Darren Whanger is a Senior DevOps and Cloud Architect at Vivli, bringing over thirty-eight years of software industry expertise to his role. His cloud experience spans eleven years in principal cloud solutions architect positions with Microsoft, and IBM where he architected cloud infrastructure and DevOps solutions for enterprise clients. He also has held architecture and leadership roles at Symantec, Fiserv, ADP, and a handful of startups.
Over the last three years, Darren has been actively working with generative AI technologies to advance cloud solutions and DevOps practices. His extensive background in both traditional and emerging technologies positions him as a trusted voice in cloud architecture, DevOps, and artificial intelligence innovation
Melissa Kirwin is the Operations Lead at Vivli, with experience in clinical research, public health, stakeholder relations, strategic communications, and cross-sector partnerships.
Prior to joining Vivli, Melissa served as Director of Communications and Business Development at CDISC, supporting the adoption of clinical research data standards used in global regulatory submissions. She has also led public health research on maternal health and healthcare access, and oversaw a pediatric vaccination delivery project for LMICs in Southeast Asia at the Milken Institute Asia Center in Singapore.
Melissa serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of the Society of Clinical Data Management, holds an MPH from The George Washington University, and is a member of Delta Omega, the national public health honorary society.
Audrey Foxx is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Vivli, where she leads communications strategy, content development, and external outreach in support of Vivli’s mission to accelerate clinical research through data sharing. She brings experience in public health communications, digital marketing, and federal health program outreach, including prior work at JSI Research & Training Institute supporting HRSA-funded initiatives. Audrey holds a Master of Public Health from Boston University and is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES).
Lydia is a Clinical Trial Disclosure Associate for Vivli where she supports global data sharing efforts by managing research data access requests and ensuring alignment with contributor requirements.
Prior to this role, Lydia was a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), completing rotations across several institutes. Following her fellowship, she transitioned to a permanent role at the Fogarty International Center at NIH as a Health Science Policy Analyst, where she led strategic initiatives to advance global health research. Lydia holds a Master of Public Health in Global Health Epidemiology and Disease Control from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Health Science in Public Health from the University of Missouri.
Before joining Vivli, Swapna was the Staff QA automation Engineer at Ripple Science, where she led the automation of Quality proofing the developed/enhanced code resulting in saving of hours of testing. Before Ripple science, Swapna was with NDS (now Cisco) and Tata Elxsi systems in the area of software development.
Swapna holds a Masters degree in computer science from Bellevue University Nebraska.
Amanda Skarlupka is a Senior Program Manager for Vivli. She brings over 12 years of experience in pre-clinical and translational research, data management, and program management including providing strategic input and grants management for the National Institutes of Health. Amanda earned her Ph.D. in Infectious Diseases and her M.S. In Biostatistics and Epidemiology from the University of Georgia.
Prior to this role, Amanda was a Health Scientist Administrator and Presidential Management Fellow at the National Cancer Institute within the Division of Cancer Prevention. She oversaw the division’s initiation, development, and close-out of programs designed to build trans-disciplinary bridges between data scientists, oncologists, and federal agencies.
Prior to joining Vivli, Elizabeth was an Architect at Insight, Inc., a Vivli development partner. At Insight, Elizabeth was one of the first developers for the Vivli platform, joining the project at its kickoff in 2017 and continuing to work on Vivli for much of the next 7 years. She played a key role in translating complex business requirements into an effective implementation, and became known as the development team’s domain expert. Her other Insight experience included a number of Azure-based projects in the healthcare and life sciences vertical, working as a full stack developer with design responsibility for numerous Web APIs. Prior to Insight, Elizabeth worked in the medical device industry, building native applications for computer-assisted medical devices, with responsibility for all application development, maintenance, and software-related regulatory support.
Rylie Garrison, MEd is the Grants and Finance Administrator of Vivli. She also serves as Senior Grants Administrator in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In this position, she oversees finance and compliance for approximately 150 research grants from a variety of federal and philanthropic sponsors. She received her MEd in Higher Education Administration in 2019.
Alex joined the Vivli team in 2024 as an Executive Assistant where she provides support to our team.
Prior to joining Vivli, Alex worked with a boutique immigration law firm as a Law Clerk, supporting the partners and preparing substantive legal documents. Alex holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Legal Studies.
Vivli will host a workshop at the 2023 Cochrane Colloquium in London on September 4. The Cochrane Colloquium is an annual event for Cochrane in support of its mission to promote evidence-informed health decision-making.
Vivli’s workshop will focus on “Practical advice for accessing patient-level data from a data sharing platform for evidence synthesis.” This session will provide:
- an introduction to the Vivli platform, including an overview of data available and hands-on group work on how to submit a request for data
- an overview of first-hand experience of using patient level data using Vivli’s data sharing platform as a case study
- a discussion session focusing on some of the opportunities and challenges associated with using patient level data (for example: what to do when data needed to answer the hypothesis is not available via a single data sharing platform?)
This session will be a mixture of hands-on practice and opportunities to hear from researchers who have used the platform, patient advocates, and data providers. There will also be time for participants to ask questions about the data access process.
Vivli Senior Director Julie Wood will be joined by Alan Chant, the patient representative on the Independent Review Panel; Catrin Tudur Smith from the University of Liverpool; and Rebecca Sudlow from Roche to facilitate this workshop.
For more information on the 2023 Cochrane Colloquium and to register for this session, please see the event schedule. Please note that participation in this session is open only to registered Colloquium attendees.
