Institutional Review Board Members

IRB members are appointed by the Director of the Human Subjects Protection Program and are selected for their experience and expertise, as well as for their diverse backgrounds. Panel 01 generally meets on the first Monday of the month and Panel 02 generally meets on the the third Monday of the month.

Meeting dates and submission deadlines may be adjusted due to holidays therefore investigators should always refer to the published schedules. The submission deadlines only apply to studies that require full board review (either initially or at the time of continuation). Studies that qualify for expedited review or exempt status are reviewed on an on-going cycle as they are received.

Each member who is assigned as a primary review is provided with an electronic reviewer sheet within iRIS. The help buttons associated to the form address the points the IRB should consider as related to the criteria for approval. The forms provided by the PI address the special concerns of involving vulnerable populations in research and the IRB must consider those forms.

Members may find the following documents helpful:

IRB Panel 01 Membership:

  • Linda Choquette, MSHC, CCRP, Sr. Manager Clinical Research,  JAX
  • Alan Curto, BS, JD, Partner, Halloran & Sage LLP*
  • Terese Donovan, MS, RN, Clinical Nurse Education Specialist (retired)
  • Julian Ford, PhD, Professor Psychiatry, Chair
  • Rajesh V. Lalla, D.D.S., Ph.D., Professor, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Diagnostic Sciences
  • Stephen MacKinnon MA, Regulatory Specialist+
  • M. Melinda Sanders, MD, Professor, Pathology and Lab Medicine, UConn Health
  • Mitchell Sauerhoff, PhD, DABT, Volunteers at UConn Health in Medical Toxicology /Emergency Medicine and School of Pharmacy
  • Ruchir Trivedi, MD, Assistant Professor, Nephrology
  • Rev. Daniel Warriner, DMin, BCC, Chaplain, UConn Health
  • Jeffrey Wasser, MD, Assistant Professor, Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center (retired)
  • Andrew Winokur, MD, PhD, Professor, Psychiatry
  • Agnes Kim,  MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine in Calhoun Cardiology Center, Internal Medicine.

+Patricia Gneiting, AAS may act as alternate

IRB Panel 02 Membership:

  • Francesco Celi, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine
  • Timothy Everett, JD, MA, Clinical Professor of Law, UConn School of Law, (Prisoner Advocate)
  • Julian Ford, PhD, Professor Psychiatry, Co-Chair
  • Martin Freilich, DDS, Professor, Department of Reconstructive Sciences
  • Patricia Gneiting, AAS, Regulatory Specialist+
  • Upendra Hegde, MD, Assistant Professor, Hematology/Oncology, UConn Health, Co-Chair
  • Ronald Kadden, PhD, MA, Professor Psychiatry (retired)
  • Dayne Laskey, PharmD, Assistant Professor Pharmacy Practice, University of St. Joseph School of Pharmacy
  • Janice Loomis, MA, Administrator, IRB William W. Backus Hospital
  • Jun Lu, MD, Associate Professor Dermatology
  • Edmund Mikolwosky, JD, Community Member
  • Warren Osterndorf, MA, Assistant Professor of Communications, Eastern CT State University
  • John Vento, MD, Assistant Professor, Diagnostic Imaging and Therapeutics (retired)
  • Amy Zipf, RN, PhD, Clinical Nurse Specialist,  UConn Health

+Stephen MacKinnon MA may act as alternate