Maya Delgado: Supporting Clinical Trials at the NM Clinical Research Unit
Northwestern Medicine Clinical Research Unit (CRU) Program Assistant Maya Delgado is a Chicago native who grew up on the southeast side of the city. She currently lives with her sister, and the two are catmoms to 10-month-old tabby, Mila. Outside of the office, Delgado can often be found reading as part of her family book club or going on walks around the neighborhood. She says, “being active is a nice excuse to visit local coffee shops and buy more plants for my apartment.”
Before coming to Northwestern, Delgado graduated with a bachelor’s in communications with a focus in health from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 2020. For over a year, she worked as a Quality Assurance Coordinator at a Grifols Plasma donation center, where she ensured compliance with standard operating procedures, thus ensuring the safety of plasma donors and quality of the product.
“I feel that the experience I obtained really helped with my transition into Northwestern,” says Delgado, who is also a member of the NUCATS staff engagement committee. “I joined the staff engagement committee because it’s a great opportunity to be more involved in NUCATS and organize events that bring a sense of community between each other. I also wanted to get to know the NUCATS team better and this is a good opportunity to socialize with people I don’t typically work with on a day-to-day basis.”
At NUCATS, Delgado works alongside the CRU team to help get research studies approved. She often:
- Communicates with study teams requesting CRU services
- Creates budgets for these studies
- Confirms that they have the components needed for CRU approval
- Sends study teams final documents and scheduling instructions, upon completion of the review process
At the NM CRU, Delgado enjoys working with an incredibly supportive team and having the opportunity to learn about research taking place at Northwestern.
“It’s so exciting to be a part of a fundamental process that impacts the lives of countless people,” says Delgado. “There are many different research studies that are taking place at the CRU and it’s awesome that I play a part in the process.”
Delgado is proud to have contributed to the intake process improvement project, which aimed to make the intake process for research studies more efficient. She started at NUCATS when this project was wrapping up, but the new perspective from her “fresh set of eyes” proved to be a big help in providing feedback.
“In this job, there’s plenty of room to learn and grow,” says Delgado. “Each day is an opportunity to learn new skills and find ways to further improve.”
Written by Ari Crockett
