Participant coordination
Scheduled, screened, and onboarded participants across concurrent studies, and kept their documentation accurate.
People. Processes. Better Outcomes.
Research operations professional with 5+ years of experience coordinating participant-based studies, managing research data, and improving operational workflows. Experienced in auditing participant, protocol, and recruitment data to support accurate reporting to leadership and research sponsors. Now bringing this foundation in research coordination and data quality to clinical research, supported by healthcare operations experience and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training.
5+
years in research operations
Training in GCP, Healthcare Privacy & Process Improvement
8
published articles on digital health and AI
Research operations
From moderating study sessions to managing participant operations across multiple sites at Tech Mahindra, Voxelmaps, and Tata Elxsi.
Scheduled, screened, and onboarded participants across concurrent studies, and kept their documentation accurate.
Coordinated sessions, sites, and venues, and built the trackers and dashboards that kept research teams aligned.
Fixed gaps in screening and recruitment workflows, lowering participant rejection rates and venue delays.
Featured case studies
Traced unqualified bookings to documentation and communication gaps, updated screening documents, and trained recruiters.
Result: lower participant rejection rates and more sessions with qualified participants.
Read the case studyBuilt a shared tracker for venue status, qualifications, and next steps, and gave vendors clear requirements.
Result: fewer recruitment delays and rejected venues, with the whole team working from the same data.
Read the case studyQualifications
Good Clinical Practice (GCP), Basic Course
Research Security Training (Combined)
Biohazard Spills and Releases Response
Six Sigma Green Belt
HIPAA Awareness
Data Management for Biomedical Research, Basic Course In progress
Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC) Foundations Planned
Digital health projects
Experience
My career has taken me from technical support to operations management, user research, and healthcare. Across these experiences, one focus has remained consistent: improving how people, processes, and technology work together.
With more than five years of research operations experience, I have coordinated participants, managed project logistics, improved workflows, and supported teams working across multiple locations.
Today, I am building on that foundation through healthcare operations experience, graduate studies in Health Informatics, and professional development in clinical research.
Research operations experience
My research roles, from moderating sessions to managing participant operations across sites and projects.
Full-time · Santa Clara, CA · Hybrid
Project Manager, UX Operations
Contract · Remote
UX Operations Manager
Contract · California
UX Project ManagerMay 2022 – Mar 2023 · Burlingame, CA
UX Site ManagerAug 2021 – May 2022 · Pasadena, CA
Lead User Study ModeratorAug 2020 – Feb 2021 · San Diego, CA
Throughout my research operations career, I worked with participant, protocol, and recruitment data to support accurate and reliable research reporting. My responsibilities included reviewing and auditing research information before sharing it with leadership and research sponsors.
Core responsibilities
Relevant skills
Featured case studies
Each one follows the same structure: the challenge, my role, the actions I took, the results, and the skills that carry over to clinical research.
01Challenge
Participants were being booked into studies without meeting the required qualifications. Each one had to be turned away, which wasted session time and slowed projects down.
02My role
As UX Operations Manager, I oversaw participant scheduling, onboarding, and progress tracking, so making sure booked participants met each study’s requirements was part of my job.
03Actions taken
I reviewed the booking process and screening documents and traced the problem to communication and documentation gaps between recruiters and the research team. I updated the screening documents with the correct eligibility requirements and trained recruiters on what to check and who to contact with questions.
04Results
Participant rejection rates went down, recruiters and the research team worked from the same accurate information, and more sessions ran with qualified participants.
Transferable research skills
Why it matters in clinical research: clinical studies depend on the same discipline, with clear eligibility criteria, accurate documentation, and well-trained staff.
01Challenge
Recruiting venues for research sessions was slow. Each venue's status, qualification details, and next steps weren't kept in one place, so venues were rejected late and work stalled between vendors, venue owners, and our team.
02My role
As Project Manager, UX Operations, I worked with multiple venue recruitment vendors and venue owners and was responsible for getting qualified venues ready on schedule.
03Actions taken
I built a shared tracker showing each venue's status, qualifications, and next steps. I used it to give vendors clear requirements so venues met compliance standards before they were submitted, and to keep schedules and stakeholders aligned.
04Results
Venue recruitment delays dropped, fewer venues were rejected, and everyone worked from the same accurate data, which closed communication gaps and kept projects moving.
Transferable research skills
Why it matters in clinical research: selecting and qualifying research sites works the same way, with clear standards, shared tracking, and steady communication with outside partners.
Transferable skills for clinical research
My hands-on experience is in research operations and healthcare front-desk work. My clinical research knowledge comes from training, including CITI Good Clinical Practice.
In healthcare
Patient flow, scheduling, EHR processes
In clinical research
Site efficiency, research workflows
In healthcare
Patient communication, documentation
In clinical research
Participant coordination, study logistics
In healthcare
Cross-functional coordination, resources
In clinical research
Research teams, vendors, study timelines
In healthcare
Patient portals, accessibility, telehealth
In clinical research
Participant support, digital research tools
My background in user research operations provides a strong foundation for transitioning into clinical research. I have coordinated participants, maintained study documentation, supported operational procedures, and worked across teams to keep research activities organized.
