INDIANAPOLIS — Kenneth H. Carlson has been named director of the Clinical Trials Office for University Clinical Affairs at Indiana University. He will begin his new position on Feb. 25.
The Clinical Trials Office, established in July 2014, serves as the single point of entry for clinical trials across IU, providing streamlined support for the facilitation of research studies, including contracting, budgeting and metric tracking.
“I am delighted that Ken has agreed to join IU,” said Anantha Shekhar, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, associate dean for translational research at the IU School of Medicine and associate vice president for university clinical affairs at IU. “As the director of the IU Clinical Trials Office, he will bring deep understanding about what industry partners are looking for when placing clinical trials at academic medical centers, and how the clinical trials business is evolving across the globe. This will help propel IU to become a preferred clinical research partner for a wide range of biomedical industries.”
In this position, Carlson will provide strategic leadership to the Clinical Trials Office, including advancing the timely and efficient conduct of industry sponsored clinical trials at IU and its health care partners of IU Health and Eskenazi Health. He will be responsible for the overall management of the office, its staff and resources, and will set policies and procedures for ensuring quality service and increased participation in clinical trials. He also will engage current and new clinical trial sponsors, and maintain existing sponsor relationships, to increase the overall number of clinical trials conducted at IU.
Prior to joining the university, Carlson served 19 years at Eli Lilly and Company in multiple positions dedicated to early and late phase drug development, most recently as the manager of global sourcing and study delivery solutions in the division of clinical pharmacology. He has also been the associate director of project planning and management at Eli Lilly’s affiliate in Kobe, Japan, and the manager of the integration of clinical pharmacology strategy, planning and operations for Lilly Japan and global clinical pharmacology operations in U.S., Europe and Singapore. He also previously served as a toxicologist with the Chemical Industry Institute of Technology, now the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences.
Carlson holds a master’s degree in toxicology from the University of Arizona, a bachelor’s degree in biology from Roanoke College in Virginia and a 2012 certificate of achievement in alliance management from the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals.