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MEET THE TEAM

ARC consists of clinical research coordinators and fellows, data scientists, statisticians and research administrators with extensive experience in clinical research. To find out more about our team, please see their biographies and contact information below.

ARC Leadership

Timothy Houle, PhD
Clinical Research Director
Dr. Houle is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Houle received a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology and has specialized in statistical methods. Dr. Houle is a NIH funded researcher and has published articles on statistical power analyses, statistical reporting, chronic pain, headache, anesthesia history, Bayesian statistics and the statistical evaluation of biomarkers. He has served as a Statistical Consultant to Headache since 2004 and the Statistical Editor of Anesthesiology since 2006 where he helps formulate statistical policy and reviews accepted manuscripts. Since 2004 Dr. Houle has reviewed more than 6000 manuscripts while providing constructive criticism for authors under peer review, and lectures on manuscript preparation and statistical reporting for medical journals.
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Ariel Mueller, MA
Administrative Director for Research

Ariel joined Massachusetts General Hospital as the Senior Program Manager for Anesthesia Research in October 2019. In this role she oversaw clinical research staff working within the center and serves as a resource for the implementation of both funded and unfunded clinical research studies. Prior to joining MGH Ariel worked both as a statistician and clinical research specialist at a local hospital in Boston. Ariel brings extensive experience in grant preparation, study design and implementation, project management, research regulations and statistical analyses. Ariel previously graduated from Boston University in 2014 with a Masters of Arts in biostatistics. In addition to her role within the Anesthesia Research Center, Ariel is currently an Associate in Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School and serves as a statistical consultant for several different academic medical centers. She currently serves as the Administrative Director for Research, which includes directing departmental space, financial, personnel and research activities. 

EMAIL: ALMUELLER@MGH.HARVARD.EDUPHONE: (617) 726-9252

ARC Team Members

Marissa Albanese, BS
Sr. Clinical Research Coordinator

Marissa joined ARC as a Clinical Research Coordinator I in July 2021. Prior to joining ARC Marissa graduated from Trinity College with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience in May 2021. During her undergraduate years, Marissa contributed to research in the Evolutionary Neuroscience Lab on campus working on projects that looked at the correlation between poverty and differences in brain development. Passionate about further investigating neuroscience and its relation to anesthesia and pain, Marissa coordinates several anesthesia research projects and participates in patient interaction, subject recruitment, data collection, and regulatory compliance. 

EMAIL: MLALBANESE@PARTNERS.ORGtel: 617-724-7256
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Gleeson, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator II

Before joining ARC in February 2023, Lizzie graduated from Tufts University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. During her time as an undergraduate Lizzie worked as a research intern at MGH on a project that aimed to understand the long term effects on the bone health of teenagers who undergo bariatric surgery. After graduation she transitioned to a clinical research coordinator for studies focused on improving the understanding of the disease pathway of celiac disease in pediatric patients. She now brings her experiences to ARC, where she coordinate the operations, recruitment, data collection and study procedures for anesthesia research projects.

EMAIL: egleeson1@mgh.harvard.edutel: 617-643-7735
Abraham (Abe) Wei, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator I

Abe joined ARC as a Clinical Research Coordinator in June 2024, where he assists with patient recruitment, data collection and study coordination. Prior to joining ARC Abe graduated from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor with a Bachelor of Science in Biology in May 2024. During his undergraduate years, Abe contributed to research that sought to elucidate the mechanisms of the adenosinergic pathway in glioma to develop immunotherapy solutions for patients with both wildtype and IDH1 mutations. He also spent time as an orthopedic surgery volunteer where he assisted and served with various nurses, physicians, and patients. 

