Research Projects Coordinator
Ms. Barnes has seven years of experience as a Study Coordinator/Program Assistant. Previous to her work in behavioral research, she was a laboratory technician and a teacher. Ms. Barnes is a skilled Focus Group facilitator who recruited participants and conducted focus groups for several projects including the pilot study and website development for the noted “I Want the Kit” project for which she helped to design.
Her experience in recruiting focus group members and group facilitation will be invaluable to our assessment activities. Ms. Barnes has been a community outreach worker since 1999, working for the University of Maryland, Pediatrics Department's, “Focus on Teens” program as a behavioral interventionist administering HIV prevention surveys and follow ups to teenagers in their homes, community centers, and schools. She also worked as coordinator at two Baltimore City Health Department clinics recruiting subjects for other studies and corresponded with city and state IRB members about study applications and consent documents.
Her prior experience as a laboratory system technician, a behavioral interventionist/teacher, and manager provided her the opportunity to gain excellent rapport with adolescents and young adults in the communities where she worked. Her success in accomplishing enrollment into the FOT program has been exemplary and her organizational skills make her an ideal person to interface directly with subjects providing samples in this study. She conducted the pilot portion of the Internet study, continued to work as the coordinator for the initial existing Internet study and has been indispensable in making the project work. She will be the Project Coordinator for the POC study.
