She considers a field before she buys or accepts it — expanding her business prudently — with her profits, she plants fruitful vines in her vineyard. (Proverbs 31:16 Amplified Bible)

PURPOSED FOR GREATNESS 

Allison Kalloo, MPH fully relishes the divine purpose for which she was created.

Especially as it pertains to the remarkably brilliant strides she’s steadfastly made it her chosen profession.

“I am most gratified and grateful for the chance to be a changemaker,” Kalloo, a North Carolina-based businesswoman during a recent interview with Making Headline News, said. “The pandemic has shone a brighter light on the need for more DEI in clinical research from both the industry side and the patient side, and COVID has been a silver lining, of sorts. And at a time, when other organizations are now jumping on the bandwagon of opportunity, it is somewhat flattering to have others try and model themselves after us, but it’s ultimately useful to have others join the effort to make the larger industry more accountable.”

That said, we present to our readers an in-depth Q and A segment with Kallo.

MORE ON KALLOO’S ENDEAVOR: https://www.i-participate.org/

WHERE ARE YOU ORIGINALLY FROM? My family roots are in North Carolina where I currently reside. I was born at Duke, but having been raised in our nation’s capital, I consider myself a Washingtonian. Its diversity and the exposure it provides to a concentration of diversity and world culture undoubtedly shaped my outlook and sensibilities.

WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION? Professionally, I work as a patient recruitment specialist in the clinical research space. My educational background is in biology and public health, but I am a lifelong artist and creative.

BRIEF ME ON YOUR EDUCATION (High school, college, etc.) I graduated from The Madeira School in McLean, VA, an all-girls college prep and boarding school with daughters of diplomats, business magnates, news celebrities, and spies. I then received my bachelor’s degree with honors from North Carolina Central University, a preeminent HBCU with a strong science program funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and my mother’s alma mater. I was an NIH Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) scholar. My Master of Public Health is from Yale University.

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TELL MHN WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS. “I have dedicated my career to being an Ambassador who bridges the gap between the clinical research industry and the community for more than 20 years. The silver lining of the COVID pandemic is that it has shone a bright light on persistent health disparities as well as disparities in clinical trial participation. COVID connected the dots between the two.

Our iParticipate community-facing and communication-focused non-profit stands in the gap to bring culturally meaningful awareness, access to clinical trials, and patient advocacy to underrepresented populations across the country. Our mission is to change the current narrative to include clinical trials as a valuable treatment option that can improve outcomes.

iParticipate delivers the ‘why,’ the ‘how’ and the ‘where’ of getting engaged in clinical research. Among other features, we create content, conduct dynamic events, provide Ambassador navigators in hot spots, pre-screen participants, and make trained human beings available by phone 24/7.

COVID’s other silver lining is that research and pharmaceutical entities have pledged to broaden access and inclusion. Clinical Ambassador through iParticipate’s community access provides industry with a hugely effective feedback mechanism to help them make good on their promises while building their own trustworthiness.

Where pursuing better health outcomes is concerned, the stakes could not be higher. It is crucial that all research stakeholders— including patients of color— embrace accountability. iParticipate underscores the universal importance of accountability, and in the shadow of the pandemic, we see it as promising that entities responding to the DEI trend are bringing more warriors to the frontlines to join us. I hope they are also in it for the long run.”

HOW DID THE COMPETITIVE DRIVE IN LIFE PROPEL YOU FOR YOUR BUSINESS VENTURE? I am innately creative and a risk-taker, so entrepreneurship is really the only option for me. But it has never been so much about a competitive drive where I compare myself with others but a competition I have with myself to be better than the day before. To be a perpetual learner and innovator. I have always been driven by those challenges. What has propelled me in business has been an innate ability to recognize and create opportunities. my exhilarating passion for and answering to my sense of obligation to fill gaps. The true value of my business venture is the power to show industry and individuals how to change the trajectory of lives for the better through clinical research. I love being that bridge. I have been working in the space for two decades (jokingly “ever since Montessori school)” fulfilled and to do something meaningful that had an impact outside myself. My mother always expected/demanded that I not be “the pretty girl with no purpose.” My parents set the bar of purpose high, and that inspiration drives me both in business and in life.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT BEING YOUR BUSINESS? I am most gratified and grateful for the chance to be a changemaker. The pandemic has shone a brighter light on the need for more DEI in clinical research from both the industry side and the patient side, and COVID has been a silver lining of sorts. And at a time when other organizations are now jumping on the bandwagon of opportunity, it is somewhat flattering to have others try and model themselves after us but it’s ultimately useful to have others join the effort to make the larger industry more accountable.

