Scientific Leadership

Dr. William Coar began his career in the pharmaceutical industry in 1995 as a SAS programmer for a Contract Research Organization in Pennsylvania after graduating from Bloomsburg University. He has since earned a Masters degree in Applied Statistics from Villanova University in May of 2000, followed by a PhD in Statistics from Colorado State University in 2007. Bill joined Axio in January 2010 as a Project Director/Statistician, and is the current Director of Central Region Operations based in Broomfield, Colorado. He is primarily responsible for providing leadership, direction, and oversight for the business development and statistical activities of the company in the Central Region of the United States. He is an active member of the Biopharmaceutical Section of the American Statistical Association, and serves as the Chair of the Denver SAS User Group.

Dr. David Henderson brings to Axio more than 20 years of experience in genetics, genomics, statistics, and statistical computing. Prior to joining Axio, he provided business consulting services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for experimental design, data analysis, and interpretation of results from genomic and genetic data at LabCorp Clinical Trials, Covance, Sage Bionetworks, and Rosetta Inpharmatics. Dr. Henderson holds a B.Sc. in Animal Science from Texas A&M University, an M.Sc. in Molecular Genetics from South Dakota State University, and a Ph.D. in Statistical Genetics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Mr. Kerr has provided leadership, direction, and oversight for all Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) services provided by Axio Research. His current interests are in the practical and theoretical workings of DMCs, which review ongoing clinical trials for safety, efficacy, and credibility. In his 20 years of work, he has helped facilitate DMCs for approximately 125 studies and attended approximately 400 DMC meetings. These studies have been from both large and small companies, and across disease areas such as oncology, cardiology, and rheumatology. He received his Master’s degree in Statistics from the University of Washington in 1994, after having received his Bachelor’s degrees from there in 1992 in both Statistics and Mathematics. He is an active member of the American Statistical Association (ASA), and is still highly involved in the continuing education and training in biostatistics across various platforms.

Mr. Koprowicz joined Axio Research in 2009 and was appointed Global Head, Biostatistics in 2012. Mr. Koprowicz has more than a decade of experience as a biostatistician—in managing and directing statistical efforts on NIH-sponsored clinical trials as well as for private clinical and epidemiological research projects in cardiovascular and other disease areas. Mr. Koprowicz is experienced in all phases of clinical trial research, from design and sample size calculations to collaborative authorship of study findings. In addition, he manages and provides statistical support for numerous DMCs (Data Monitoring Committees) on phase 2/3 clinical trials. Mr. Koprowicz holds a Bachelors degree in Mathematics from the University of Colorado and a Master’s degree in Biostatistics from the University of Washington.

Ms. Leonen has over 16 years’ experience in clinical trial data management, analysis, and technical reporting. Prior to joining Axio in 2007, Ms. Leonen worked, in different capacities, on several NHLBI and industry-sponsored trials in the areas of cardiology and severe traumatic injury at the University of Washington Clinical Trials Coordinating Center. She began as a research analyst for the Antiarrhythmics Versus Implantable Defibrillators (AVID) Trial, and later managed the day-to-day operations of the industry-sponsored Dual-Chamber And VVI Implantable Defibrillator (DAVID and DAVID II) Trials. For the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC), Ms. Leonen served as Manager of Data Operations, where she oversaw the implementation of a custom web-based electronic data capture system. At Axio, she currently supervises the data management staff and serves as project director for NIH and industry-sponsored trials. She has co-authored articles that have been published in journals such as Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology. Ms. Leonen completed a Master of Science degree at Oregon State University where she studied Operations Research and Statistics. She received her B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

Dr. Li has served as an Independent Statistician as well as aid in biostatistical projects in many different capacities for the past 6 years at Axio. She has also presented results and lead over 80 Data Monitoring Committees (DMC) meetings. Dr. Li has served as the primary liaison with Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical clients for more than 20 global Phase 2-3 clinical trials. Previous to joining Axio Research in 2009, Dr. Li had worked with the University of Washington on projects relating to Epidemiology and Toxicology, analyzing datasets and performing analysis using multiple linear regression models. She received her Ph.D. in Toxicology and her M.P.H. in Epidemiology from the University of Washington, after receiving her B.S. in Biotechnology from Wuhan University in China. She is an active member of the American Statistical Association (ASA), The Society of Clinical Trials (SCT) and Society of Toxicology (SOT).

Ms. McBride is Scientific Director of Axio. Ms. McBride has more than 20 years’ experience with NIH- and industry-sponsored clinical trials and data management. She was Deputy Director for the Coordinating Centers for the NIH’s Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation Studies, Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial, and Antiarrhythmic Versus Implantable Defibrillator trials. In addition, she has served on the Board of Directors for the Society for Clinical Trials and as the co-editor of a special supplement to Controlled Clinical Trials on clinical data management. Ms. McBride holds an Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University.