RISE 2019 Conference

Joan P. Packenham, Ph.D., is Director of the Office of Human Research Compliance (OHRC) in the Clinical Research Branch (CRB), Division of Intramural Research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences NIEHS/NIH and serves as the Vice-Chair for the NIEHS Institutional Review Board. She developed a comprehensive human research protection program (HRPP) for NIEHS and spearheaded the NIEHS efforts in assisting the NIH Office of Human Subjects Research Protections in the strategic planning, policy development and implementation of its human research protection program. Dr. Packenham has over 15 years of regulatory and human subjects research experience. Dr. Packenham’s areas of interest include bioethics, health disparities, community health and engagement, and ethical review of disaster-related health research. She has served as an expert ethics and science advisor for the US EPA Agency Science Advisor to review and evaluate the EPAs Human Subjects Research Program and assisted in making targeted recommendations for improving and strengthening their human ethics program. In addition, she partnered with the US DHHS Office of Human Research Protection to coordinate and implement the South Atlantic National Research Conference, titled: “Engaging the Community for Research Success: What Scientists and IRBs Need to Know.” A conference designed to develop a better understanding of the ethical, regulatory and policy issues involved in conducting community-engaged research in national and international settings. In 2014, Dr. Packenham joined the NIH/NIEHS Disaster Research Team (DR2) and has been leading the NIEHS efforts on the IRB review of disaster related research. In this role, she led a best practices working group to develop policy considerations and guidance for IRB review as it relates to subject vulnerability and public health emergency and disaster related research protocols. In 2016, she received the NIH Director’s Award for her work with the DR2 Initiative. Dr. Packenham received a Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine and completed her postdoctoral training within the NIH Intramural Program in the area of carcinogenesis.