Anstrom to lead Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center at Gillings

TraCS welcomes Kevin Anstrom, PhD, to UNC, and we look forward to working together.

Kevin Anstrom, PhD, joined the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health faculty on February 1. He is a professor in the Department of Biostatistics and the new director of the Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center (CSCC).

He has previously served as the coordinating center principal investigator for several large-scale clinical trials and trial networks while also filling the roles of director of biostatistics for the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and co-chief of the Division of Biostatistics in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Duke University.

Anstrom is widely known for his contributions to both statistical and collaborative research in numerous disease areas, most prominently in cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. From 2012 to 2021, he was the principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health's Heart Failure Clinical Research Network Coordinating Center. In 2020, he led DCRI in supporting a $50 million study of COVID-19 prevention in health care workers.

"Dr. Anstrom's extensive research portfolio and leadership skills resulting from his 25 years of experience in a coordinating center environment make him uniquely qualified for this position," said Lisa LaVange, PhD, chair of the Department of Biostatistics and two-time CSCC director. "His national and international reputation will be extremely valuable in ensuring the CSCC continues to be successful in coordinating research projects that address critically important public health challenges."

The CSCC celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2021. In five decades, the Center has coordinated activities for more than 40 large, multi-site clinical trials and epidemiology studies involving hundreds of clinical or field centers and hundreds of thousands of research subjects. These efforts have produced thousands of research publications, with current projects ranging from precision medicine interventions for severe asthma to alternative treatments for chronic lower back pain to oversight of the Hispanic Community Health Study.

The CSCC consists of approximately 100 faculty, staff and students from UNC-Chapel Hill's Departments of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Nutrition, Medicine (Cardiology Division) and Social Medicine. CSCC researchers collaborate with co-investigators in numerous other departments, centers and schools across the Carolina campus.

"I am very excited about this new phase of leadership for the CSCC," LaVange said. "I'm confident Dr. Anstrom will successfully build on our 50-year history and take the Center forward, possibly in some new directions."