When you ask Simone about her eight years at UNC—six of which have been with NC TraCS—she describes a path that wasn’t exactly linear. With a background in anthropology and biology, she spent her early career in infectious disease research at Mass General, where she first fell in love with the power of qualitative, community-based work. When she eventually found her way to the PaCER program at TraCS, it felt like the perfect home for her interests. “I’ve always been drawn to work that is people-centered,” she says, “and that requires a healthy dose of curiosity.”
That curiosity has clearly paid off. Simone was recently honored with a UNC Core Staff Recognition Award for Technical Achievement, a recognition that highlights her rare ability to combine methodological rigor with creative, practical application. Her colleagues point to her work as a turning point for the research enterprise, noting that she has translated complex engagement science into a service model that researchers now rely on to improve study design, recruitment, and funding competitiveness.
At the heart of that success is the Community Feedback Session (CFS) service, a project Simone has championed from the ground up. The service allows researchers to get real-time, actionable input from patients and community members, and the impact is measurable: nearly 50 sessions conducted with over 300 community partners, and a 97% satisfaction rate among researchers. For Simone, the most fulfilling part is seeing those sessions help a team secure funding or better align their work with community needs. “Every session leaves me feeling inspired and invigorated,” she shares.
Her influence is now reaching well beyond UNC. She recently served as the lead author on a manuscript accepted by the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, and she is deeply invested in the “capacity building” side of her role—training her colleagues to ensure the CFS model remains a sustainable, long-term resource for the university.
Despite her professional accolades, Simone stays grounded by keeping her life outside of the office just as full as her schedule inside it. Her friends joke that her “love language is activities,” and you’re just as likely to find her playing soccer, biking, or taking a dance class as you are to find her in a meeting. She’s also a huge fan of women’s sports, drawing daily inspiration from the grit and drive of athletes like Lael Wilcox and Jasmin Paris.
When asked if there’s anything she can’t do, she laughs and admits that while she’s great at keeping in touch with friends and planning group outings, she is notoriously bad at gardening. “I have the absolute opposite of a green thumb,” she says. “I can’t keep a plant alive to save my life!”
Whether she’s facilitating a complex feedback session or heading out for a weekend camping trip, Simone brings the same level of energy and people-centered focus to everything she does. We are lucky to have her in our UNC core community!