Image of Trisha Steele with husband and grandson

Spotlight on Trisha Steele, Administrative Director, Center for Clinical Research, University of Kansas School of Medicine – Wichita

By Kelly Hale, Marketing & Communications Coordinator

May 04, 2023

Interested in forensics and criminology, Trisha Steele considered a career as a criminologist getting a criminal justice and psychology degree. And then she learned she needed a biology degree, and her career path took a turn as she began to work in family practice settings and hospitals.

“I’m still interested in forensics, but it’s become more of a hobby for me,” she said. “I still watch CSI and read Patricia Cornwell books when I have time.”

But that time has become more limited since the arrival of her grandson almost two years ago.

“This is a great age. He is walking and you are starting to see his personality emerge,” she said. “And when he comes over to have him run into my arms is a great feeling. But I also take care of my aging parents, so time is limited but I have more work/life balance now.”

As for how the Wichita native became the Administrative Director at the Center for Clinical Research (CCR) in Wichita, she started her research career about 15 years ago working as an Institutional Review Board (IRB) coordinator. From there, she moved on to being a study coordinator in oncology.

“I learned so much during my early career that has helped me along the way,” she said. “It really led me to my current position.”

She saw a position posting for the CCR, which at the time was strictly psychiatry research, and applied. A couple of years later, Dr. Tiffany Schwasinger-Schmidt transitioned into the Medical Director position and opened the center to a wide-range of research.

“We were part of the psychiatry department when I started but when we opened up the center to additional research, we moved into a new space,” she said. “We have also changed names a few times from Clinical Research Institute to Clinical Trials Unit to our current name Center for Clinical Research.

“There hasn’t been a lot of opportunities for research in Wichita in the past and we are trying to change that for people. If people have skills that can translate to research, we can do the training with them to make sure they are ready to work on research projects and help study teams.”

And as the center continues to let people know about their presence in Wichita, the medical students who have visited the program are surprised by what they learn.

“We talk to the students about research protocol and the importance of research,” she said. “They are always amazed by how long it takes a drug to make it to market and how much money goes into getting a drug to market.

“We don’t have a lot of students take advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the center and research but we’re definitely reaching out as much as possible to let people know we’re here. We have grown our research studies and our staff over the last couple of years and we look forward to more people taking advantage of our resources here in Wichita.”