Dr. Tamara Flys is a seasoned clinical research leader with over two decades of experience spanning molecular research, HIV prevention, program development, and clinical trial operations. She currently serves as the Regional Research Manager at CHRISTUS St. Vincent, overseeing a growing portfolio of oncology, wound care, infectious disease, and public health clinical trials. Her leadership has helped build and strengthen clinical research infrastructure across multiple institutions, with a consistent focus on regulatory compliance, data quality, and health equity.
Dr. Flys earned her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where her research contributed to pivotal discoveries in HIV drug resistance and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission—work that influenced global WHO guidelines at that time. She later completed a Master of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As a bilingual Spanish speaker in her early career, she coordinated multinational HIV training programs for primary care providers in Central America. She worked to improve healthcare access for Latino migrant populations in Baltimore, MD, through the Johns Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education.
In a brief departure from the HIV field, Dr. Flys worked at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, managing the development of complex, multimillion-dollar biomedical and biofuels research proposals submitted to federal funding agencies.
Now based in New Mexico, Dr. Flys has transitioned into site-level clinical trial operations, becoming a Certified Clinical Research Coordinator and an active member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals. She has directed study operations for more than 80 federally regulated trials across HIV, HCV, COVID-19, vaccines, neurology, wound healing, and oncology at Southwest CARE Center, AXCES Research, and now CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.