Unlike an electrical engineer or a plumber, clinical research roles are not explicitly defined or categorized as such, in government employment databases. There are no certification or degree requirements to work as a clinical research professional either. To explore the topic of clinical research as a profession, I invited Erike Stevens on the podcast. Erika advises life sciences, academic medical centers, hospitals, cancer centers, foundations and health systems process improvement initiatives for productivity, quality and efficiency in operations, cross-functional relationships, administration, manufacturing, and compliance.  She has over 20 years of research/ R&D experience, serving in roles such as Vice President Research, Senior Managing Director, Director Clinical Trials Office, Director of Clinical Research, Interim Executive Director, Clinical Trials Office and Director of Research Operations.  Erika holds her B.A. from the University of Vermont, her M.A. from Case Western Reserve University and her M.A. from Temple University.  She also holds a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology from Case Western University. Please join me in welcoming Erika on the show. Podcast Sponsor(s): This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope drives operational excellence for highly complex, sample-intensive, early-phase clinical trials. The platform transforms chaotic clinical trial supply chains into protocol-specific operational workflows for sponsors, CROs, clinical research sites and labs. Slope is trusted by industry leaders in complex early-phase clinical trials from top 50 pharma and CROs to emerging biotechs, and a global site network including NCI cancer centers and AMCs. Learn more at https://www.slopeclinical.com/ This podcast is brought to you by Veeva. Veeva connects patients, sites, and sponsors, on a single technology ecosystem to make clinical trials easier and faster. I’m particularly excited about Veeva SiteVault. SiteVault gives research sites one place to work with sponsors – to reduce the number of systems and logins used to run clinical trials. To learn more, visit https://sites.veeva.com/.