IREx Team
Emily Serdoz, MPA | Platform Director
Ms. Serdoz began her career at Vanderbilt in 2005 and is currently a Manager of Translational Research for the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR). She began her career as a Research Coordinator at the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement, coordinating the evaluation of several mental health programs where she managed the day-to-day operations and logistics. Ms. Serdoz then went on to manage the software development of a clinical feedback system for mental health clinicians.
Ms. Serdoz came to VICTR in 2011 and became the project manager for VICTR’s national single IRB (sIRB) initiatives in 2012, starting with IRBshare, which became IRBchoice and is now IREx. With the support of the IREx team and consultants, Ms. Serdoz oversees system development, testing and training; marketing and outreach; user education and support; evaluation; and strategic planning.
Amna Baig | User Support & Trainings
Amna Baig is a Research Strategy & Program Specialist at the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) since December 2022. She has a background in clinical research management, registry management, and user training materials development & delivery. At VICTR, as part of the IREx team, Ms. Baig provides user support and trainings.
Katelyn Benhoff | Marketing & Materials
Katelyn joined the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) as a Research Strategy & Program Specialist in March 2020. Prior to working with VICTR, Katelyn worked with various non-profits doing direct client care. Since joining VICTR, she has taken on project management responsibilities for a variety of programs, all aimed to develop the research infrastructure at VUMC and nationwide. In IREx, Katelyn manages user-facing materials and marketing and outreach, and works on strategic planning.
Outside of work, Katelyn enjoys spending time with her partner and two daughters, finding the best cold brew in Nashville, and staying involved in her local community (OK – she also watches too much Bravo!).
Tiffany Chen | User Support
Tiffany Chen joined the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) as a Research Strategy & Program Specialist in March 2023. Prior to joining VICTR, Tiffany worked as a clinical research coordinator and epidemiologist, where she gained experience in research design, data management, and statistical analysis. Tiffany is excited to bring her skills and experience to VICTR and looks forward to contributing to the advancement of clinical and translational research and supporting the IREx team.
David Crenshaw, MSW | Site On-boarding and Study Support
Mr. Crenshaw works as a Research Services Consultant for VICTR with a background in managing large pragmatic clinical trials. He has a lifelong association with Vanderbilt, graduating from the university in 1987 and serving as one of the university photographers for over 15 years. A mid-life master’s degree in social work led to his first position managing clinical trials for a Vanderbilt study researching the relationship between stress and health disparities. Over the next ten years Mr. Crenshaw has managed a variety of Clinical trials at VUMC, most notably the ADAPTABLE aspirin study which was featured in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In his personal life David is a father of two wonderful young adults and husband of 30+ years to his wife Cynthia, the Chair of the Math Department at the University School of Nashville. A few years back David received his fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo, but now prefers the more gentle pursuits of hiking with his family and pups, as well as collecting and painting antique toy soldiers from the Napoleonic period.
Shyam Naru | Application Developer
Shyam is a Senior Application Developer at the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR). He joined VICTR in 2017 and works as a lead developer on several large-scale research initiatives, including the All of Us Research Program and the Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH) study. He specializes in building secure, scalable web applications and APIs in a Google Cloud serverless environment, supporting compliance with strict health and federal data standards. In June 2025, Shyam joined the IREx team as a developer, contributing to the maintenance and development of the IREx web application. Shyam enjoys playing cricket and pickleball, watching movies, and listening to music.
Chris Pua | Application Developer
Chris is a Portfolio and Product Manager at the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. He joined VICTR in 2017 and manages developers and a collection of custom web applications built and maintained by the Office of Research Informatics. He joined the IREx team in July 2025, managing the software development process. In his free time, Chris enjoys cooking for his family, paddleboarding with his wife, indoor climbing with his younger daughter, playing ultimate frisbee with his older daughter, reading in solitude, and playing board games with everyone.
Kaysi Quarles | System Development
Ms. Quarles is a Research Strategy & Program Specialist at the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR). She joined VICTR in January 2018 to help support researchers with recruitment tools. She assists Vanderbilt researchers with distributing their study messages though Vanderbilt’s local listserv and helps researchers across the country join ResearchMatch, a national registry project. Ms. Quarles joined the IREx team in 2022 to provide user support and oversee materials and website management.
Linda Tan | System Development
Ms. Tan is an Application Analyst at Vanderbilt’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR). She joined VICTR in November 2016 to provide support for the Trial Innovation Network (TIN)’s single IRB (sIRB) efforts and IREx. Ms. Tan now leads system development for IREx to support sIRB studies and coordination.
Evan Wimberly | Application Developer
Evan is an Application Developer at the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR). He joined VICTR in April 2019 to maintain and develop the IREx system. Prior to joining IREx, Evan has worked in developing RESTful services and administrative web applications. In his free time, Evan enjoys running and is part of a weekly running group, hosting family and friends, time outdoors, and he’s also a pretty good cook.
IREx Internal Consultants
Gordon Bernard, MD | Advisor
Dr. Bernard is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and the Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Sciences in the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He holds the Melinda Owen Bass Professor of Medicine chair. Dr. Bernard has extensive experience developing, implementing, and leading large, collaborative translational science initiatives and has been directly involved in NIH-sponsored translational research for more than 30 years, supported by a wide variety of funding mechanisms. In addition, he is the Program Director for the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) and co-PI of the Duke-Vanderbilt Trial Innovation Center. Dr. Bernard formally served as Vanderbilt’s IRB Medical Director and was the Principal Investigator of the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (formerly Center for Research Resources)-funded R13 “Novel IRB Review Models for Efficient Multi-site Review” that established IRBshare, an early predecessor to IRBchoice and IREx.
Dr. Bernard continues to serves as a an IREx adviser, providing strategic guidance and helping to identify and resolve administrative and infrastructure inefficiencies.
Todd Rice, MD, MSc | Advisor
Dr. Rice has been a clinical investigator since 2001, and is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine where he began his career at Vanderbilt in 2001 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. His interest in patient-oriented research and academic medicine led him to complete the Vanderbilt Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) degree. He served as chair of one of the IRB health science committees for 4 years and is now Medical Director of Vanderbilt’s Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) and head of research subject advocacy for Vanderbilt’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). He and Dr. Bernard co-led the IRBshare Project from 2011-2015.
Dr. Rice continues to serves as a an IREx adviser, providing strategic guidance and helping to identify and resolve administrative and infrastructure inefficiencies.