This January, PRIM&R welcomed three new members to our Board of Directors. All three of these members exemplify service to the field of research ethics and promise to be strong stewards of PRIM&R’s mission in the years to come. These new members are as follows:

Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBE, is the John Russell Dickson, MD Presidential Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Her scholarly work focuses primarily on the ethics and regulation of research with human subjects and related areas, including payment to research participants, research with biospecimens, the use of social media in research settings, patient-engaged research, research risks to bystanders, access to investigational therapies (including “Right to Try”), and the quality of Institutional Review Board oversight of research. She is the author of Conflicts of Conscience in Health Care: An Institutional Compromise (MIT Press 2008), in addition to being founder and co-chair of the Consortium to Advance Effective Research Ethics Oversight (AEREO), established in 2018. She served as member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP) from 2014-2019, and she continues to serve on a SACHRP subcommittee. For more on Dr. Fernandez Lynch, including her work with the NIH Division of Aids and President Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, read her full bio online.

Megan Kasimatis Singleton, JD, MBE, CIP, is Assistant Dean for Human Research Protections and Director of the Human Research Protections Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In addition to her current role in leading the Johns Hopkins Medicine HRPP, she serves as the director of central IRB (CIRB) activities for the Johns Hopkins/Tufts Trial Innovation Center (TIC), leading the charge for innovations in operationalizing single IRB (sIRB) review. She is also heavily engaged in national efforts to streamline the implementation of sIRB review processes, serving as a member of the Federal Demonstration Partnership taskforce on sIRB review and as a member of the SMART IRB Harmonization Steering Committee. Ms. Singleton is also an educator in research ethics and clinical research. For more on Ms. Singleton, including her extensive experience as a research ethics educator, read her full bio online.

Gianna “Gigi” McMillan, MA, D. Bioethics, is the Program Administrator for the Bioethics Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where she manages the graduate and undergraduate academic curriculum and teaches Research Ethics. In 1996 she co-founded We Can, Pediatric Brain Tumor Network, a support network for families whose children have been diagnosed with brain cancer. This Los Angeles-based group evolved into a state-wide non-profit organization, serving hundreds of families each year. We Can became a national demonstration project, offering support to patients and family members – in Spanish and in English, until it became the California chapter of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation of the United States in 2016. Dr. McMillan has been an advisor to the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation, the National Brain Tumor Society, and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium. She has extensive experience as a Subject/Patient Advocate on local and national IRBs, and was a member of the Subpart A Subcommittee for the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protection. For more on Dr. McMillan’s background in research ethics, read her full bio online.