Unique Services

Leslie A. Bunce, MD, who earned National Board Certification in both Internal Medicine and Hematology, first cared for patients as an academic clinical and research physician-scientist and then later worked in drug development, drug safety surveillance, and clinical research, in such roles as IRB physician member, clinical research consultant, and medical officer for a number of clinical trials. In the past decade and more, Dr. Bunce has provided writing, editing, data review & analysis, and project management to translational/clinical researchers for NIH grants ranging from individual RO-1s to large, multi-author, interdisciplinary, inter-institutional translational/clinical research/training grants such as U54 program projects and the CTSA. Among her contributions to UNC she launched the grant and manuscript academic editing service at the UNC School of Public Health in 2006 as the inaugural editor for the SPH Office of Research; served as the Senior Project Director of the 2006-2007 UNC CTSA application and has provided individual grant, manuscript, book chapter, or newsletter writing or editorial assistance to UNC faculty members in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family Medicine, Division of Allied Health, School of Medicine, Carolina Population Center, and School of Public Health. She has co-authored a book chapter on the design of Phase 1 trials. Dr. Bunce will provide all range of editing (basic to substantive medical and scientific review) with an eye on detail, with a full understanding of the clinical research process, and with a desire to make the primary science shine in clear, concise, and compelling English. She is comfortable in editing all areas of medical science. A further detailed listing of Dr. Bunce’s credentials is available to those seeking her editing services through the Center of Women’s Health Research.

Stacey L. Klaman has a Ph.D. and MPH in Maternal and Child Health and a Ph.D. minor in Organizational Theory and Implementation Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has a public health background with strong skills in program planning, systematic literature reviews, needs assessment, and quantitative and qualitative research including data collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of findings for interdisciplinary audiences. For her dissertation, she received an NC TraCS grant award to collect primary data to examine barriers to integrating reproductive and sexual health education and family planning services for women in opioid treatment programs in North Carolina. Dr. Klaman has published 8 peer-reviewed manuscripts, has been a researcher and writer for the United Nations, the NC Division of Health and Human Services, and the International Society of Substance Use Professionals.

Prior to her graduate studies, Dr. Klaman held management positions in the field of educational publishing for more than two decades, where she oversaw the development of science and health textbooks for the elementary/middle school markets. As the Director of Publishing at Sally Ride Science, her specific responsibilities included overseeing multidisciplinary teams to develop 60 science books and teacher instructional materials. As an executive editor at MacMillan McGraw-Hill, she collaborated with department directors to create and implement publishing goals for national and state science and health textbooks, teaching materials, and ancillary components, developed and maintained $35-60m budgets, and oversaw partnerships with National Geographic and Time, Inc.

Dr. Klaman lists the following as her areas of expertise: TraCS, project and document management; plain language writing, literature reviews, manuscript review and editing; presentation preparation

Disciplines: Maternal and Child Health, Substance Use Disorder research, Organizational and Implementation Science Health Behavior, Health Disparities

Carol Lorenz, PT, Ph.D has 14+ years’ experience in grant and federal contract writing, reviewing, and editing. She has worked with multiple PIs and teams from ObGyn and other departments in the UNC School of Medicine, UNC PIs outside the school of medicine, and PIs and teams from other universities. During her eight years as Associate Director of CWHR, Dr. Lorenz edited, wrote, or co-wrote approximately 60 proposals. Upon retirement from UNC in 2013, Dr. Lorenz became a freelance medical writer and editor, and has edited or written more than 65 additional proposals during that time. Many proposals were for the NIH, but there have been grant and contract proposals for other federal and state agencies and private foundations. She also edits manuscripts and articles, leads workshops on grant pacing for both K and R proposals, and works with research teams during study start-up. She has a PhD in Community Psychology and is a retired physical therapist, athletic trainer, and paramedic. Dr. Lorenz holds both the Essential Skills and the advanced Composition and Publication certificates from the American Medical Writer’s Association.

Dr. Lorenz lists the following as her areas of expertise: All areas of NIH grant submissions; the submission process at NIH and UNC; plain language; generalist in multiple health areas; project and document management; process development and documentation; familiarity with large grants such as P, U, and T types as well as federal contract RFPs that involve business and technical proposals; manuscript review and editing; grant pacing; research team start-up; and writing from the reader’s perspective.

Ashley Rivenbark has a Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH, 2007) and a broad scientific and translational background. She completed a UNC Lineberger Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Biochemistry and Pharmacology Departments at UNC-CH (2011). Before pursuing a career in medical and scientific writing, Dr. Rivenbark spent a little over a year as a research assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UNC-CH, where her job duties entailed grant writing/editing, manuscript writing/review/editing, and presentation preparation. Her specific job duties included: analyzing research projects; conducting literature searches; preparing graphs and tables; designing and developing posters and slide presentations; preparing manuscripts for journal submission; and preparing grant submissions to federal and private agencies. In addition, Dr. Rivenbark conducted independent research on epigenetic gene regulation with a focus in breast cancer, and in that capacity, she prepared numerous grant proposals for submission to the NIH, DOD, Lineberger Cancer Center, American Cancer Society, and private foundations. She has authored or co-authored >31 research publications. In addition, Dr. Rivenbark has been a peer reviewer for multiple scientific journals.

Currently, Dr. Rivenbark is a program manager for a grant writing company, where she supports the design and analysis of experiments needed to establish a winning grant, in progress review/editing of research strategy and all ancillary documents, as well as budget creation and management of overall grant application submission. In addition, Dr. Rivenbark is a contract grant writer/editor for UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, NC and Oxford Science Editing, London, UK, where she writes and edits NIH grant proposals and broad-based molecular and medical manuscripts.

Dr. Rivenbark lists the following as her areas of expertise: TRaCS; all areas of NIH and DOD grant submissions; the submission process at NIH, DOD, and UNC; all areas of investigator-initiated grant submissions for private industry/foundations; plain language writing; project and document management; presentation preparation; manuscript review and editing

Discipline expertise: Epigenetics; Cancer research; Pathology; Women’s health; Translational medicine; Molecular biology; Genetics; Toxicology; Biochemistry; Pharmacology

Debra Taxman, Ph.D. is a former UNC faculty member with >20 years of experience performing collaborative research, primarily in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Lineberger Cancer Center. She has written or co-written numerous grants, has edited a 20-author book on “siRNA Design” for Methods in Molecular Biology, and has contributed to >40 research publications (including 12 primary or senior author manuscripts, 2 review articles and 2 book chapters). She has served as a grant reviewer for the NIH/NIAID and a peer reviewer for an array of scientific journals. Dr. Taxman currently works as a freelance medical writer and editor/reviewer performing all levels of document preparation as detailed below. Since 2016, she has assisted investigators at the CWHR in the preparation of grant proposals with mechanisms ranging from R03, R21/R01 to K24 in areas of preterm birth, genomics, epigenetics, metabolomics, inflammation and infectious diseases. Dr. Taxman has served on the UNC Biomedical IRB since 2012.

Dr. Taxman lists the following as her areas of expertise: TraCS, all areas of NIH grant submissions, the submission process at NIH and UNC, all aspects of Clinical Trials, plain language, state contracts (particularly DHHS), UNC IRB and OHRE, generalist in all health areas with no specialty in any one; project and document management; intimately familiar with large grants such as P, U, and T types as well as federal contract RFPs that involve business and technical proposals; manuscript review and editing