I3 Acceleration Team
The Acceleration Team (AT) is a group of experts responsible for helping to advance the goals of i-Cubed™ by providing insights, guidance, advice, and recommendations to develop, refine, and launch sustainable solutions that make clinical research seamless and inclusive for all. The AT provides expertise in an advisory role that will help i-Cubed make decisions about the needs, future, and next steps of ideas submitted to the center.
Marcela Gomez
Focus Areas: Market Research
Marcela Gomez is founding partner and CEO of Culture Shift Team, with over 30 years of experience effectively helping organizations connect with diverse and continuously changing U.S. demographics. Marcela leads CST’s inclusive marketing and advertising team, working with clients helping them understand and develop new target markets. Marcela has worked with corporate, public utilities, packaged goods companies, consumer, universities, nonprofits, and business-to-business clients in industries such as transportation, education, government, banking and finance, wireless, sports, food, health care, and the arts. Her expertise includes the development of marketing, communications, and grassroots campaigns, from conception and brand development to production.
Marcela earned her bachelor’s degree in advertising from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá, Colombia. Prior to co-founding Culture Shift Team, Marcela was president and CEO of Hispanic Marketing Group, a full-service bilingual, bicultural advertising agency that she founded in Nashville, TN, in 2002.
She serves as president-elect on the board of directors of the National Speakers Association New York City Chapter. She is the past president and board chair of the Tennessee Latin American Chamber of Commerce and founder of the Entrepreneur Latina Leaders of America (ELLA) program in Nashville. She has served on boards of directors for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the YWCA, and Conexión Américas, among others. Marcela has lived in New York City since December 2020
Marcela Gomez Focus Areas: Market Research
Nick Jordan
Focus Areas: Software, Digital Development
Nick Jordan is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Smashing Boxes, a web and mobile application development firm in Durham, North Carolina. He has led the firm from its inception to currently 25 employees including multiple stops on industry lists such as Inc 500 and Entrepreneur Magazine's Most Innovative Companies.
Nick is a strong believer in entrepreneurship and the power of entrepreneurial-minded teams to change companies and the world for the better. He is passionate about growing a culture of empowered, entrepreneurial-minded team members and strengthening partnerships with existing and potential clients 3. Nick is also an active mentor and investor in various local startups and programs like RiOT, Groundwork Labs, Startup Health, and the Adams Apprenticeship. He serves on the Council for Entrepreneurial Development and is a frequent speaker on the value of culture and the entrepreneurial spirit on organizations, and how they impact the creation and management of technology, strategy, and innovation.
Nick graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Nick Jordan Focus Areas: Software, Digital Development
Eric Perakslis, PhD
Focus Areas: Informatics, Cybersecurity, Leadership
Dr. Eric Perakslis is the former Chief Science and Digital Officer at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. He was previously a Rubenstein Fellow at Duke University, where his work focused on collaborative efforts in data science that spanned medicine, policy, engineering, computer science, information technology, and security. Prior to joining Duke, Eric served as Chief Scientific Advisor at Datavant, Lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School, and Strategic Innovation Advisor to Médecins Sans Frontières. Eric was Senior Vice President and Head of the Takeda R&D Data Science Institute, where he built an integrated institute of more than 165 multi-disciplinary data scientists serving all aspects of biopharmaceutical R&D and digital health.
Prior to Takeda, Eric was the Executive Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and the Countway Library of Medicine, an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and a faculty member of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program at Boston Children’ Hospital. During his time at HMS, Eric focused on the approval of the Department of Biomedical Informatics as a full academic department, the development of the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Network, industry collaborations, leading the technology efforts for multiple Ebola response programs, and building active research programs in medical product development, regulatory science, and cybersecurity. Prior to HMS, Eric served as Chief Information Officer and Chief Scientist (Informatics) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In this role, Eric authored the first IT Strategic Plan for FDA and was responsible for modernizing and enhancing the IT capabilities as well as in silico scientific capabilities at FDA. Prior to his time at FDA, Eric was Senior Vice President of R&D Information Technology at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals R&D and member of the Corporate Office of Science and Technology. While at J&J, Eric created and open-sourced the tranSMART clinical data system, which is now being freely used by hundreds of healthcare organizations.
Eric has served on the editorial board of Cancer Today magazine and as the Associate Editor for Novel Communications for the Journal of Therapeutic Innovation and Regulatory Science. Eric has also served on Science and Technology Advisory Committees and in leadership roles for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, NuMedii, Precision for Medicine, the Survivor Advisory Board at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Kidney Cancer Association, OneMind4Research, and the Scientist - Survivor program of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Eric Perakslis, PhD Focus Areas: Informatics, Cybersecurity, Leadership
Bimal Shah, MD, MBA
Focus Areas: Leadership, Startups, Investment
Dr. Shah is a nationally recognized cardiologist who is a Venture Partner at RA Ventures. He was formerly the Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Homeward. Previously, Dr. Shah was the Chief Medical Officer at Teladoc (NYSE: TDOC) after its merger with Livongo Health (NASDAQ: LVGO) where he held the same title. In these roles is oversaw clinical product strategy, content, value and insight analytics, behavioral health strategy, clinical operations, quality and credentialing, and commercial enablement. Prior to Livongo, he was the Chief Medical Officer for Emerging Technology and Informatics and Service Line Vice President for Life Sciences at Premier Inc., (NASDAQ: PINC) where he led the P&L across all aspects of strategy, sales, marketing, product management, and operations.
Prior to Premier, Dr. Shah served as an Assistant Professor in both the Department of Medicine and Fuqua School of Business at Duke University where he led numerous research programs in the areas of health services research, implementation science, clinical trials, and registry analyses as well as an administrative role as the Director of Quality for the Department of Medicine. Dr. Shah graduated from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill with highest honors and earned both a MD and MBA from Duke University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University before finishing a general cardiology fellowship at Duke University.
Dr. Shah remains on faculty at Duke University. He is a Fellow of both the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. He is chair emeritus of the Board of Visitors at the Duke University School of Nursing and is also a current member of the Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
Bimal Shah, MD, MBA Focus Areas: Leadership, Startups, Investment