Academic Network, LLC is a healthcare telecommunications service bureau and consulting firm, offering a single source for the multiple services necessary to meet the diverse health communications needs of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nutraceutical, food, and beverage industries. Academic Network is woman-owned and is the only outsourcing agency in the telecommunications industry that is wholly staffed and managed by medical professionals. Academic Network was named one of the top 5000 businesses in 2007 by Inc Magazine and one of the top 50 diversity-owned businesses in Oregon by DiversitySupplier.com for the past several years. Academic Network is certified as part of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC.org).

Kathleen A. McCarron
Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Kathleen A. McCarron, co-founder and majority owner of Academic Network, has served as chairwoman and CEO since the company's inception. Ms. McCarron has more than 25 years of experience in customer care operations and 10 years managing customer contact center operations. Prior to Academic Network, she served as administrator at a clinical and research division of a university medical school, where her duties included supervising a 90-person staff and coordinating the division's outpatient clinical and division financial management. She has extensive experience in clinical billing and reimbursement issues and developed an outpatient treatment study program while employed at the university. Her background in clinical trial management, patient recruitment and multi-site trials provides clients with an outsourcing partner who is skilled and knowledgeable and can meet the most demanding requirements for consumer health education and clinical trial recruitment.

Ms. McCarron's experience also includes participation in the development and implementation of national consumer health education programs for the food and pharmaceutical industries, consultant services to corporations and business organizations seeking to create or improve consumer education strategies, and coordination of national and international scientific meetings. Most recently, she has served as Assistant Director, for Shaping America’s Youth, a collaborative public private partnership program on childhood obesity. She is a member of the American Telemedicine Association, Association of Telehealth Service Providers, Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals, Institute of Food Technologists, Outsourcing Institute and the Public Relations Society of America.

David A. McCarron, MD, FACP
President

Dr. McCarron is a Visiting Professor with the Department of Nutrition, University of California-Davis and former Head of the Nephrology Division at Oregon Health & Science University. He is currently directing the public/private partnership, Shaping America’s Youth, addressing childhood inactivity and excess weight. An internationally recognized authority on the role of dietary nutrients in cardiovascular disease, Dr. McCarron has served as a consultant, investigator, media contact, and medical board member/chairman to numerous private and public organizations over the past 35 years. Most recently, he received the International Award for Modern Nutrition 2004 which is given in recognition for outstanding research contributions to our understanding the role of nutrition in hypertension. Dr. McCarron’s research programs have been the recipient of over $25 million in grants and awards during his career. He is the author of more than 250 scientific publications, over 500 scientific papers at research meetings and serves on the editorial boards of several professional journals.

Dr. McCarron is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians and the AHA Council for High Blood Pressure Research and is a founding member of the Board of the American Society of Hypertension. He is a frequently invited speaker at U.S. and international medical research meetings and symposia having spoken at over 200 in more than 20 countries. He has been featured in national media including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, CBS, BBC, PBS and NPR.

Dr. McCarron received his undergraduate degree cum laude in chemistry (honors) from Williams College and medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his training in Internal Medicine at Case Western Reserve-University Hospitals and Nephrology at Tufts-New England Medical Center where he also served as the Chief Resident in Medicine. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology.

Charles Dunn
Chief Operations Officer

As COO, Mr. Dunn oversees the financial and operations divisions of Academic Network. His background includes ownership and management of Labtec Enterprises, founded in 1981. He has extensive experience in marketing and sales, and part of his role is to coordinate marketing efforts for Academic Network. Mr. Dunn developed a line of consumer electronic products now sold in retail chains nationwide, as well as specific products for the airline industry. He later developed multimedia products for the computer industry in his own company, which became a worldwide leader in the field. Mr. Dunn is a well-recognized consultant for new businesses.

