Rick Starrs

Chief Executive Officer

rstarrs@navref.org

Rick Starrs joined NAVREF as Chief Executive Officer in January 2016 after concluding his US Army career as a Colonel. Rick enjoyed more than 25 years of leadership experience in the military health system ranging from leading troops in combat to working on Capitol Hill to overseeing the day-to-day operations of a multi-billion dollar military medical research, acquisition, and logistics enterprise. He has a background as a health services comptroller with extensive expertise in congressional affairs and a history of successful performance in a range of high visibility positions that required daily interaction at the most senior levels of the Army, Pentagon, and Capitol Hill. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Georgetown University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. Rick is passionate about serving his country and enhancing the lives of veterans.

Hawk Tran

Association Operations Officer

Hawk Tran joined NAVREF in 2014 with a background in military health affairs, epidemiology, and public health administration. After his service in the United States Army Medical Service Corps, Mr. Tran worked in public health focusing on STD/HIV Epidemiology where his main activities included disease investigation, applied intervention, as well as community health education. A short-term Army assignment at the Pentagon within the Office of the Secretary of Defense brought Mr. Tran to Washington, DC where he resides today. Mr. Tran holds a Master of Public Health degree from American Public University, a B.A. in International Relations from Florida International University, and a graduate certificate in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the University of South Florida. He is also a graduate of the Health Administration Officer Program at Ft. Sam Houston, TX, and the Tropical Medicine Course at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, MD.

Nicole Roberge

Clinical Trials Facilitator

Nicole Roberge joins our team as a Clinical Research Facilitator who will work closely with Krissa Caroff and the VHA Office of Research and Development to better enable our VA system to engage in extramural research with outside collaborators.

Ms. Roberge is an efficiency-focused leader with 15+ years of experience driving the clinical and operational project management activities of government and industry-sponsored clinical research studies. She has expertise in managing the coordination and execution of all phases of studies and projects from low enrolling oncology treatment trials in the US to multi-national high-enrolling HIV prevention research in low-resource settings. She has lived and worked with a diversity of populations and settings including those in Africa, with Native American tribes, US Academia and VHA research.

Most recently, Nicole was working with the Durham VA’s Institute for Medical Research where she engaged in problem-solving of barriers to research that affect the entire VA system. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego and a Master of Public Health from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.