Meet the Team

	Balachundhar Subramaniam, MD MPH Dr. Subramaniam is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and serves as the Program Director for CARE. Dr. Subramaniam has extensive experience in the design, management and implementation of clinical trials and a long history of mentoring clinical and research residents, fellows and junior investigators. In addition to his role within CARE, Bala continues his own research career focusing on clinical outcomes, with several NIH and industry funded projects looking at dynamic markers of intraoperative blood pressure variability and post-operative delirium following cardiac surgery.
	Alexander Shtifman, PhD Alexander Shtifman is the Administrative Director of Research for the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at BIDMC. He received a Doctorate degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. After completing his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School he joined the Department of Neurology at Steward St. Elizabeth Medical Center/Tufts Medical School as a research investigator. Prior to his current position, Alex was the Scientific Administrative Director for the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. In his role as Research Director, Alex plays a key role in promoting and implementing the department’s research initiatives and driving the research mission of the department forward.
	Valerie Banner-Goodspeed, MPH Ms. Banner-Goodspeed is a Clinical Research Administrator for CARE. She oversees CARE ICU staff, and serves as clinical project manager for three NIH-funded multi-center studies. She worked in bench research in Pathology at MGH before transitioning to human subjects research in Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at BIDMC. Ms. Banner-Goodspeed completed her MPH in Epidemiology at BU School of Public Health.
CARE Administration
	Sable Smith, BA Sable joined CARE as an Administrative Coordinator in May 2018, supporting CARE staff including Drs. Body and Subramaniam. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a degree in Sociology and Psychology. Sable most recently worked as an administrative assistant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she began her career supporting anesthesia faculty.

Statistics and Data Core
	Xinling (Claire) Xu, PhD Claire joined CARE in June of 2018. She received her PhD from the University of South Carolina. Claire has expertise in Bayesian factor analysis, generalized estimating equations and generalized linear mixed effect models for longitudinal data/repeated measures. She also has experience with complex survey data analysis, sample size calculations, as well as the application of copula functions for bivariate outcomes.

	Ariel Mueller, MA Ariel graduated from Boston University with a Master of Arts in Biostatistics in 2014, joining Beth Israel shortly after. Ariel has assisted in the design, implementation and data analysis of multiple PI initiated and multicenter studies. In addition to her responsibilities as a biostatistician Ariel serves as the Program Coordinator for the Resident Research Program, guiding and assisting in their mentored research projects.

Critical Care Anesthesia
	Benjamin (Ben) Hoenig, BS Ben graduated from Northeastern University in 2018 with a Bachelors in Health Science. During his time at Northeastern he worked as an EMT which gave him the experience he needed to join BIDMC as an Emergency Department Technician in 2016. Ben joined CARE in February of 2019 as a Clinical Research Assistant in the ICU division, working on multiple critical care studies. In this role Ben helps with the screening, enrollment, and sample collection for eligible patients.

Perioperative Research
	Thy B. Nguyen, BS Thy joined CARE in 2018 as a Clinical Research Assistant II. She is working for Dr. Body to investigate the genetic etiologies of bicuspid aortic valve disease. With an interest in the intersection of maternal-fetal health and global health, she is working towards applying to medical school and is currently completing coursework at the Harvard Extension School Premedical Program.
	Samantha Proeschel, MS Sam graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2016 with a Master of Science degree in Nutrition Sciences. During her graduate studies she discovered her interest in clinical research. Following graduate school, Sam began working as a Clinical Research Coordinator in oncology and hematology, as well as dermatology. She joined CARE as a Clinical Research Coordinator in April of 2019, working on clinical trials in the perioperative division.
Pain Research
	Ammar (Joseph) Al-Shammaa, BDS, MSc Joseph joined CARE as a Clinical Research Coordinator in October of 2018. He received his Master in Oral Biology from Queen Mary University in London in 2012, and his Bachelor of Dental Surgery in 2007 from the University of Baghdad/Iraq. Joseph has previous experience working within a cancer research group at various hospitals cancer centers. Currently Joseph is working in the pain research division, recruiting, screening and enrolling eligible participants in trials that evaluate and manage pain.