Rebecca Ferber Email and Phone Number

I am a Research Area Specialist at the University of Michigan in the Health Behavior and Health Education Genetics Research group. I help to manage a variety of projects including those related to aging, dementia, ethics, and/or genetics. I served as the study coordinator for a National Institutes of Health funded study called REVEAL-SCAN which sought to learn about the best ways to communicate educational information about amyloid imaging brain scans and risk information about the chance of developing Alzheimer's Disease in cognitively normal participants with a family history of Alzheimer's disease. I served as the project coordinator for an MCubed funded study which had a purpose of adapting a mental wellness program called Mood Lifters for seniors. I am the program coordinator for the ELSI Research T32. I am the site project manager for a multi-site R01 which is studying employer, employee, and genetic counselors' perspectives of workplace offered genetic testing. My responsibilities have included: recruiting participants, conducting study visits, administering cognitive assessments (e.g. CDR, MMSE, TICS), supervising student research assistants, developing health surveys, developing IRB materials (e.g. protocols, consent forms, recruitment materials), preparing and managing IRB applications, preparing grant applications, developing and monitoring budgets, preparing manuscripts, developing a participant handbook, programming and collecting survey data in Qualtrics, programming and management of REDCap databases for project management, conducting literature reviews, and interpreting results of research studies.

Research Associate for the Cancer Surveillance and Outcomes Research Team (CanSORT) in the Division of General Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. CanSORT's research focuses on understanding and improving decision-making related to cancer prevention and control services. Much of the research I am involved in is focused on understanding and improving decisions related to breast cancer. My responsibilities include: recruiting physicians and patients for studies, developing and managing survey projects, assisting with grant writing, conducting literature reviews, editing journal articles intended for publication, creating posters, writing summary documents of survey results, attending CanSORT related meetings, and keeping track of and updating project deadlines using gantt charts and excel documents.

Research Assistant for the Cancer Surveillance Outcomes and Research Team (CanSORT). Their research focuses on understanding and improving decision-making related to cancer prevention and control services. My responsibilities include: recruiting physicians and patients for studies, building and managing survey projects using REDCap, conducting literature reviews, recoding data in Access and Excel, and editing journal articles intended for publication.

My main project at the MADC was to help evaluate a new educational toolkit entitled “Your Journey”. The purpose of the toolkit is to connect caregivers and individuals affected by memory loss or dementia to information and community resources. The responsibilities I held during my internship included: updating the MADC website, updating the MADC Facebook page, evaluating the “Your Journey” educational toolkit, helping with background research and writing of a project proposal, and assisting with the Pets and Dementia study. Based on the results of my evaluation of the toolkit, the MADC has decided to test the toolkit in a clinical setting.

Spoke with the patients, gaining a brief description of the symptoms they were experiencing; updated patients’ health and medical information; wrote prescriptions as they were dictated by the doctor, called in, and renewed prescriptions for patients; and assisted doctor with biopsy and removal procedures

Performed medical assessments such as blood pressure readings, tested blood sugar levels, gave insulin shots, and passed out prescribed medications to residents. Served meals to residents and assisted in meeting the needs of the residents.

Worked to synthesize a compound that could be used as a sunscreen; the goal being to synthesize a microsporine-like compound that could imitate the protection from UVA and UVB rays that microsporine provides for marine animals and plants