EMAIL: Abraham_Wei@DFCI.HARVARD.EDUtel: 617-643-7735
Nicole Letendre, BA
Clinical Research Coordinator I

Nicole graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a bachelor's degree in English in 2023 and is currently working on her graduate thesis for her master’s degree in biomedical sciences through Tufts University School of Medicine. As a certified EMT, Nicole has worked as a Sports Medicine EMT and a Medical Assistant in internal medicine, gaining valuable clinical experience. She joined MGH as a Clinical Research Coordinator in July 2024, where she assists with all aspects of study coordination and operations including subject recruitment, data collection, neurocognitive assessments and IRB preparations. She is currently applying to medical school and has a particular interest in the field of surgery.

EMAIL: nletendre1@mgb.orgtel: 617-643-7380
Rylie Dittrich, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator I

Before joining the ARC as a Clinical Coordinator in September 2024, Rylie graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. During her time at Northeastern, she completed a co-op in clinical research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital studying hypertension treatment and the effects of physiological stress. She then completed a second co-op at Boston Children’s Hospital researching the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine in protecting pediatric patients against hospitalization. As she applies to medical school this year, she is hoping to explore anesthesiology as a future specialty and continue gaining experience in study operations and patient interactions.  

EMAIL: rmdittrich@bwh.harvard.edutel: 617-724-0420
Aditi Melkote, MS
Clinical Research Coordinator I

Aditi joined the ARC as a Clinical Research Coordinator in September 2024. Prior to joining, she completed her Master’s in Biotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania in May 2024, during which time she gained work experience in cell therapy operations and manufacturing. She has also been involved in bacteriophage research, in addition to research studying the effect of non-autonomous oncogene expression on hematopoiesis in fruit flies, with goal of better understanding homologous tumor signaling pathways in humans. At the ARC, she hopes to branch out into clinical research, and gain experience with study coordination, patient recruitment, regulatory submissions and data analysis.

EMAIL: amelkote1@mgh.harvard.edutel: 617-643-7380
Alexis (Lexi) Novak, BA
Clinical Research Coordinator I

Prior to joining ARC in August 2022, Alexis graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in May 2022. During her undergraduate years, Alexis contributed to research at the Reading and Academic Development Research Group on campus, which studied the efficacy of researcher-implemented virtual reading comprehension intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder. She also gained extensive patient care experience while working as a medical scribe. Lexi now works per diem for the ARC team, assisting with REDCap database development and IRB submission. When remote, Alexis regularly contributes to study screening and data collection for several projects. 

EMAIL: ABNOVAK@mgh.harvard.edutel: 617-643-7380

Matthew Smith, BA
Statistician

Matt joined ARC as a Data Analyst in September 2022 and was promoted shortly after to a statistician within the ARC team. Matt graduated from Clark University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology. Since graduating from Clark, Matt has worked with Electronic Health Record systems in various capacities. He supported clients using MEDITECH's Laboratory Information Systems, and implemented Epic at UMass Memorial Health Care and Mayo Clinic. More recently, Matt was a Project Specialist and Clinical Business Analyst for the perioperative and anesthesia departments at MGH where he cultivated an appreciation for healthcare data. At ARC Matt assists investigators with data abstraction and analysis, primarily for observational research studies.

EMAIL: MSMITH143@mgh.harvard.edutel: 617-963-9775
Elizabeth Korn, MPH
Statistician

Before joining ARC in March 2023, Elizabeth graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Science in Health Science in May 2021, and a Master’s in Public Health in May 2022. Her Master’s concentrations were Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Pharmaceutical Development. During her time as a graduate student, Elizabeth was an Epidemiology Teaching Fellow in BU’s Department of Health Sciences, as well as a Data Management and Quality Improvement Intern at Boston Children’s Hospital Pediatric Transplant Center. More recently, Elizabeth was a Clinical Data Analyst at Lahey Medical Center’s Comparative Effectiveness Research Institute Team where she gained experience working with large-scale healthcare data. At ARC Elizabeth assists clinical and research faculty in the design, conduct, and statistical analysis of clinical research studies.

EMAIL: EKORN@MGH.HARVARD.EDUtel: 716-481-8059