DCRI Accomplishments showcases the publications, awards, and other achievements of our faculty, staff, and trainees. Each quarter, a new collection will highlight the most recent accomplishments.
Together, these accomplishments reflect the breadth of DCRI’s impact — from nationally recognized leadership in clinical research and biostatistics to collaborative public health engagement, trainee achievement, and staff development.
Rockhold Celebrated as a VCU Alumni Star
Frank W. Rockhold, PhD, was honored as one of Virginia Commonwealth University’s brightest alumni stars during an Oct. 9 ceremony.
The biennial VCU Alumni Stars event, hosted by VCU Alumni, honors alumni from across the university’s academic units for their remarkable personal and professional achievements.
Rockhold is a professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics in the Duke University School of Medicine (SOM), a faculty member in the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and an affiliate professor of biostatistics at VCU. He has also held senior research leadership roles at Lilly, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline.
Rockhold is internationally recognized for advancing the science and practice of clinical research. His expertise spans clinical trial design, patient safety, pharmacovigilance, open science, and data monitoring committees. He has presented to and collaborated with U.S., Japanese, and European regulatory agencies; the National Academy of Medicine; and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and has served as an adviser to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
“Frank has spent more than five decades advancing biostatistics, bioinformatics, clinical research and patient safety,” Monica Swahn, PhD, dean and professor of the School of Public Health at VCU, said in a celebratory LinkedIn post. “His remarkable career demonstrates the essential role of biostatistics and bioinformatics in generating scientific evidence, improving clinical trials and advancing human health.”
A respected leader in his field, Rockhold has served as president of the Society for Clinical Trials and chair of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium. He currently chairs the Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation Board of Directors while advising the European Medicines Agency. Rockhold co-authored the International Council for Harmonisation’s E9 and E10 guidelines, foundational documents that have helped shape clinical trial design worldwide.
He is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Society for Clinical Trials and the Royal Statistical Society. His contributions include more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, more than 400 scientific presentations and leadership of more than 100 independent data monitoring committees, reflecting a career dedicated to improving the quality, safety and integrity of medical research.
Cross-Campus Collaboration Earns Duke Insights Recognition
A cross-functional team spanning the Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke School of Medicine and Duke Health received the Cross-Campus Catalyst Award at the 2026 Duke Insights Summit, recognizing outstanding collaboration in support of shared communications goals.
The summit celebrates communications excellence across Duke, with awards recognizing standout work in areas such as collaboration, strategy, storytelling, and engagement. This year’s awards drew more than 70 nominations across six categories.
The award honored a communications and engagement effort supporting the RACE-CARS Trial's ambitious attempt to set a world record for the most people trained in CPR in a single day. The initiative brought together researchers, community outreach leaders, communications professionals, designers, digital experts, and media relations professionals to create a unified campaign that elevated awareness and participation across the state.
The award was presented to Jonathon Cook, Carol Harbers, and Natalie Sayewich in recognition of the collaborative communications effort that reflected contributions from a broad team across the DCRI, the RACE-CARS Trial, Duke School of Medicine, and Duke Health.
RACE-CARS Trial community coordinator Tyler Cope approached the DCRI’s Research Communications & Engagement team in late 2025 about developing branding, promotional materials, and a website for the event, and teams from across Duke worked closely in the months leading up to the February 25 training day. DCRI contributors included Peter Anderson, Kim Best, Melissa Carter, Jonathon Cook, Tad Hunt, Bonnie McCuster, John Shepherd, and Kerry Stenke from RC&E, and Jennifer Riley, Natalie Sayewich, Liz Evans, and Hannah Webster from Corporate Communications. They worked alongside Cope and the RACE-CARS Trial team, as well as communications colleagues from Duke School of Medicine, and Duke Health, with support from collaborators and community partners across the state.
During the event, more than 19,800 people were successfully trained in CPR, which fell short of the world record but marked the highest one-day CPR training total recorded in the United States to date. The project was recognized as a model for how coordinated communications, strategic promotion, and cross-campus partnership can extend the impact of research-driven public health initiatives.
O2E Trainee Liu Receives ASA Scholarship Award
Yi Liu, a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute T32 trainee at the DCRI working with faculty in the DCRI’s Outcomes, Endpoints, and Estimands (O2E) group, was named a recipient of the 2026 Biopharmaceutical Section Scholarship Award by the American Statistical Association.
The award was presented to Liu at the Biopharmaceutical Section Mixer during the Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston on Aug. 3. The award recognizes notable research, academic achievement and applied project work related to biopharmaceutical statistics, also considering general academic performance, leadership, volunteering and service.
In May, Liu published a paper with O2E program faculty that highlighted their development of a statistical method for analyzing win ratio outcomes in clinical trials that more effectively handles missing and censored data. Tested using data from the HEART-FID and ISCHEMIA trials, the approach produced more efficient and reliable treatment comparisons while avoiding many of the limitations of existing methods.
Broderick Graduates Frontline Supervisor Program
DCRI Senior Biostatistician Sam Broderick was celebrated as one of 20 Duke graduates from the 2025-26 Frontline Supervisor Program, offered through Duke’s Professional Development Academy. The program develops newly and recently appointed Duke staff who are entry-level frontline supervisors and new to coordinating, directing, and planning the work of others. It provides structured development in business acumen, people management, project management, and selected supervisory competencies.
The program included monthly, in-person daytime sessions from October 2025 through June 2026. As part of the program, the fourth cohort completed 360-degree evaluations showing how their leadership styles meshed with colleagues, received individual coaching from Learning and Organization Development experts and senior mentors, and completed case studies on topics proposed by Duke leaders.
“I’m excited to stand before a group of leaders who have demonstrated your commitment to self,” said Antwan Lofton, vice president for Duke Human Resources. “And by way of that, you’ve made a great commitment to Duke.”