Combined with my experience in healthcare administration and completed training in Good Clinical Practice (GCP), I am building the knowledge needed to support clinical study coordination, participant communication, and research site operations.
Professional timeline
Every role, with its actual dates.
2015 – 2018
Apple Retail (May 2015 – Aug 2018)
Started in sales and moved into technical support. Learned to explain technology in plain terms, solve problems on the spot, and protect customer data.
2019 – 2021
Lyft (Aug 2019 – Aug 2020) · Transdev (Mar 2021 – Aug 2021)
Joined a brand-new department at Lyft and helped build its daily operations, cutting errors by 30%. At Transdev, ran fleet scheduling and kept records for reporting and compliance.
2020 – 2026
Tech Mahindra (Aug 2020 – Mar 2023) · Voxelmaps (Mar 2023 – Apr 2024) · Tata Elxsi (Nov 2024 – May 2026)
Grew from study moderator to project manager. Ran participant scheduling, onboarding, documentation, and tracking across multiple sites and projects at once.
2024 – 2026
Personal caregiving (May 2024 – Oct 2024) · GPI Medical Center (Jul 2026 – Aug 2026)
Supporting a family member through cancer treatment gave me firsthand insight into the challenges patients and caregivers face when navigating healthcare.
At GPI Medical Center, I gained experience in front-desk operations, patient scheduling, electronic health records, and patient communication, strengthening my understanding of the workflows that support care delivery.
2026 – Present
Solara Vita (Aug 2026 – Present) · digitalLIFT (Oct 2026 – Present)
Founded Solara Vita to help older adults use health technology with confidence, and volunteer as a digital navigator with digitalLIFT.
Professional development
Supporting the people and processes behind better healthcare and research.
I am pursuing opportunities in healthcare operations and clinical research coordination where I can apply my experience in research operations, project management, workflow optimization, and technology support.
I am particularly interested in improving administrative and research workflows, strengthening communication between teams, and helping patients and research participants navigate their experiences with greater clarity.
My long-term goal is to contribute to healthcare systems that are operationally efficient, accessible, and designed around the needs of the people they serve.
Building toward it
Work
Research operations case studies, digital health projects built around accessibility, and my writing on health technology and patient experience.
Research operations
Traced unqualified bookings to documentation and communication gaps, updated screening documents with the correct eligibility requirements, and trained recruiters.
Built a shared tracker for venue status, qualifications, and next steps, and gave recruitment vendors clear requirements before venues were submitted.
Digital health & accessibility
A safe place to practice using a patient portal and basic EHR tasks, filled with realistic but made-up patients and records. I’m designing and building it on my own.
Many healthcare jobs expect EHR familiarity, but most EHR training environments are limited to employees, so students and career changers have nowhere to practice. Older adults learning patient portals face a similar gap: practicing on a real account means real health information, and with scams on the rise, people and organizations are rightly careful about who sees it.
Use fictitious but realistic data so anyone can practice without risk. Model the lessons on the flow of most real patient portals, so learners can repeat the same steps on their own accounts. Design for accessibility from the start, with bigger text and hints for when someone gets stuck.
The site is live at tracing-care.com, with a learning page that leads into the practice portal. Next, I plan to make the portal an installable web app, add at-home learning features, and then release iOS and Android apps.
See it for yourself
Visit tracing-care.com to learn more about the project and try the practice portal. No sign-up needed.
SOLARA VITA
Digital Navigator · Founder
Solara Vita helps older adults in South Florida build confidence with the technology they need for their health and daily life. I offer one-on-one support, in person and virtually, with smartphones, tablets, patient portals, telehealth, and online safety.
I also bring that support to more seniors through free community workshops with local public libraries, including “Tech Made Easy: A Senior’s Guide to Devices” at Margate Catharine Young Library.
Health informatics coursework
Developed a comprehensive information assurance strategy for a safety-net health system by applying the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, HIPAA, HITECH, and emerging AI governance principles. This project strengthened my understanding of the intersection between cybersecurity, governance, and healthcare delivery.
Evaluated the use of artificial intelligence to support evidence-based screening, diagnosis, and clinical decision-making for hepatitis C prevention. The project explored how AI can improve population health while emphasizing responsible implementation, health equity, and evidence-based practice.
Writing & thought leadership
8 articles on Medium about how technology, policy, and operations shape the patient experience.
An exploration of how older adults search for, evaluate, and act on health information online, and why the gap between what digital health tools offer and what patients actually need is still very much open.
A grounded look at what AI is genuinely changing in healthcare, cutting through the noise to examine real clinical applications, the limitations practitioners are running into, and what the technology still cannot do.
A candid look at how Applicant Tracking Systems filter out qualified career changers based on keyword matching rather than actual capability, and why transferable skills and demonstrated impact should matter more than job title familiarity.
