CBTRUS Personnel

Carol Kruchko
President & Chief Mission Officer

Ms. Kruchko is the founding president of the CBTRUS. She provides the direction, policy, and management services for the CBTRUS. She oversees the production of the CBTRUS Statistical Reports.  Ms. Kruchko is on the Advisory Board of the International Brain Tumor Alliance (IBTA), as well as the Secretary of the Brain Tumor Epidemiology Consortium (BTEC), and is a member of the Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO). She has co-authored several articles on brain tumor registration and collaborates with the CBTRUS Co-Scientific Principal Investigators on CBTRUS scientific contributions. She has organized two consensus conferences on the cancer registration of brain tumors and serves on various cancer registry committees. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Brain Tumor Alliance. Ms. Kruchko currently oversees the CBTRUS contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Program of Cancer Registries and is responsible for securing and managing grants and contracts for CBTRUS. She works to ensure that cancer collection practices for brain and other CNS tumors incorporate current clinical practices.

Jill Barnholtz-Sloan, PhD
CBTRUS Scientific Co-Principal Investigator

Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan received a Master of Science in Statistics from the University of Texas in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Biostatistics and Statistical Genetics from the University of Texas School of Public Health in 2000. She is also the acting Director for the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT) and has a robust research agenda in descriptive epidemiology and etiology of brain tumors as an intramural NCI researcher in NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) Trans-Divisional Research Program. Blending these two unique perspectives—as an active researcher and as an administrator—gives her unique insight into how data can be translated into real-world solutions to help diagnose, prevent, and treat cancer. Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the fields of cancer informatics and data science and is multi-disciplinary trained in biostatistics, epidemiology, and human genetics. Her role in team science has been essential for multiple successful multi-disciplinary research projects. She has extensive experience in hypothesis development, study design, and statistical analysis for studies of various phenotypes in humans and animals and analysis of all types of high throughput “omics” data and clinical outcomes. As Scientific Co-PI for CBTRUS, she collaborates on interpreting and disseminating brain and other central nervous system tumor data by producing statistical reports and scholarly publications, presentations, responding to data requests, and helping develop grant applications for scientific utilization of the CBTRUS data.

Quinn T. Ostrom, PhD, MPH
CBTRUS Scientific Co-Principal Investigator

Dr. Ostrom received a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in 2018 from Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio followed by postdoctoral training funded by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Neurosurgery and the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University School of Medicine. She contributes to the preparation of analyses, manuscripts, reports, presentations, data requests, and publications, including the annual CBTRUS Statistical Report.

Gino Cioffi, MPH
Biostatistician

Mr. Cioffi graduated from Kent State University with a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology in 2016 and a Master of Public Health in Biostatistics in 2018. He contributes to the preparation of the CBTRUS analytic data files, data analysis, interpretation, manuscripts, reports and data requests in addition to preparation of presentations and publications for CBTRUS. Mr. Cioffi works with Dr. Jill Barnholtz-Sloan at the DCEG.

Kristin Waite, PhD
Investigator

Dr. Waite received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Wake Forest University, Bowmen Gray School of Medicine in 1997 and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. She is a classically trained biochemist with training and laboratory experience in cellular signaling, lipid metabolism, molecular oncology, proteomics and genomics. Through positions at the Ohio State University and Cleveland Clinic she gained additional experience in cancer genomics and clinical research. She has extensive experience in scientific project management, through working as a Research Program Manager in the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center as well as the Assistant Director, Research Operation, Cleveland Center for Health Outcomes (CCHOR). She currently works with the Barnholtz-Sloan team at the NCI in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics focusing on the role of sex differences in cancer. She collaborates on interpreting and disseminating brain and other central nervous system tumor data by assisting in the production of statistical reports and scholarly publications, and presentations. Dr. Waite also assists in helping develop grant applications for scientific utilization of the CBTRUS data.

Mackenzie Price, MPH
Research Analyst and Policy Coordinator

Mrs. Price received a BA in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018, followed by a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of California at Berkeley. She has worked in the medical field for more than 10 years including having served five years in the United States Army as a field medic. She currently works for CBTRUS as an independent contractor. She contributes to the preparation of analyses, manuscripts, reports, and publications, including the annual CBTRUS Statistical Report and works to support the CBTRUS mission. Preferred pronouns: she/her/hers.

Christine Ballard, MPH
Research Analyst

Christine Ballard earned her BA in Archaeology from the University of Rochester in 2013, followed by a Master of Public Health in Biomedical Science from the SUNY University at Albany School of Public Health. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With a decade of experience in the neuro-oncology field, Christine currently serves as a Research Analyst at Duke University School of Medicine, collaborating with Dr. Quinn Ostrom on data processing, analysis, and interpretation for CBTRUS projects.

Preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.

Julia R. Benedetti, MBS
Research Analyst

Ms. Benedetti graduated from the University of Tampa with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in 2022 and received a Master of Biostatistics from Duke University, School of Medicine in 2024. She currently works with Dr. Quinn Ostrom at Duke University, School of Medicine as a Biostatistician and contributes to data processing, data analysis, and interpretation for CBTRUS projects.

Preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.

Claudia Smits
Website and Social Media Manager

Ms. Smits received her LL.M. in International Law from the University of Edinburgh Law School in 2020. She received her BA in International Relations from the University of Sussex School of Global Studies in 2018. Ms. Smits manages the CBTRUS website and social media accounts. She also works full-time as a Communications Officer at the European Commission in Brussels.