SE Color, a division of Southeast Life Sciences, is an organization dedicated to:
- Support minority life science entrepreneurship
- Increase investment in minority-owned life science businesses
- Improve minority access to information and clinical opportunities
“Stairwell Chronicles”
with Dr. Jayne Morgan
Dr. Jayne Morgan is the Clinical Director of the Covid Taskforce at Piedmont Healthcare. In this series, she provides information on Covid, vaccines, and more in easy to digest 1-minute videos.
The Tuskegee Experiment?
Clinical Trials for The Culture
In the closing keynote of the 2020 AdvanSE Conference, Drs. Luther Clark, Jayne Morgan, Felix Sogade and Garin Wilson join moderator Tiffany Jordan-Winslow for a deep dive into the issue of African Americans distrust of the U.S. healthcare industry and its implications for the Covid era.
Beyond Tuskegee
Education on Covid, reasons to be vaccinated and the cause of inclusion into clinical trials. We bringing together a researcher, a clinical trial expert, and a prominent member of the black community to take a step toward alleviating distrust by discussing the issues and concerns.
Minorities in Clinical Trials
African Americans make up 13.4% of the US population, yet represent less than 7% of participants in clinical trials.
SE Color’s initial effort will focus on increasing the number of minorities in clinical trials. Our initial priorities are to to share information on clinical trials available throughout the southeast, building community trust in clinical trials, and working with state and local leaders to addressing concerns from the community. As part of this, SE Color will focus on education and community engagement.
Available Clinical Trials in your State
Alabama
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Florida
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Georgia
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North Carolina
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South Carolina
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Tennessee
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Virginia
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Kornelius Bankston
Kornelius is the managing partner of techPLUG. He leads the firm’s strategy and business development efforts. He’s a graduate of Morehouse College (BSc. Chemistry), Emory University (MSc. Biomolecular Chemistry) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (MBA- Management of Technology).
After graduating from Emory University, Kornelius worked for a startup founded by Dr. Dennis Liotta as a business development intern. He went on to become a project manager with the Georgia Department of Economic Development where he worked to help recruit Baxter (now known as Takeda) to Georgia. He moved on to manage Morehouse School of Medicine’s first Office of Technology Transfer and Office of Industry Sponsored Clinical trials. He was able to help underserved populations who traditionally do not participate in clinical trials to become more engaged in clinical research. Kornelius served as the director of bioscience ecosystem expansion for the Metro Atlanta Chamber where he worked to recruit bioscience companies to the Metro Atlanta region. While at the Metro Atlanta Chamber he launched Global Health ATL, www.globalhealthatl.com, to promote Atlanta as the Center for Global Health. Most recently, Kornelius served as the director of business development for Color Genomics leading the company’s southeast business development efforts. Kornelius leads Strategic Partnerships for Simple HealthKit a social impact diagnostic company located in Silicon Valley. He also serves as a mentor for Techstars and a member of the Advisory Board for Paincare Labs.
Robert Benson
Robert E. Benson, Jr. is a corporate attorney and a Partner in King & Spalding’s Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity practices. Robert represents advises public and private companies, private equity funds, boards of directors, investors, inventors and special committees in significant corporate transactions, including domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, spin-offs, divestitures, joint ventures, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) transactions, complex commercial agreements and strategic investments. Robert also advises clients on a variety of corporate governance and general corporate and securities matters, including the commercialization and development of innovations in tech, fin-tech, green tech, energy, automotive and life science industry sectors.
Robert is a native Atlantan and a graduate of Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School and Washington and Lee University. Robert is a member of the Board of Trustees of Odyssey Atlanta and is a member of the advisory board of SE COLOR. Robert is also the founder of the Inkwell, a monthly networking breakfast for diverse professionals in Atlanta. Robert leads the Core Committee for the Atlanta University Center InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and is a former member of the Regional Board for Young Life Gotham City. Robert is a member of Southwest Christian Fellowship Church in South Atlanta.
Robert was recognized as a New York Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2016 and 2015 and a Georgia Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2018.
