Sean Courtney

Senior Compliance Officer – Responsible Conduct of Research
Purdue University

Dr. Sean Courtney holds a joint appointment at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN within the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships and the Office of the Provost. His primary responsibilities include directing research compliance and field-specific training. He has 15+ years of experience conducting biomedical research in the areas of genetics and cancer genomics. Dr. Courtney is currently utilizing his skills and professional experiences to foster an ethical research environment through developing, implementing, and evaluating innovative policies and standards.

In his current role as the Research Compliance Manager, Sean ensures all researchers comply with responsible conduct of research regulations from federal, state, local, and university levels. He primarily trains and mentors researchers–at all career stages–in the areas of integrity, ethics, and reproducibility, which incorporates experimental design, data collection, analysis, and reporting results in a clear and ethical manner. Dr. Courtney also assists with investigations involving Research Integrity and Misconduct allegations within the Purdue University system and represents the University on the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

Prior to his current role, Sean was affiliated with the Indiana University School of Medicine as an Assistant Research Professor and completed two postdoctoral scholar positions at the Medical University of South Carolina. His doctoral degree was conferred by Texas A&M University.

Glenn Krell (he/him/his)

Director of Research Integrity
Rutgers University

Glenn Krell is Director of Research Integrity in the Office of Research and Economic Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Glenn was the Founding Coordinator of the Big Ten Academic Alliance – Responsible Conduct of Research (BTAA-RCR) Collaborative. The group has held monthly conference calls on RCR topics since 2018 and has hosted discussions with thought leaders in RCR. At Rutgers Glenn is responsible for research misconduct investigations; the financial conflict of interest disclosure program for researchers, and coordination of the RCR education program. Glenn has a master’s in public administration and more than 20 years’ experience as a university research administrator, including working with research faculty at the University of California Berkeley and UCSF.

Christopher Lehmann (he/him/his)

Research Integrity Officer
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Chris Lehmann serves as the Research Integrity Officer within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He coordinates campus-level Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) education. He is a Research Affiliate with the Illinois State Water Survey in the Prairie Research Institute. His training is in Civil Engineering with expertise in air and water quality, and he previously served as Laboratory Director at the Illinois State Water Survey. He is a member of the Association of Research Integrity Officers (ARIO), NCURA and the Online Ethics Center’s Scholars, Educators, and Administrators Fostering Research Integrity Community of Practice.

Chris received his BS in Civil Engineering from Valparaiso University, and his MS and PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Heather McFadden (she/her/hers)

University of Wisconsin – Madison

Heather McFadden works at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education and coordinates RCR mandates. In this role, she has developed and implemented curriculum responsive to federal agency mandates, actively participated in policy analysis and development, and has worked with colleagues at peer institutions to foster an increased understanding of RCR.  She also staffs the Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee, Research Vehicle Safety Oversight Committee, and other committees as needed.

Kristen Pecanac

Associate Professor of Nursing
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Pecanac’s research explores interactions among health care practitioners, patients and family members when making decisions related to treatment in the hospital setting. Her intent is to identify communicative practices that promote patient and family participation in decision-making and incorporate these practices into an intervention. The ultimate goal of this research is to facilitate engagement in productive conversations that will lead to reduced stress and suffering for patients and their family members.

Lauran Qualkenbush (she/her)

Senior Director for Research Integrity and Training
Research Integrity Officer
Northwestern University

Lauran Qualkenbush is the Senior Director for Research Integrity and Training and the Research Integrity Officer at Northwestern University. She is responsible for promoting the responsible conduct and appropriate administration of university research and is involved in Responsible Conduct of Research education across the University and coordination of the University’s RCR plan. She oversees the Office for Research Integrity which responds to allegations of research misconduct as well as other types of research non-compliance and the newly created Office for Research training unit which is involved in the development of comprehensive research-related training. She has been in this role and engaged in RCR and research integrity for over 18 years. Prior to that, Lauran worked as a clinical research coordinator and in Northwestern’s IRB Office. She also is a founding member and the current President of the Association for Research Integrity Officers (ARIO). She has been a teaching RIO for the HHS ORI RIO boot camps and has served on multiple HHS ORI grant review panels.

Greg Swain

Professor of Chemistry and Neuroscience Program Member
RECR Education Program Director
Michigan State University

Dr. Greg Swain is a professor of chemistry and a member of the Neuroscience Program at Michigan State University. In addition to his academic appointments, Dr. Swain serves as the RECR Education Program Director in the Office of Research and Innovation and as the Responsible Conduct of Research Education Coordinator for The Graduate School. In these positions, he is responsible for implementing and administering a comprehensive RECR education program across campus for all researchers, scholars, and students. He also directs an interdisciplinary research program in electrochemistry, material science and corrosion science. A focus is on understanding structure-property relationships of different carbon electrode materials and tailoring their properties for application in chemical and biochemical sensors for health and the environment, as microelectrodes for neuroanalytical chemistry, and the electrosynthesis of value-added products from renewable materials and pollutants. He has served or serves in various leadership positions at the national level including the current Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal,  Electroanalysis (Wiley). At the university level, he served as an At-large Member of the University’s Steering Committee and Faculty Senate (MSU, 2017-2019) and as an Academic Advancement Network Fellow (MSU, 2018-2019). He is a Fulbright Fellowship recipient and a member of the American Chemical Society and Electrochemical Society.