Bring your own coffee or tea and connect with MERCK representatives, on Tuesday, October 12 from 10:00AM-11:00AM EST in Nesbitt Hall, Conference Room 240 or via Zoom. Coffee & Convos offers students and public health professionals an opportunity to connect and network. Professionals share information about their organization and experiences to help students explore work environments, industries, and public health career paths over coffee.

Matthew Phillips, MPH, is an Associate Director in the Center for Observational and Real-world Evidence (CORE) at Merck. He has an MPH in Social & Behavioral Sciences and a BS in public health, both from Temple University. Prior to joining Merck, he worked as a research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania supporting the evaluation of state-wide obesity prevention programs and the implementation of community-level healthy eating initiatives. At Merck, he supports non-interventional research related to vaccines development, serves as a department level project manager, and leads a team of external worker study managers.

Alexandria Kachurak, MS, is a Quality Manager in the Center for Observational and Real-World Evidence (CORE) at Merck. She holds an MS in epidemiology and a BS in public health, both from Temple University. Prior to her appointment at Merck, she was a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Obesity Research and Education for five years where she managed observational and experimental studies that focused on child eating behaviors. In her current position, she is responsible for managing, tracking and supporting the quality components of observational/non-interventional research studies.

Claire Fox  MPH, is a Senior Specialist in the Center for Observational and Real-World Evidence (CORE) at Merck.  She holds an MPH in epidemiology from New York University, a BS in neuroscience and a BS in psychology, both from Allegheny College.  Prior to her appointment at Merck, she was a bench biologist at a start-up biopharmaceutical company and an Environmental Health Epidemiologist at Philadelphia’s Department of Health where she worked on childhood lead exposure surveillance and programmatic interventions. At Merck, she supports a variety of non-interventional research studies spanning the areas of oncology, women’s health, antivirals and methodology development.