Alcanza Clinical Research Awards Scholarships to Mainland High School Graduates, Promoting Careers in Clinical Trials

Chris Prader is the Chief Information Officer with more than three decades of diverse Information Technology and strategic management experience in leading IT. His career extends not only nationwide, but also globally, as he’s lived and worked internationally throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia.

As CIO of Alcanza, Chris oversees the management, integration and usability of data and information technology within the organization. Along with his team, Chris has helped to make operations more streamlined through technological innovation and transition.
Chris earned a Master of Business Administration degree from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA, and a Bachelor of Science from Arizona State University. He is also a member of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity.

When not working, you can find Chris vacationing with family and “in the sky” as a private pilot.

Rachel Truxall is VP Study Start Up and Performance.  She oversees central call center operations, community engagement, and study delivery across Alcanza’s network of sites.

With more than 20 years of combined experience in health care, public health, and leadership roles, Rachel most recently served as Director, Delivery of North America for AES/Synexus, PPD’s global network of clinical research sites, where she oversaw study site performance.

After starting her career as research assistant, early experience with community outreach catalyzed Rachel’s career focus and management progression in several patient advocacy and experience roles of increasing responsibility at research site networks.

Rachel is a licensed Registered Nurse, she earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of West Florida and a bachelor’s degree food science and nutrition from the University of Florida.

As Executive Director, Clinical Operations, Hollis Ryan leads site operations, with responsibility for site capacity and utilization planning, and clinical training.

Hollis has 18 years’ experience in clinical research. Her experience includes positions as Clinical Research Coordinator, Clinical Trials Administrator, Site Manager, Regional Director, and Director of Clinical Operations, managing over 200 Phase II – IV investigational drug and medical device trials. In these roles, her responsibilities included activities supporting protocol development, SOP writing, publications, process improvements, budget management, and overall execution of clinical trials.

Hollis earned a bachelor of science degree from Troy University and is a certified clinical research coordinator. She currently serves as President of the Central Alabama Chapter of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP).

Jeremy Rigby is Chief Growth officer, with responsibility for driving organic growth of Alcanza’s sites, clinical technology platform implementation, and clinical research site operations management.

Jeremy brings more than 20 years of clinical research experience with roles in clinical operations, business management, and executive leadership.  Most recently he served as President and Executive Director of Advanced Clinical Research, where he led the growth of a small clinical research site business into a regional network of clinical research sites that was successfully acquired by Velocity Clinical Research.  His prior roles include clinical trial monitoring, clinical study management, CRA team management, and clinical project management at ZARS Pharma and ICON Clinical Research.

Jeremy earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a master of business administration degree from Duke University.

As Executive Director, Human Resources, Kara Chase develops and implements the company’s human resource strategies and initiatives across talent management, diversity and inclusion, employee relations, culture and engagement, compensation and benefits, and training and development.

 Kara has 25 years of human resources experience, including more than 12 years in clinical research.  With an expansive background in human resources leadership, strategy and management that ranges from small to large organizations, Kara brings specialization in post-acquisition cultural integrations. In 2012, she was the recipient of the Gold Best in Biz Award as Human Resources Executive of the Year, followed by the Silver Best in Biz Award as Human Resources Executive of the Year in 2013.

Kara earned a bachelor’s degree in human resources management and business administration from King’s College She holds both SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications and is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management.