Diversity Action Plan Success: From Planning to Execution

In this webinar, the expert speakers will provide a clear map of best practices to optimize diversity action plans right from infrastructure to execution.

Diversity action plans are a hot topic in the clinical development process, particularly now that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its revised guidance, Diversity Action Plans to Improve Enrollment of Participants from Underrepresented Populations in Clinical Studies, in June 2024.

This updated draft provides a much more robust blueprint for what is expected from clinical study sponsors. However, what is missing and what some sponsors have not yet realized is that diversity action plans do not exist in a vacuum. The most successful plans are developed within an ecosystem that lends itself to supporting new and ambitious ways to engage study participants who have historically not been part of clinical research but who have been disproportionately burdened by diseases.

Through longitudinal qualitative research, including in-depth interviews and collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies of different size market caps, employee sizes and therapeutic focus (i.e., rare and high prevalence disorders), nine best practices have emerged that, when implemented, can improve the likelihood of developing a successful diversity action plan.

Additionally, the expert speakers will highlight key areas of the revised FDA guidance that can help sponsors successfully develop, execute and evaluate their diversity action plans.

Register for this webinar to learn more about how impactful diversity action plans that will positively differentiate studies can be developed.

Speakers

Devra Densmore, Founder & Principal Consultant, Elevate Advocacy

Devra Densmore has nearly 20 years of leadership experience in pharma, hospital, non-profit and agency settings. She has provided strategic support at every stage of a product’s lifecycle (pre-clinical through commercialization and into sunsetting a program).

Devra is highly skilled at incorporating the patient experience into quality improvement measures; forming coalitions between advocacy groups to mobilize patients in legislative advocacy and leading patient advocacy-focused initiatives. Having led patient advocacy locally and globally, Devra understands regulatory, legal and compliance considerations within the United States and around the world.

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Angela Rochelle, Sr Health Care Strategist, Elevate Advocacy

Angela Rochelle has more than 15 years of strategy development and account management experience in multicultural and diverse audience programs and initiatives. She is a diversity strategist for health equity, patient engagement and outreach program development.

Angela has championed program development for clinical research awareness and patient education to support improving diverse patient representation in clinical trials. Having built her career in marketing and advertising, her industry experience includes successful diverse patient engagement work with clients such as Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck and Biogen.

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Grayson Schultz, Health Care Strategist, Elevate Advocacy

Grayson Schultz has more than 10 years of strategy development and communications experience in diverse patient communities, government and research. He is a Diversity Strategist and Researcher, focused on health equity and patient engagement.

Grayson has championed culturally competent patient programs to support improving representation in state educational, conference and research materials. Having built his career in patient engagement, his experience includes successful roles in communications, direct support, education, research, EDI and patient engagement and advocacy work. Clients have included professional associations, biopharma companies, health and EDI organizations and patient advocacy groups.

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Donna Guran, Project Manager, Elevate Advocacy

Donna Guran has more than 20 years of strategic project management experience and served clients across pharma, biotech, hospitals and nonprofit organizations. She has managed recruitment and retention programs, including patient insights, patient advocacy, site engagement and outreach.

Donna has overseen the development of educational and technical publications focused on diversity and inclusion. Her experience includes marketing programs management, affiliate partner and vendor relations, stakeholder management, event planning and management and business process optimization.

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(Moderator) Dan Schell, Chief Editor, Clinical Leader

Dan Schell is the Chief Editor of Clinical Leader where he writes about topics related to clinical trial operations. Previously, he served as the Editorial Director of Life Science Leader magazine, another Life Science Connect community, for 14 years. In this role, he worked with the publication’s internal and external writers and editors on choosing the best topics for articles as well as refining all content to meet Life Science Leader’s high editorial standards.

Prior to his work with Life Science Leader, he worked as an editor and copy editor for the publication’s parent company, VertMarkets (now called Life Science Connect). He joined the company in 2000 after 10 years of working for Encompass Health (previously Healthsouth) in marketing and business development and four years at an advertising agency.

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