Tonya Ferraro Senior IRB QI Consultant, Boston Children's Hospital

Tonya Ferraro is the Senior IRB QI Consultant in the Education and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP) at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her role includes educational outreach, study reviews/audits, and supporting quality improvement initiatives. Before joining Boston Children’s, she was a Senior IRB Administrator at Harvard University, where she reviewed for the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School, while leading a team of administrators supporting other University-Area schools.
From 2008-2015, she was a Project Manager and programmer for the Health Behavior Research Center at the University of Vermont developing technologies to engage patients in their medical care. She is a PRIM&R SBER 2023 Conference Co-Chair, currently serves on PRIM&R's Education Committee, and served on PRIM&R's Diversity Advisory Group. She also is an AAHRPP Site Visitor and contributes to Harvard Catalyst’s subcommittees: Emerging Technologies, Ethics, and Research and QA/QI. Her educational background includes studying Studio Art at Northeastern University and an interdisciplinary M.Ed. from the University of Vermont with a focus on research methodologies.
In 2022, she completed a Bioethics Fellowship at Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, where she explored bioethical considerations of human research ethics through the lens of structural injustice and intersectionality. In extension of her work in research ethics, she serves as a Boston Korean Adoptees, Inc. Board Member where she created a research education program centered on return of results to the adoptee community, demonstrating her commitment to making research education inclusive and accessible. Tonya is particularly interested in innovative approaches to research education and addressing issues of research power, privilege, and trustworthiness.