President & CEO, Virginia BIO
John Newby
Co-Founder & Chief Development Officer, Acclinate
Tiffany Whitlow
Tiffany is an innovator and entrepreneur with 10 years of business management expertise. She’s experienced in all aspects of business formation, operation, strategic messaging, and marketing. In addition, she is a lifelong learner committed to staying on top of the best current and emerging business practices. She works hard to continue strengthening communities while fostering civic engagement through service and volunteering. At Acclinate Tiffany is able to utilize her relentless drive for diversity, equity, and inclusion to transform clinical research.
In 2017, Tiffany founded, Driven Solutions, where she continuously works to find solutions for the everyday needs of clients while helping them maximize their full potential in order to reach goals. At a young age Tiffany made a name for herself here in Rocket City by being a dedicated volunteer to United Way of Madison County and a hard worker. After managing a well known dental practice for 5 years Tiffany worked for the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce. Through the years she has established herself as a trustworthy, dedicated and diligent young professional. She was recently recognized as one of the top 40 young professionals under the age of 40 by 256 Magazine and a finalist for the 2018 & 2019 Entrepreneur Awards by al.com and the Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship.
Tiffany has strong affiliations in the business community where she serves as an active board member of Urban Engine, Vice President of the Board of Directors for Nexus Energy Center, Advisor to the United Way of Madison County, Community Partner to Monrovia Middle School and Hampton Cove Middle School, A member of the National Space Club, A Kids to Love advocate and community partner, TRC Volunteer for the Decatur/Morgan County Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Women’s Economic Development Council, and a member of Mayor Battle’s Diversity & Inclusion Council. She works hard to form bonds with businesses to promote different perspectives which encourage the leaders, employees and our entire community to evolve.
Director of Cardiovascular Research – Piedmont Heart Institute
Jayne Morgan
Jayne Morgan, M.D. is a Cardiologist and the Executive Director of the Covid Task Force at the Piedmont Healthcare Corporation in Atlanta, GA, the largest healthcare system in Georgia. Within this role she serves as the system Covid vaccine expert, analyzing the science and data from Piedmont and nationally, drives efforts at addressing vaccine hesitancy via education to internal staff, external stakeholders, media, and the greater external community. Dr. Morgan has been named to the Health Equity and Covid Task Force for the Governor of the state of Georgia and selected to support the Department of Health in its series of “Ask The Experts”. Additionally she serves as a CNN medical expert contributor and is the owner and creator of The Stairwell Chronicles – a social media series directed towards addressing questions surrounding Covid vaccines in a conversational format.
Previously, Dr. Morgan was the System Director of Innovation at Piedmont Healthcare, Inc. where she created the Piedmont Accelerator and secured the first ever licensing of a medical device developed entirely internally. This has allowed Piedmont to receive its first ever royalties. Further, she provided support to a second medical and biotech invention receiving a $23,000,000 outside investment.
Prior to this role, Dr. Morgan served as the System Director of Research and Innovation, also at Piedmont Healthcare, Inc. where she set the strategic growth of the Piedmont Research Institute and introduced the importance of increasing enrollment of minorities into clinical trials as a strategic initiative for the system.
Initially, Dr. Morgan came to Piedmont as the Director of Cardiovascular Research where she expanded research to other satellite hospital facilities and created the Feasibility Program. Both have been huge successes and have propelled Piedmont Healthcare, Inc. to #1 status worldwide in the tricuspid space and #1 nationally within the mitral space of transcatheter valve technologies. Further these efforts, as well as the focus on other strategic growth initiatives, realized steadily increasing revenue earnings that converted the Cardiovascular Research department from a cost center to a profit center.
Dr. Morgan is published in the areas of Congenital Heart Disease, Interventional Cardiology, and Covid19. Moreover, Dr. Morgan has served as the Chief Medical Officer of the American Chemistry Council (where she developed a new translational research program), CEO of Forty Million Beats, LLC – with clients such as Novartis, Abbott, and Moderna – the Cardiology advisor to the MitraClip Team at Abbott Labs, the World Wide Director of the Cardiorenal Drug Development program at Solvay Pharmaceuticals, and the Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Morgan currently serves as the immediate past President of the Southeast Life Sciences Association (single largest biotech & medtech association in the Southeast), an adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at The Morehouse School of Medicine, Co-Chair of the Health and Human Services Conference 2022, Board Member of the National Diversity and Inclusion team at the American Heart Association.