Ekta started her career as a researcher at world-renowned universities— Bournemouth University in the UK and the University of Arizona in the US as a volunteer working in collaboration with a stellar team of doctors, research scientists, and bio-engineers. She later pursued her career as a lead coordinator and development specialist at multiple research sites in the US. Over the years, she has worked in different capacities, including building study pipelines for the sites, boosting patient enrollment through refined strategies, and managing day-to-day operations of clinical trials. Her expertise also extends to contributing to the design of advertising material and having to work with different IRBs for approvals and maintain high-quality standards. Ekta Grewal, Founder of Sikhs in Clinical Research She has significant exposure to several aspects of clinical trials, including supporting physicians to build research arms in their practice, training research coordinators, recruiting research staff, cross-functional research knowledge, and execution success. Her significant exposure to different aspects of clinical trials, along with related regulatory functions, data management, cross-functional research knowledge, and execution successes, equipped her with the creative abilities to grow and led to the formation of New Life Clinical Research (NLCR) and Sikhs in Clinical Research (SICR). She is very passionate about research and her goal is to excel and help others excel in research. Ekta also works as a Manager for an SMO and provides oversight for SWOG/Alliance/ECOG-ACRIN/NCI and pharma trials in community hospitals for compliance and quality assurance. These community hospitals serve the low-income diverse minority patient population. As a part of her routine job, she would face multilevel interventions to address barriers and improve clinical trial access and accrual. She reflects on how important it is to expand access to interpreter/translation services, address logistical barriers in low-resource settings, and how health beliefs, cultural differences, patient comprehension, education, communication, current circumstances, and perceptions of clinical research influence clinical trial participation decisions among diverse populations. Ekta is married with two kids, a girl and a boy. She is residing in Chicago (Illinois) with her husband and kids, and spends her time gardening, singing (spiritual) with string instruments, and cooking. She wants to empower her community to break into clinical research careers thereby helping bring diversity to the research industry. With SICR, her goal is to play her part in improving access to clinical trial opportunities for both the patients and the workforce with the goal of reducing disparities and enhancing equity among diverse communities.