Don Houghton
VP Contact Center and Online Operations

Mr. Houghton manages the day-to-day operations of Academic Network’s contact center and online operations. His primary responsibilities include the management of Academic Network systems and technology as well as the implementation, execution and operations management of pharmaceutical and healthcare programs for our consumer call center. Mr. Houghton has worked with numerous clients in the health and pharmaceutical industries to design and implement online and call center applications and programs for consumer and healthcare professional education as well as consumer affairs programs. Don has managed the design, (IRB approved) scripting, launch and on-going management of both online, and call center patient recruitment and retention efforts for various clinical trials for pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Prior to joining Academic Network, he was Vice President, COO, and CFO of MARC, Inc. a national retail service organization, and served as COO of Turk Enterprises, a website development and hosting company. His project management experience includes national new-product launches for companies including Vtech, Leap Frog, Casio, Microsoft, Boston Scientific and GSK. His human resource and general management experience includes management of a national service force including 10 offices and over 700 sales and service representatives. Mr. Houghton is a member of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP).

Woodie Kessel, MD, MPH
Senior Scientific Advisor

A community pediatrician for over 30 years, Dr. Woodie Kessel is an educator in public health, public policy, pediatrics, and maternal and child health. He served as an Assistant Surgeon General and has been a senior advisor on public health, health policy, and child and family health matters to the White House, Cabinet Secretaries, Surgeon Generals, and Health and Human Services officials spanning eight administrations. As Assistant Surgeon General, Dr. Kessel helped develop the President’s Healthy Start Initiative, the President’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the President’s Task Force on Children’s Environmental Health and Safety, the National Children’s Study, and the President's Safe and Bright Futures Initiative. He works with numerous organizations to promote child health including Sesame Workshop; Shaping America’s Youth, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. In recognition of his work for America's children and families, Dr. Kessel was recently awarded the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Excellence in Public Service Award and the US Surgeon General’s Medallion.

Dr. Kessel earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University, his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and MPH from the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Kessel completed his training in pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics, Boston City Hospital. He was a RWJ Clinical Scholar and Ambulatory Pediatrics Fellow at the Children’s Hospital National Medical Center. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and Founder and President of e-Maginative Health Systems Solutions, a consulting firm helping children and families become healthier by making healthy and wise choices.

Claudia Johnson
Strategic Communications

Claudia Johnson is in the business of leading strategic communications, public relations, public information, and marketing programs. She has managed her own strategic communications business for nearly 20 years after numerous corporate public relations and marketing roles. Johnson is most noted for her launch communications strategies on behalf of start-up enterprises of all kinds – from medical and tech products to political campaigns and public health initiatives. Johnson has launched companies like Cricket Wireless, SKOOT™, HemCon bandage, Cellular One (now AT&T Wireless), Voice Stream Wireless, the SEIKO Message Watch among others.

Johnson's recent client experience includes strategic communications and media relations for companies in the medical and healthcare industry including Boston Scientific, ZRT Laboratories, Epic Imaging, HemCon Inc, MedVisor/dental, Shaping America’s Youth, as well as numerous communications projects for Academic Network.

A Portland native, Johnson is active in the community as a board member, volunteer, student mentor and a communications voice on a number of successful bond measure and political campaigns.

Janet Johnson
Online Strategist

A digital strategist and technology industry veteran, Janet Johnson has held executive level sales, marketing and business development positions with top technology companies including Apple, Enron, Now Software, Merant and Marqui. She consults with organizations and agencies who want to understand and leverage new media and online marketing strategies. Janet has recently helped Saltmine and the Intel Software Network to launch their blogging efforts and provided strategic counsel to JWT and Microsoft in developing collaborative online recruitment activities.

An avid blogger, Janet has been called a pioneer in business blogging, and regularly speaks around North America on the topics of blogging, social media, and improving customer engagement through traditional and new media marketing activities. A marketer for technologists and technologist for marketers, she is often referred to as a "bridge."

She's discovered recently she has a very flexible mind and a very inflexible body; so she's now a beginning yogi realizing that headstands are great for boosting creativity.