Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research

Christie K. Vila

Christie K. Vila
Administrative Director
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, Pediatric Clinical Research and Batchelor Research Programs Miller School of Medicine, USA

Biography

Christie K. Vila, PhD has been with the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine for 17 years. Ten with the Department of Epidemiology’s Drug Abuse and AIDS Research Center and 7 as Division Operations Manager for Clinical Pediatric Research. She has supported clinical and translational research for the past 5 years and took on various levels of administrative leadership of a Research Institute with clinics and lab programs during a period of transition. Dr. Vila’s research interests include immunology and immunotherapy as applied to HIV and Cancer. Related interests include HGT, bioinformatics in personalized medicine, and the various applications of rDNA. Interests emphasize innovation in education, design, media and technology. She was previously the Director of a rural migrant HIV outreach clinic in Southwest Florida sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and served in a similar capacity in the inner city health clinics in Miami, FL. Dr. Vila was funded as a Principal Investigator on a CDC study of access and availability to HIV services for minority communities in the rural South. This was the leading study of this population for the inaugural MARI (Minority AIDS Research Initiative) program. She worked on comparison studies of health services in the Miami-Dade Department of Corrections, community clinics, and a public emergency department’s referral networks. This NIH-funded community outreach study improved triage for chronic drug users by bringing technology to the clinics and ED in the early 1990’s. Simultaneously, she served as a projects manager for federal evaluation programs sponsored by the DHHS. An alumnus of UM, Dr. Vila earned her PhD in International Organization and Health Policy for which she received a USIA fellowship. Her Master’s degree is in Latin American and Caribbean studies, and includes work assignments in Central and South America. Her work has been presented at local, national, and international forums including local clinics; the National Institutes of Health (NIH); Canada’s World Forum on Drugs and Dependencies; The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); the US Department of Health and Human Services Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT); and, the US Army War College. She is currently a research division administrator at the University of Miami. The research portfolios she manages includes several R01s for Pediatric Cardiovascular studies of genetics and biomarkers; INDs for an oncology consortium with Dana-Farber/Harvard, various Phase I and II clinical trials, and ongoing R01s for HIV patients and cancer survivors in the area of exercise and nutrition. She assisted the Director in development and advancements of two successful pediatric integrative medicine initiatives, including one that has received a registered trademark after tech transfer approvals. Occasionally, she teaches Religion and Bioethics, a current issues honors pre-med class detailing innovation in ethical and spiritual components of historic and modern medicine.

Research Interest

The research portfolios she manages includes several R01s for Pediatric Cardiovascular studies of genetics and biomarkers; INDs for an oncology consortium with Dana-Farber/Harvard, various Phase I and II clinical trials, and ongoing R01s for HIV patients and cancer survivors in the area of exercise and nutrition.