Ashley Arrington is Program Manager at the NC TraCS Research Coordination & Management Unit (RCMU). She has clinical research experience in various disease states and patient populations. Her primary research interests include community and stakeholder engagement, qualitative research methods, and data collection best practices.
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InsideTraCS — with Ashley Arrington

| Marla Broadfoot

InsideTraCS: Get to know your extended research team through a new series featuring conversations with faculty and staff.

Ashley Arrington

Ashley Arrington is Program Manager at the NC TraCS Research Coordination & Management Unit (RCMU). She has clinical research experience in various disease states and patient populations. Her primary research interests include community and stakeholder engagement, qualitative research methods, and data collection best practices.

Marla Broadfoot, NC TraCS science writer, recently spoke with Arrington about what drew her to clinical research, how RCMU helps investigators and study teams with their projects, and her role in helping study teams on campus who wouldn't be able to conduct their research otherwise.


I saw you have an undergrad degree in Spanish and anthropology. What drew you to clinical research?

I was extremely privileged to grow up watching my late grandfather forge his research career at Georgia State University. I couldn't fully appreciate it at the time, but his devotion to science as an organic chemist coupled with his strong commitment to grow research funding at his university left an impact on me.

While I am certainly not a chemist (major kudos to all who are!), the early exposure to the field piqued my curiosity. This encouraged me to seek out research jobs during college, leading me to a research assistant position with a pulmonologist who allowed me countless interactions and valuable engagement with her research. The experience taught me so much, and I've been seeking out opportunities to be involved in clinical research ever since.

What kind of studies do you help with through the RCMU? Could you give me an idea of the breadth and depth of the work underway there?

RCMU logo

Our mission is to support the conduct of high quality clinical and translational research. We do this by providing our services to UNC researchers who need assistance executing their studies. RCMU staff are so incredibly talented and skilled at what they do, and this allows them to support UNC study teams in a variety of ways.

Their involvement can be at any point of a study—study start-up, execution, or closeout—allowing for RCMU staff to wear many different "hats". For example, the RCMU may be asked to step in on short notice for understaffed study teams by executing study tasks like recruitment, data entry, or conducting visits in the clinic. Other times, RCMU will take on the responsibility of starting up a study in its entirety, including hiring and training the study staff that will be responsible for the study for the life of the project.

Given the wide range of RCMU services, we've had the opportunity to work with study teams across UNC, including those that belong to the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Public Health, Social Work, and the College of Arts & Sciences. This has allowed us to work on many kinds of research studies—varying phases of clinical trials, qualitative analysis, long-standing biorepositories and registries, quality improvement projects, and the list goes on!

What is the best part of your job? In other words, what gets you out of bed in the morning?

The best part of my job is the opportunity to be a part of NC TraCS. The aims and objectives of TraCS allow for an incredibly large scope—it encourages interaction across the entire University and beyond to other universities doing similar work and lends itself to having so many incredible experts in the research field, quite literally down the hall. It is one of the major things that drew me to NC TraCS. RCMU investigators and other researchers in TraCS are working on some really incredible projects. I am able to learn from their genius—it's extremely motivating and encouraging!

Tell me about a project you are working on that you are particularly excited about.

combat COVID - HHS.gov

The RCMU has had the great privilege of contributing to clinical trials that are a part of the NIH's Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) partnership. The conglomerate pools resources from some of the world's largest foundations, government agencies, and private companies, with a common goal to streamline efforts to address the unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic.

The ACTIV trials seek to address the ever-changing global health needs as it relates to the pandemic as quickly as possible. It has been an incredibly insightful experience to be involved in clinical trials that pivot and adjust so swiftly, while seeing the trials' real-time impacts on COVID-19 treatments and vaccine development.

What exactly is your role within the Research Coordination and Management Unit? How does this work fit into the overall translational spectrum, of moving laboratory discoveries to the clinic or the community?

I initially joined the Research Coordination and Management Unit as a project manager. This role allowed me to work with study teams when they were in need of project management and/or had a need to assist in mentoring their research staff. I assisted UNC researchers in translating their awarded research funds into protocols with clear benchmarks and measurable study outcomes and data.

Currently, I serve as the unit's Program Manager. While I still assist RCMU clients with project management needs, my primary focus is on ensuring that the RCMU project portfolio supports our overall goal of assisting study teams on campus who may not otherwise be able to conduct their research without our help. We're able to do this by having an incredible team of study coordinators who also assist UNC researchers in making their research ideas a reality and make it their priority to provide excellent support to our clients. We also prioritize educating researchers by providing learning opportunities and resources so that study teams have the tools they need to independently execute their research beyond our involvement with their studies.

Learn more about the Research Coordination and Management Unit (RCMU) at rcmu.tracs.unc.edu.

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NC TraCS is the integrated hub of the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that combines the research strengths, resources and opportunities of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, partner institutions RTI International in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, and North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

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