Presenters

Karen Del'Olio | Author, Co-Author

karen.del'olio@umassmed.edu;
Karen Del’Olio is a seasoned Research Program Manager and Community Engaged Research (CEnR) strategist with extensive expertise in mixed-methods research, epidemiology, and public health. With over two decades of experience across both academia and industry, her work has centered on advising public health professionals and enhancing research study design. Karen excels in stakeholder relations, regulatory affairs, community engagement, and recruitment and retention strategies. She is proficient in survey development, program evaluation, health literacy, and study branding, while ensuring participant-facing materials are accessible. Karen is dedicated to fostering collaboration between communities and researchers, making research both impactful and inclusive.

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John Diaz-Decaro | Author, Co-Author

John.Diaz-Decaro@modernatx.com;
John Diaz-Decaro is a Senior Director and Lead Epidemiologist at Moderna, where he leads epidemiologic strategy for the development of vaccines targeting Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and other latent viruses. His work supports clinical development for Moderna’s EBV and CMV vaccine programs. Dr. Diaz-Decaro plays a key role in advancing non-interventional studies to assess disease burden, including EBV-associated conditions such as infectious mononucleosis, multiple sclerosis and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder. He also contributes to Moderna’s CMV epidemiology research portfolio supporting work on studies focused on investigating infant outcomes associated with congenital CMV, as well as CMV transmission dynamics in daycare settings.

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Timothy Kowalik | Co-Author

timothy.kowalik@umassmed.edu;
Timothy Kowalik, Ph.D. earned a BS in Biology from Belmont Abbey College, followed by an MS and PhD at Utah State University, where he studied the genetic relatedness of US serotypes of bluetongue virus. His postdoctoral work at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University focused on HCMV, cell cycle regulation, and viral transformation. In 1997, he joined UMass Chan Medical School as an Assistant Professor, where he researched HCMV virology and cell growth control, discovering a key receptor that defines CMV tropism. Dr. Kowalik has collaborated extensively on viral evolution and congenital transmission studies. He is currently the Dr. Marcellette G. Williams Distinguished Scholar, a tenured Full Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

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Elizabeth Orvek | Co-Author

elizabeth.orvek@umassmed.edu;
Elizabeth Orvek specializes in designing, developing and implementing data capture and management systems that incorporate robust quality controls to ensure accurate data entry. She oversaw the collection and validation of childcare center and child-level data, conducted routine quality assurance checks, and generated enrollment dashboards. Additionally, Ms. Orvek supported the study’s quantitative data analysis, prepared summary statistical reports, and ensured all data quality processes were completed prior to finalizing datasets for study analysis.

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Lauren Howe | POC-Point of Contact

lauren.howe@umassmed.edu;
N/A

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Kelsey Woods | Co-Author

kelsey.woods1@umassmed.edu;
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Syed Naeem | Author, Co-Author

syed.naeem@umassmed.edu;
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Cynthia Callaghan | Co-Author

cindi.callaghan@umassmed.edu;
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Annie Geiger | Co-Presenter, Author, Co-Author

annie21geiger@gmail.com;
Annie is a first-year resident at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program. She received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, her master's degree in Biological Sciences (Pathology) from the University of Cambridge and her Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Cornell University with a minor in Inequality Studies. She has research experience in mycobacteria microbiology, Plasmodium parasite protein biology, and tick control methods. Her academic interests are in infectious diseases and community health education.

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Susan Druker | Co-Author

susan.druker@gmail.com;
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Bruce Barton | Co-Author

bruce.barton@umassmed.edu;
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Thejas Suvarna | Co-Author

suvarnaT@careevolution.com;
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Emma Harman | Co-Author

emma.harman@careevolution.com;
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Kelley Bridges | Co-Author

kelley.bridges@careevolution.com;
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Summer Schrader | Co-Author

summer.schrader@careevolution.com;
N/A

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Madeleine Hayden | Co-Author

madeleine.hayden@modernatx.com;
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Sandeep Basnet | Co-Author

sandeep.basnet@modernatx.com;
Sandeep Basnet is a former Director of Clinical Development, Infectious Disease at Moderna. During his tenure, he played a key role in advancing the CMV vaccine program, with notable contributions to the CMV TransmIT study, several epidemiologic studies and CMV clinical trials. At the time of this project, Sandeep Basnet was Director of Clinical Development for Moderna’s CMV program.

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Lori Panther | Co-Author

lori.panther@modernatx.com;
Lori Panther is Vice President of Clinical Development, Infectious Disease at Moderna. She leads the clinical development of Moderna’s CMV vaccine candidate, mRNA-1647, currently in a pivotal Phase 3 trial with aim to evaluate the vaccine’s efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity for the prevention of primary CMV infection in women of childbearing age. She’s a board-certified infectious disease specialist, Dr. Panther brings deep clinical and scientific expertise to Moderna’s latent virus portfolio and plays a key role in advancing CMV vaccine development.

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Laura Gibson | Primary Presenter

laura.gibson@umassmed.edu;
Laura Gibson is an Adult and Pediatric Infectious Disease physician at UMass Memorial Health and a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA. With over 20 years of experience as a physician-scientist, she combines patient care with translational research, focusing on cytomegalovirus (CMV) and other viruses in vulnerable populations, particularly infants with congenital CMV infection (cCMV). During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, she co-led the Clinical Studies Core (CSC) of the NIH RADx® Program at UMass Chan. The CSC aimed to identify and test point-of-care technologies for rapid SARS-CoV-2 detection in real-world environments.