Apr 24, 2023
The Importance of Diversity & Inclusion: Interview with Lori Abrams
“When you don’t have clinical trial data on everybody, you really don’t know if the drugs are efficacious, meaning effective or safe,” says Lori Abrams, a renowned clinical trial diversity consultant and advisor to Tigerlily, WiTT, and NEV.
Lori’s passion for health equity and diversifying clinical trials has led her to consult with Sponsors and build strategies to increase clinical trial diversity. As the Vice President of Patient Advocacy and Clinical Research Diversity, Lori designed and operationalized new fit-for-purpose diversity solutions for sponsors and sites. She led the development of a patient advocacy and diversity division at WCG that transitioned into a successful revenue-generating business line. Her expertise in the field is due to her two-decade tenure at BMS, where she built the first R&D Diversity & Patient Engagement group in Global Development Operations.
At BMS, Lori delivered the strategy and vision across the portfolio while building the framework. She also partnered with diseased-specific and minority-focused advocacy organizations to bring patient and caregiver insights into BMS, successfully incorporating clinical trial diversity measures into the company’s five-year goals. Her community partnerships developed over a decade and still stand today. Prior to joining BMS, Lori was both a study coordinator in HIV/AIDS-related clinical trials and a patient advocate at the National Institutes of Health and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for Military Medicine.
Lori’s work was recognized with a nomination by Congressman Steny Hoyer to be a delegate to the White House Conference of HIV/AIDS. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland and received a Graduate Certificate in Organization Development from the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Sciences, and a Certification from the Yale School of Medicine in Clinical Research Fundamentals.
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