A personal reflection on what it really means to change fields, not as an act of abandonment but as a deliberate redirect. A broken referral process during my father's cancer treatment revealed the operational gaps that healthcare systems leave unfixed. The result: a commitment to applying years of operations and UX expertise where the stakes actually matter.
A look at how rapid AI adoption in healthcare risks widening the gap for older adults, rural populations, and underserved communities who already struggle to navigate digital health tools, and an early idea for a community-focused digital health literacy initiative to help close that gap.
Reflections from a panel of health systems and informatics leaders on what it really takes to prepare the healthcare workforce to use AI safely, effectively, and equitably, including a five-part competency framework, the gap between curriculum and current practice, and why governance and equity can't be afterthoughts.
A case study on how one rural behavioral health organization implemented ambient AI documentation responsibly, prioritizing clinician trust, voluntary adoption, informed consent, and governance over speed, offering a practical blueprint for reducing documentation burden without compromising patient trust.
Interoperability as a strategy for closing the prescriber-pharmacy gap, examining why electronic prescriptions still require manual clarification and outlining three pillars, connected software, professional digital literacy, and standardized workflows, for closing the gap.
About
I’m a research operations professional with more than five years of experience coordinating participant-based studies, from moderating research sessions to managing participant scheduling, screening, and onboarding across multiple sites.
I’m now transitioning into clinical research, drawn to patient-centered research and to the operational work that keeps studies organized and on track. In every role, I care about efficient processes and healthcare that is accessible to everyone.
My story
The beginning
Before I ever thought about workflows or efficiency, I was a kid obsessed with how things fit together. Legos were basically my first job: structure, logic, and the satisfaction of making pieces click into place. That instinct has followed me everywhere.
Age 14: New York
At 14, my family moved to New York. New language, new culture, new everything. It was humbling, and looking back, one of the best things that ever happened to me. You learn real adaptability when you have no choice but to figure it out.
2012: Tennessee
I got married and settled in Tennessee, in the middle of one of the world's great logistics hubs. Watching complex operations run (or fail to run) at that scale sparked a lasting interest in coordination, efficiency, and making systems actually work.
2016: California
On the West Coast, the work got sharper: less about moving boxes, more about how people and systems interact. I moved into research operations, where I learned to coordinate participants, sites, and teams, and to find and fix the friction that slows work down.
2026: Florida
Moved to Florida to be closer to family while continuing my graduate studies in health informatics. Showing up for the people who shaped me also clarified my direction: bringing my operations experience to healthcare and clinical research.
Today
Today I'm transitioning into clinical research, building on my research operations background and recent GCP training. Through Solara Vita and Tracing Care, I also help older adults and learners feel confident with health technology. The kid who loved Legos is still in there, just building bigger, more inclusive systems now.
Education
Four schools, four states, two decades, each program added a new lens for understanding how systems, people, and data fit together.
Deepening the technical and data foundation behind my digital equity work, connecting operations, healthcare systems, and data to close gaps for underserved populations.
A deliberately unusual combination, operations and psychology. Because the best process in the world still fails if you don't understand the people running it.
Studied in the middle of one of the world's great logistics hubs. The classroom and the real world were basically the same place.
Where it all started. I grew up building Legos, came to school in Brooklyn, and found out I loved structured problem-solving at scale.
Credentials
Principles of Good Clinical Practice for conducting clinical research, including participant protection, informed consent, study documentation, and investigator responsibilities.
Protecting research from security risks and undue foreign influence, including disclosure requirements, cybersecurity, and international collaboration.
Safe response to biohazard spills and releases in research and clinical settings, including containment, cleanup, and reporting.
Process improvement, workflow optimization, and eliminating operational inefficiencies using Six Sigma methodologies.
View credentialPatient data privacy, security regulations, and compliance standards in healthcare environments.
View credentialDigital navigation fundamentals, digital skills coaching, customer service, and community resource development to guide others toward digital resilience.
View credentialSpecializations
Healthcare administration, patient services, and medical office operations.
View credentialElectronic health record fundamentals, patient data and records workflows, documentation, data quality, and compliance across healthcare settings.
View credentialIn progress
Planned
Foundations of the clinical research coordinator role, from study start-up to participant visits and study documentation.
Continuous learning
HIPAA: A Practical Guide
Building a HIPAA Compliance Program
Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Initial Training
Digital badges
Skills
Gained through CITI Program training, not professional clinical trial experience.
Additional technical skills
Contact
If something resonated, a shared interest, a potential collaboration, or just curiosity, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out by email or LinkedIn, and I try to respond within a couple of days.
daniza.neri@gmail.com
Send an emaillinkedin.com/in/danineri
View my profileOpen to
Clinical research and research operations roles where my participant coordination, documentation, and process improvement experience can help teams and patients.
Resume
A focused look at my path from research moderator to project manager, and my work in healthcare digital equity.