Throughout my career, as a Research Administrator, I have been acknowledged as a goal-focused professional consistently committed to exceeding group objectives and driving aggregate quality assurance efficiency. I have a strong background managing team development and performing public health assessments. I consistently work to forge integral relationships with key associates and hospital leaders to develop a culture focused on accountability and efficiency. As a coordinator with experience in quality assurance, I have grown optimized internal operations and maintained a commitment to quality. I am consistently focused on community outreach and am committed to enforcing operational policies while maintaining quality organizational functionality.

Infectious diseases are of great public health concern to Puerto Rico. I had the opportunity to work as Clinical Research Coordinator of the Sentinel Enhanced Dengue Surveillance System (SEDSS) since 2012, same year when it was established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Dengue Branch (CDC). This is a population based epidemiologic and clinical research platform set up to study dengue and other acute febrile illnesses (AFI). SEDSS has a total coverage area close to 500,000 (16%) of Puerto Rico’s (PR) population, it performs state of the art diagnostics for dengue and other AFI and we systematically record demographic, clinical and outcomes data. SEDSS is determined to identify and quantify interventions and practices that improve clinical outcomes across the spectrum of dengue. Dengue is the most important viral illness transmitted by arthropods in the world (WHO 2009). Around 50 – 100 million dengue cases are reported annually (Guzman et al, 2010 & CDC 2014), and most important for us dengue is endemic in PR with epidemics every 2-3 years. This disease is an acute febrile illness with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations with unpredictable outcomes. Disease severity and mortality can be reduced by early dengue diagnosis and confirmation of diagnosis by rapid laboratory tests for early treatment of plasma leakage with careful intravenous (IV) fluid replacement (Hermann, et al 2015), but the United States of America nor Puerto Rico have a dengue rapid diagnostic test that is FDA or CLIA approved. Early clinical diagnosis of dengue is important but can be challenging at the point of care. Therefore, as a co-author, I collaborated to identify signs and symptoms and clinical laboratory results that best predict laboratory positive dengue based on date post onset among children and adults that presented with AFI; finding differences by age groups and date post onset. Findings can be used to assist in early identification of dengue patients, as well as direct anticipatory guidance and timely initiation of correct clinical management. The manuscript "Clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of dengue and other etiologic agents among patients with acute febrile illness, Puerto Rico, 2012-2015", has been editorially accepted for publication at PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases (2017).