MORE ON KALLO

WHAT ARE AMONGST THE AGE GROUPS TO WHOM YOUR BUSINESS CATERS TO? Anyone 18 and over can consent to take part in a clinical trial. A significant part of our remit is delivering patient empowerment, so that people understand their rights as participants in clinical studies, how to engage with the research community and what questions to ask, and how to leverage their rights to enhanced access with the goal to ultimately achieve better health outcomes.

WHERE ACROSS THE NATION HAS THIS VENTURE TAKEN YOU? We are based in NC, but we enjoy traveling and have trained Ambassadors established in multiple metropolitan centers. We operate both entities nationwide, concentrating the majority of our iParticipate events on both coasts. We have recently been invited by overseas-based drug sponsors to explore expanding to have an international impact.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL MISSION FOR DOING THIS WORK? My personal mission for doing this work is to put my signature creativity to really good use, and to ensure that its reach goes deeper than purely aesthetic and visual appeal purposes. The other part of my mission is connecting with people. I learned the fine art of diplomacy very early on by virtue of my upbringing and the elders in my life. As a result, I have a passion for people that I hope is obvious in every aspect of my enterprise. My mission is to utilize both creativity and connections— both vital components of my purpose and personality— as tools that have the capacity to move the needle on equitable representation such that people of color better grasp the underlying stakes of participation and then claim our entitlement to it.

WHO WERE AMONG THOSE WHO INSPIRED YOU TO DO THIS? My parents were very intentional about doing something meaningful, about being intentional and doing something that was bigger than myself. My mother, Marian Suitt Winfield, broke color barriers in the 60s to become a virologist and attended meetings at the CDC with Anthony Fauci. And she did so despite being under the care of a cardiologist. Incredibly, she would later enroll in one of Fauci’s studies at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. My mother’s insider knowledge of scientific research and her participation in it shaped my commitment to this work. This is legacy work for me.

BELOVED INFLUENTIAL IMPACT 

DO YOU HAVE ANY UPCOMING EVENTS/SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS? I have been invited to speak in London and Spain on how to increase diversity in clinical trials, and after being a guest on another Antidote Talk of the Towne podcast, we are developing our own, so along with other events being planned, watch out for that announcement in 2023.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THIS? Prior to founding Clinical Ambassador in 2011, I held a variety of positions, from Communications Expert for the National Cancer Institute, to Program Director at the New Haven Health Department, to Study Coordinator at the Yale School of Medicine, to Director of Public Relations at the American Social Health Association, a private non-profit organization.

IN YOUR OWN WORDS, WHY IS IT IMPERATIVE THAT YOU ESTEEM AND INSPIRE OTHERS DAILY? This is my form of activism. At the end of the day, making sure we have access to clinical trials is also a social justice issue. We simply cannot aspire to better health and expect access to better healthcare without being represented in the data obtained from clinical trials.

ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO ADD TO THIS STORY? Yes. Real DEI from the industry side must also include acknowledging the need to make space for minority-owned enterprises. And expectations from within Black and Brown communities must be grounded in reality, too. That means not expecting things to change based on hoping and wishing and praying. To claim our entitlement to better health outcomes, and in order to demand real accountability from the industry, we have to step up and exert our power and act on these. There are opportunities and obligations on both sides of this equation. Clinical Ambassador and iParticipate Incorporated both help to bridge those gaps.

For more information about North Carolina Businesswoman Allison Kalloo of Clinical Ambassador LLC and iParticipate, to inquire about her services, to schedule her for a public appearance or speaking engagement, connect with her via social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clinicalambassador; Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clinicalambassador/; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/allisonkalloo?_l=en_US; Twitter: https://twitter.com/clnclAMBASSADOR. Also, send email to: [email protected].

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WHAT’S YOUR STORY? If you are an entrepreneur, business owner, producer, author, athlete, musician, barber, life coach, motivational speaker, cosmetologist, tax preparer, model, or pastor/minister who is seeking exposure and would like to share your story with an in-depth news feature, call Reporter Andre Johnson at 901-690-6587 or Facebook message him under “Andre T. Johnson” for details.

Andre Johnson is the award-winning Founder and Publisher for Making Headline News. A 2000 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Journalism and a former staff reporter of sports for the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, Johnson covers the NBA Southwest Division from Dallas, Texas. To reach Johnson, send email to [email protected] or to [email protected]. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist or Instagram at @makingheadlinenews.

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