Lori Abrams, patient advocate

Lori Abrams has been a consultant for the past year and a half, helping Organizations accomplish representation in their clinical trials. This has been achieved by developing patient and community focused Diversity Strategy Action Plans, incorporating the patient and caregiver’s voice into decision-making, and bringing tangible solutions to the visible and invisible barriers that prevent representative recruitment and retention. Her last role was Vice President of patient advocacy and clinical research diversity at WCG. Abrams and her team worked to ensure that each clinical trial enrolled a diverse group of patients from underserved populations by facilitating culturally appropriate dialogue between patients, care providers, community members and trial stakeholders. The feedback and interactions from these groups garnered significant recommendations for the sponsors, but importantly, empowered diverse community members. The Team also worked with several pharmaceutical companies to develop Diverse Strategy Action Plans both for the Sponsor and the sites. As the Director of Advocacy, Diversity & Patient Engagement in Global Development Operations at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) she has built a Team that developed innovative and unique advocacy approaches that brought BMS clinical trial awareness and accessibility to patients, physicians, and caregivers. The Team also developed many relationships with minority-focused health and community-based organizations, to increase diversity in BMS clinical trial populations. The Team also focused on educating the internal BMS workforce on the barriers, concerns and daily life of patients and caregivers. This was achieved through quarterly “Voice of the Patient” seminars, art shows by patients, patient videos and internal teleconferences where colleagues could ask the Team questions. Lori came to Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1998 as a Sr. Clinical Scientist in the Virology Group. During her first six years she was the Clinical Working Group Lead on both Videx EC and Reyataz. She joined the Drug Development Learning & Collaboration Team in 2003 managing a team of learning professionals. Prior to joining BMS, Lori was both a study coordinator in HIV/AIDS related clinical trials and a patient advocate at the National Institutes of Health and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for Military Medicine. Lori partnered with many patient advocacy organizations to bring the plight of the military’s HIV program to the public and integration into the HIV/AIDS overall arena. Additionally, she successfully lobbied Congress to gain support for the military’s HIV Program and obtained an increase in funding of 20 million per year. Her work was recognized with a nomination by Congressman Steny Hoyer (House Majority Leader) to be a delegate to the White House Conference of HIV/AIDS, and an award on World AIDS Day by Congresswomen Constance Morella. Lori completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland and received a Graduate Certificate in Organization Development from the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Sciences.