5 Questions: Meet Our Research Staff - Children's Mercy

Children’s Mercy Research Institute (CMRI) has a collaborative and innovative team with experts in a wide array of fields to make research happen. Each month, we ask one of our CMRI team members five questions to learn more about their role in research and what motivates them.

Featured

Meet Freddie Karumbi, CORE Accountant, Research & Sponsored Projects Administration

Meet the research team member

2025 Featured Staff

John Means, PhD, Assistant Director, Patient Cells Models, Genomic Medicine Center

Addison Leabo, MS, Biostatistician II, Biostatistics & Computational Biology (BCB) Core, Health Services and Outcomes Research

Tammy Basey, Clinical Research Coordinator, Emergency Medicine

Aswini Betha, PhD, CLP, Senior Director, Technology Transfer & Commercialization, Office of Technology Transfer & Commercialization

Ashley Parks, BSN, RN, CPN, Research Nurse Coordinator, Pediatric Clinical Research Unit (PCRU)

Amanda Matthews, Senior Manager of the Institutional Review Board (IRB), Reliance Manager, IRB Member, Research and Sponsored Projects Administration (RaSPA)

David Williams, MPH, Lead Biostatistician, Health Services and Outcomes Research

2024 Featured Staff

Wendy Wang, ASCP-MLS, ASCP-MB, Pharmacogenetic Research Lab Supervisor, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology

Pete Muenks, MA, ACRP-CP, Senior Clinical Research Coordinator, Center for Children's Healthy Lifestyles and Nutrition

Rose Reynolds, PhD, Data Science Research Associate, Research Informatics, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC)

Xiomara Aguilera, JD, Senior Manager of Research Contracting, Research and Sponsored Projects Administration

Debarpan Dhar, PhD, MSc, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Lynette Lartey, MPH, MCHES, Research Associate, Health Services and Outcomes Research