About
Shira is the Program Manager for Penn PORTAL (Patient-Oriented Research and Training to Accelerate Learning), a collaborative effort across Penn Medicine designed to advance progress toward an integrated learning health system (LHS) both at Penn and in the wider Philadelphia region.
Joining the PAIR Center in June 2021 as a Project Manager, Shira jumped in to help run a PCORI funded, multi-center, smoking cessation clinical trial. With greater than 16 years of experience across the arc of research, from recruiting and consenting patients longitudinally to multi-center clinical trial directorship, Shira felt right at home and quickly began working on other projects at the Center. As one of the founding members of the Joint Research Practices Working Group (JRP), a collaboration between PAIR and CHIBE to develop and disseminate best practices for the conduct of inclusive and equitable research, Shira works with the team to develop guidelines and perform consultations.
A Philly native, Shira earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Drexel University and has worked in several clinical research roles across multiple centers at the University of Pennsylvania for more than 15 years. In her free time, you can find Shira on a hiking trail. Whether she’s trail-running, backpacking, looking at birds, taking a leisurely walk, or swinging a Pulaski to improve trail conditions, Shira’s favorite place to be is out on the trail.