Dr. David Bar-Or,
Owner and Director of Research
Dr. Bar-Or has over forty years experience in biochemical and molecular biology research, is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and was a distinguished physician for twenty three years, including five years as Director of Emergency Medicine at a nationally accredited Level 1 Trauma Center. He is presently Director of Trauma Research for 3 Level 1 Trauma Centers: Swedish Medical Center, Wesley Medial Center, and STHS-McAllen hospital. Dr. Bar-Or received his M.D. from Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel, completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center, and was the first to complete a fellowship in Emergency Medicine research at Denver Health Medical Center, a program recognized nationally as a leader in emergency medicine.
CLINICAL RESEARCH TEAM
Kristin Salottolo, Epidemiologist III
Kristin has been with ION Research since 2007. Her responsibilities include trial design, statistical analysis, and manuscript preparation for stroke and trauma research studies across several trauma centers and a comprehensive stroke center. Kristin received a Bachelor of Science in biology from the College of Charleston, completed a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, then earned a Master of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology from the University of Colorado. She currently resides in Charleston, SC. Her hobbies include traveling, road biking, and spending time with her daughter Ellie. She is also the proud owner of an airbnb a-frame cabin in the Western North Carolina mountains.
Constance McGraw, Epidemiologist III
Constance has been with ION Research since 2016 and recently completed her Master of Public Health with Claremont Graduate University. During her MPH program, she worked as a data analyst on an HIV risk study to create surveys to evaluate short and long-term health behavior studies. Before graduate school, Constance worked with VCU Medical College, where she performed experiments for Parkinson’s disease research. Her responsibilities at Trauma Research include analyzing data and providing future direction for three different centers. Outside of work, she enjoys snowboarding, hiking and playing with her Siberian husky.
Renee Groechel, Epidemiologist III
Renee recently joined ION Research in August 2024. Prior to joining ION, she completed postdoctoral training at the NINDS after completing her MS and PhD in Anatomy & Neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine. Renee is excited to blend her past research experiences examining risk factors related to dementia and cerebrovascular health to inform our understanding of outcomes following traumatic injuries. Renee recently re-located from Washington DC to the Charlotte, NC metropolitan area where she looks forward to spending more time outside in warm weather with family and friends.
Breanna Nickels, Clinical Research Coordinator
Breanna is a Study Coordinator based at Swedish Medical Center. She has been doing clinical research for about 16 years now and has done a variety of clinical trial phases (II-IV) and indications. She previously worked primarily with specialty clinics such as gastroenterology, movement disorder, Cancer research and Corneal disease. Breanna has experience with almost every aspect of clinical research including budgets, IRB submission, patient recruitment, consenting, drug administration, vitals, ECGs, phlebotomy, reporting of AE's and SAE's and study close out. She was born and raised in Colorado and enjoys spending time with her daughter, Zoey and their zoo of animals (1 dog, 3 cats and a fish named dizzy).
Christina Riley, Lutheran Hospital
Christina was recently hired as the full-time clinical research coordinator, based at Lutheran Hospital in the Denver, CO metro area. Christina spent the last 10 years as a Clinical Research Coordinator, focusing on Phase III and IV studies, with recent work in pulmonary research. Her expertise spans the entire study lifecycle, including study startup, IRB submissions, patient recruitment, screening and consenting. She has a Bachelor’s in Healthcare Administration and her Associate of Occupational Studies in Medical Specialties. Christina cherishes spending quality time with my daughter, Aubrey and is very excited to start this new journey in trauma research.
Dr. Sandy Hill, Clinical Research Coordinator
Sandy is a study coordinator based at Wesley Medical Center. She received her Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2019 from Wichita State University and her Master of Science in Nursing in 2008 from University of Missouri- Kansas City. Sandy has over 27 years of nursing experience including ICU, Oncology/BMT, Labor and Delivery, Family Planning and College Health. Outside of work she enjoys traveling, playing cards and spending time with family.
Marie B. Acosta, Clinical Research Coordinator
Marie is the clinical trauma research coordinator for South Texas Heath System McAllen. She has been a nurse for 20 years. Marie started her education and career in Syracuse, NY at St. Joseph’s Hospital telemetry unit. She moved to the valley (Rio Grande Valley) in 2005, originally working for Edinburg Regional Medical Hospital (STHS) also on the telemetry unit. There she assisted Medical, Surgical and ICU units whenever possible. Finally, Marie moved to McAllen Medical as Medical Staff Peer Review in 2017 and she transferred to Trauma in July 2022. She enjoys the world of trauma and research.
Stephanie Jarvis, Epidemiologist III
Stephanie has recently transitioned from full time epidemiologist to consultant, after 7 years with ION Research. She received her Master of Public Health from the Colorado School of Public Health. Her responsibilities include study design, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, and drafting presentations for professional conferences. When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, cooking, traveling, and biking.
BASIC SCIENCE TEAM
Dr. Melissa Hausburg, Assistant Director of Basic Science: Molecular Biology
Melissa is the assistant director of basic science research and has been with ION Research since 2015. Her responsibilities are to interface with multiple collaborators to plan and coordinate research study projects designed to utilize the extensive repository of in-house clinical samples. She enjoys the opportunity to deeply explore the biological response to traumatic injury and other related diseases using bioinformatic and other analyses. She received her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from The University of Colorado, Boulder in 2010 and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in North Carolina at the National Institutes of Health in 2014. She loves hiking and camping in Colorado with her family and her labradoodle, Luna.
Raphael Bar-Or, Assistant Director of Basic Science: Computational Biology
Raphael Bar-Or is an accomplished scientist having studied applied mathematics and computational biology at the University of Colorado at Denver. Raphael has functional expertise in computational biology, applied mathematics, medical device development, hardware and software integration, classifier algorithm design, absorption/transmission spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, chromatography, expert systems, and programming. He holds multiple US and worldwide patents and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications. Raphael received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines.
Dr. Jason Williams, Molecular Biologist and Lab Safety Manager
Jason joined ION in March of 2021 and was previously a postdoc fellow at the University of Colorado Anschutz where he studied pulmonary hypertension. He is an accomplished scientist and expert in mass spectrometry and analysis of ‘omics’ data. He is currently elucidating changes in the extracellular matrix and intracellular signaling in cells treated with patient samples. Jason is an avid rock climber and plantsman. He currently has an extensive collection of exotic tropical plants and poisonous dart frogs.
Greg Thomas, Molecular Biologist
Greg is a molecular biologist and has been consulting with ION Research since 2001. He has over 20 years experience in scientific research with an emphasis in cytology after studying biology and microbiology at Colorado State University. Gregory’s areas of expertise include microscopy, qPCR, cell culture, and cloning. Outside of work, Gregory enjoys fly fishing, rooting for his alma mater Colorado State’s football team, running, and spending time with his family.