Meet The Team

The CCTR is built on the expertise and dedication of its people — clinical scientists, research coordinators, regulatory specialists, and administrative professionals who are committed to advancing child health research at Vanderbilt.


C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, FPIDS

C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, FPIDS

Director, Center for Clinical and Translational Research
Edie Carell Johnson Chair and Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Director, Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program
Principal Investigator, NIH-funded Vanderbilt Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit
Co-Principal Investigator, CDC-sponsored Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Network

Dr. Creech’s research interests focus on the development and evaluation of new vaccines and therapeutics, particularly vaccines targeting influenza, pertussis and S. aureus. His work combines innovative clinical trial design and next-generation immunologic assays to characterize the human response to infection and disease.

Dr. Creech received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, cum laude, from Vanderbilt University prior to graduating with high honors from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, Tenn. He completed pediatric training at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, serving as Chief Resident in 2002. During fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt, he trained with Dr. Kathryn Edwards and received a Master’s Degree in Public Health.

He is active in the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS), where he has served as President.


Jonathan Soslow, MD, MSCI

Jonathan Soslow, MD, MSCI

Deputy Director, Center for Clinical and Translational Research
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Pediatric Cardiac Imaging Research Center
Director, CCTR Gene Therapy Program
Director of Clinical Research, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, VUMC
Co-Director, DMD Multispecialty Clinic and the Gene Therapy Clinic
Chair, Steering Committee — Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Section, SCMR

Dr. Soslow is a pediatric cardiologist with advanced training and expertise in pediatric cardiac imaging, specializing in echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR). He holds a Master of Science degree in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) and focuses his research program on the assessment of serum and imaging biomarkers in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) cardiomyopathy and after heart transplant.

He has been the principal investigator for multiple studies, including an American Heart Association Clinical Research Program grant, a K23 and an R56 funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and a grant from the Enduring Hearts Foundation. He is currently the PI of a multi-site R01 from the Food and Drug Administration evaluating the longitudinal progression of DMD cardiomyopathy and two multi-site R01s from the NIH/NHLBI evaluating non-invasive detection of rejection in heart transplant recipients and identifying clinical outcome measures for DMD cardiomyopathy.

Clinical Team

Steven Klintworth

Steven Klintworth
BSN, MSHS, RN, CCRP
Clinical Team Lead

Betsy Blackmon

Betsy Blackmon
Clinical Research Staff

Alexis Calvert

Alexis Calvert
Clinical Research Staff

Ursula Powell

Ursula Powell
Clinical Research Staff

Administrative Team

Nikki Jones

Nikki Jones
Financial Analyst

Shelly McGehee

Shelly McGeHee
Administrative Officer

Karen Hagan

Karen Hagan
Administrative Officer

Sarah Loftis

Sarah Loftis
Program Manager