Kelli has been instrumental in the progress and the development of the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative Ocular Biorepository and Resource Center. Everyday, she brings her drive, her positive attitude and her impeccable organization to the service and the success of our team. These skills have been invaluable as Kelli is directly in charge of managing the daily communication and interactions with all the stakeholders of the project, while also involved in all other aspects of daily management – challenging to say the least, but seamlessly performed. – Patrice E. Fort, PhD
Kelli Ramos, MPH is the Senior Project Manager for the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Ocular Biorepository and Resource Center (MTM Vision-BRC) at the Kellogg Eye Center, here at the University of Michigan. In her role, Kelli oversees the hiring of technical staff, collaborates with contractors, and manages the collection, storage, and distribution of ocular tissues for scientific research. CDI recently had the pleasure to meet with Kelli to learn more about her and her work.
CDI: Can we start by asking, how did you arrive in your current role?
Kelli: When I came to my current role, the University of Michigan was still very much in a COVID state. I felt like I didn’t see anybody! The ocular biorepository was planned to be located in a lab on the older side of the Kellogg Eye Center. Patrice Fort, PhD, is the P.I. who worked in the biorepository space before I joined. Dr. Fort and his staff built a small ocular biorepository and from that work branched the larger ocular biorepository project our staff is working on now.
I was brought onto the project in 2022. At the time, the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative Ocular Biorepository (MTM Vision-BRC) consisted of myself and Dr. Fort. Since that time, we have grown the staff to bring on two staff scientists. We also work closely with the MTM Vision Initiative and they have a big role in driving the project and their group truly connects us with the purpose: to end vision loss caused by diabetes. Working together helps to keep us all on track because we’re having conversations about how this work really impacts the diabetes community outside of just working with organs and tissues every day.
It has been a privilege to work with the project from the beginning and to see how it’s grown, and it has scaled up quite quickly in terms of organ procurement and sample quantities. We currently have 50 whole globe samples and over 2,000 ocular tissue, fluid, and blood samples that will be stored at the Central Biorepository on campus.
CDI: What’s a typical day like for you in your role?
Kelli: As a project manager, I’m the liaison for a lot of different aspects of the project, both technical and nontechnical. One aspect I particularly enjoy is working with the lab staff on the planning and execution of scientific initiatives. I have a clinical laboratory background as well as a foundation in laboratory public policy, supporting the completion of our milestones is a large part of what drives my motivation.
In terms of my role and true project management, it involves looking at every branch of the project- from data platform to organ procurement. I work on new grant submissions and progress of existing grant funds. I am the point of contact for the eye banks and any new relationships we make with eye banks across the US. Growing the ocular biorepository has required support in areas of tissue storage and data management. One great thing about this project is as milestones are completed, new milestones are created and the growth is going in a very progressive direction which allows us to see this project continuing for many years to come.
CDI: What gets you most excited about your work?
Kelli: At first, I think it was the lab work because I got to hire staff so I have those relationships that are the foundation of the project. Working with them to determine what’s next. Once we have these whole eyes, how do we store them? What’s the standardization? How do we make sure we’re being respectful to the organ donors and their families while keeping the samples safe? That was a primary role for me and will always be foundational and exciting. It’s my “why I go into the office”, for sure.
The other side is growing the project and enabling it to speak to these other projects which also collect organs from diabetic donors. That is the overall dream. That’s the resource center part of the biorepository. We want to take the different studies that are focused on analysis of different organs effected by diabetes and someday be able to use the data together to try and find a correlation.
CDI: What’s the most challenging aspect of your work or the project?
Kelli: Organ procurement. We’re working with a time schedule of 10 hours post-mortem at a maximum, and our goal is to collect tissues in under 6 hours. Establishing a protocol and getting on track with the scientific directors and organ procurement staff of each eye bank is challenging. The protocol is really particular.
Also tracking organs because we can say what we want, but it doesn’t mean that in real time, that’s going to play out exactly how we want. Different states have different regulatory procedures that can sometimes put us outside of our 10-hour timeline or cause the eyes to be redirected to different sources. Eye tissue is collected from postmortem organ donors. The process of collection can be unpredictable. Working with the procurement staff is another aspect of my position I find highly challenging and exciting.
CDI: Now that we have learned more about you professionally, we’d like to know what do you enjoy outside of work? What do you do in your downtime?
Kelli: My family, we’re big skiers. I have two kids, an 8-year-old and a 12-year-old. We’re skiing in the winter, and swimming in the summer. My daughter’s a competitive swimmer so we spend a lot of time at the pool.
CDI: What’s your favorite place to go skiing?
Kelli: We go to Crystal Mountain. My husband is from California, so we’re going to ski in Tahoe this coming holiday season.
CDI: Is there an accomplishment you’re most proud of? It could be, professionally or personally.
Kelli: I graduated with my master’s degree in Public Health this past May from Central Michigan University. This project contributed to the completion of my capstone. CDI has also been very supportive of our work, I’m very happy for those relationships.
CDI: Many thanks Kelli for her time and allowing us a peek into her world. Enjoy your trip to Tahoe!
