Candace Reno, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Endocrinology 

Dr. Reno grew up in Southern California in a small town called Menifee. She attended California State University, San Bernardino for her Bachelor’s in Biology (2006) and Master’s in Biology (2008) where she began her research in the field of diabetes. She attended graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis where she obtained her PhD in Molecular Cell Biology (2013) and continued to conduct research in diabetes.

After graduate school, Dr. Reno was recruited for a post-doctoral position at Yale University in the department of Endocrinology to work with Dr. Robert Sherwin in the field of hypoglycemia. After a few years, she was recruited to University of Utah as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Simon Fisher in the department of Molecular Medicine. After successfully obtaining grants, she was promoted to Research Assistant Professor to continue her research in preventing severe hypoglycemia-induced arrhythmias.

Dr. Reno is also an avid scuba diver. In her spare time, you might catch her in the shark tank at the Living Planet Aquarium in Draper.

Amanda Bailey
Clinical Study Assistant
Pulmonary

Aaron Beckner, PharmD, MSHI
Informatics Postdoctoral Fellow; Academic Research Associate
Epidemiology

Aaron is originally from London, Kentucky, a rural town in the southeastern region of the state. After leaving home to pursue education in science and technology, he received separate B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, followed by a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and M.S. in Health Informatics and Analytics from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

He then went on to further specialize his training in medical informatics as a current postdoctoral fellow with the Salt Lake City VA. Aaron now participates on a variety of research projects, but spends a significant amount of time building and managing Quality Improvement and Clinical Decision Support tools for local clinical groups within the VA.

Apart from his professional life, Aaron played rudimental snare drum as an international finalist for many years in both Drum Corps International and Winter Guard International while pursuing his undergraduate degrees.

Christine Bird
Dialysis Technician
Dialysis - Utah

Nancy Duncan
Physician Assistant
Hematology

Pamela Giebler
Administrative Assistant
Pulmonary

Ivana Grbelja, MS, LCGC
Genetic Counselor
Cardiovascular Medicine

Ivana was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina shortly before the start of the Bosnian War. She and her parents fled to Canada, as refugess, in 1994. They lived in Ottawa, Ontario for almost 10 years before moving to Kelowna, British Columbia. 

Ivana was a Division I tennis player for Saint Peter’s University (Jersey City, NJ). While there, she completed her B.S. in Biological Chemistry and Biotechnology. She moved to Salt Lake City in 2014 to pursue her M.S. in Genetic Counseling and graduated in 2016. She is a board-certified genetic counselor and is licensed in the states of Utah and Idaho.

Ivana joins us from Intermountain Medical Center where she spent the last three years working as a genetic counselor, specializing in adult cardiovascular genetics. Before her time at Intermountain Healthcare, she briefly worked as a genetic counselor at the University of Utah’s Department of Pediatrics.

In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, skiing, running, and kickboxing. She has an eight-year-old tuxedo cat, named Marlo, that she and her boyfriend adopted from the Humane Society of Utah about a year ago. Ivana is excited to continue growing the genetics program in the University of Utah’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.

Veronica Henderson
Program Assistant
Nephrology

Angel Hoskins
Data Entry Specialist
Infectious Diseases

Angel was born in raised in northern Utah. She is new to this type of position but eager and willing to adapt and learn new skills! Angel comes from a strong customer service background and is great with interacting with all levels of the organization and public.

She enjoys outdoor activities and helping others when she can.

Korina Janowski
Clinical Care Specialist
Gastroenterology

Eamonn Kennedy, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Epidemiology

Eamonn completed his doctorate in physics in 2014 at University College Dublin, Ireland, specializing in biomedical imaging. He undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Notre Dame, where he worked on novel protein sequencing platforms and electron microscopy.

Prior to joining the team, Eamonn served as a Senior Research Scientist at Brown University, where he applied statistical learning to metabolomics and molecular information systems. Eamonn is honored to have the opportunity to join the TORCH team in the Division of Epidemiology, and he is eager to apply his knowledge of biomedical imaging and statistical learning to improve veteran’s lives.

Abbigail Kuehl-Coe
Lab Assistant
Nephrology

Sinitalela Latu
Dialysis Technician
Dialysis - Utah

Mikaela Miller
Clinical Nurse
Dialysis - Utah

Trevor Schaffer
Dialysis Technician
Dialysis - Idaho - Gem State Dialysis, Idaho Falls, Idaho

Trevor grew up between Ogden, Utah and Danville, Kentucky. He then got to live for a few years in the Dominican Republic before attending school at Brigham Young University - Idaho where he graduated with a Bachelor's in Exercise Physiology. He specialized in Biomechanics and researched the effects of exercise on depression. Trevor is has been heavily involved in local athletics including coaching, mentoring youth, referee instruction, and also board of directors for the competitive youth soccer program.

One personal fact about Trevor is that he loves the outdoors. He grew up camping, hiking, kayaking, competitive mountain biking, and rock climbing; but, his most recent and thrilling "extreme sport" is mountain unicycling.

Ivan Sierra
Postdoc Research Associate
Cardiovascular Medicine

Jian Yang
Data Scientist
Epidemiology