As Executive Director of C-Path’s ePRO Consortium, his primary role, Kern will provide operational and scientific leadership that guides development and implementation of strategic priorities aimed at achieving the consortium’s mission. As Associate Director of the PRO Consortium, he will provide technical, operational, and scientific input to all working groups and subcommittees using or considering technology-based COA data collection.
Initially operating in clinical data management roles at several contract research organizations and pharma companies, Kern has been working with ePRO technology for nearly two decades. Enthused by the potential of this technology and its direct interaction with patients, Kern took a role as the functional lead for ePRO at Wyeth’s Vaccine Research Unit in 2004 and subsequently established himself as an industry subject matter expert and thought leader on ePRO and other electronic clinical outcome assessments (eCOAs), serving as the global ePRO lead at Wyeth and the Head of Patient Technologies/Global Head of ePRO at Pfizer until 2011.
Seeing an unmet need for experience-based, objective eCOA consultancy, Kern launched Sacaja Consulting Limited in 2013, which supported several top pharmaceutical companies with eCOA strategy and implementation, as well as advising several small to mid-sized companies, contract research organizations (CROs), and eCOA/mHealth technology vendors on a range of eCOA/mHealth-related projects.
“Throughout my career, I’ve derived the greatest satisfaction from any work I’ve contributed to that required collaboration with my industry contemporaries to generate substantial and meaningful change,” said Kern. “I am a passionate believer in enhancing the clinical trial participant experience with mobile technology, and I’ve been a long-term consumer of the outputs from the ePRO Consortium as well as the PRO Consortium. The chance to help drive the ePRO Consortium’s mission forward and to work with accomplished people I have known and respected for many years was simply too good an opportunity to miss.”
Prior to joining C-Path, Martínez was a Senior Associate Director, Research Programs at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, in New York, where she led the Foundation’s programs for preclinical tools and animal models, emerging targets and inflammation. Thereafter, Martínez was a field application and collaboration scientist with Taconic Biosciences based out of Cambridge, MA, where she provided expert technical and scientific consultation across all research sectors for preclinical model selection, application, translational and IND-enabling study design, encompassing diverse disease and therapeutic areas.
“Terina is a highly motivated scientist who has worked and collaborated with academia, industry, nonprofit foundations and patient advocacy groups, to name a few,” said Vice President of C-Path’s Neuroscience Program, Sudhir Sivakumaran, Ph.D. “Her expertise, experience and commitment to addressing patient needs is perfectly aligned with our core competencies and we look forward to our Duchenne and ataxia consortia thriving under her leadership.”
As Executive Director of D-RSC and CPTA, Martínez will lead and define the future strategic directions and objectives of the D-RSC and CPTA consortia. She will convene diverse stakeholders and worldwide experts across the Duchenne muscular dystrophy and ataxia fields, to accelerate therapeutic innovation through data acquisition, regulatory science, generation of patient-level data driven drug development tools and solutions, and projects to develop novel biomarkers and refine outcome measures.
Martínez received her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Dallas and earned a Ph.D. in integrative biology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where she studied cellular and molecular neuroscience. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh.
“I am passionate about improving the lives of people living with devastating neurodegenerative diseases and am thrilled to have joined C-Path to lead the D-RSC and CPTA teams in executing C-Path’s mission to develop new approaches to advance medical innovation and regulatory science,” said Martínez.
For more information on C-Path’s ePRO Consortium, visit: https://c-path.org/programs/eproc
For more information on C-Path’s PRO Consortium, visit: https://c-path.org/programs/proc
For more information on C-Path’s D-RSC, visit: https://c-path.org/programs/d-rsc
For more information on C-Path’s CPTA, visit: https://c-path.org/programs/cpta
Critical Path Institute is supported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is 55% funded by FDA/HHS, totaling $14,575,306, and 45% funded by non-government source(s), totaling $11,916,747. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, FDA/HHS or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit FDA.gov.
Critical Path Institute (C-Path) is an independent, nonprofit organization established in 2005 as a public and private partnership. C-Path’s mission is to catalyze the development of new approaches that advance medical innovation and regulatory science, accelerating the path to a healthier world. An international leader in forming collaborations, C-Path has established numerous global consortia that currently include more than 1,600 scientists from government and regulatory agencies, academia, patient organizations, disease foundations, and dozens of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. C-Path U.S. is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona and C-Path, Ltd. EU is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with additional staff in multiple other locations. For more information, visit c-path.org and c-path.eu.
Contact:
Kissy Black
C-Path
615.310.1894
kblack@c-path.org