5 questions with Michael Marr
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Michael Marr is the research and project development manager for the Nelson-Tebedo Health Resource Center, a program of the AIDS Resource Center.
How did you first get involved with the center?
I used to be in furniture sales. My partner, who was an acquaintance of former Resource Center executive director John Thomas, owned The Arrangement furniture store, and I worked for him. Then he died, and I decided to go to nursing school. I graduated and then worked at Methodist Hospital in the emergency room for seven years. But I felt like I needed to do more for the community, and I remembered this place, and it had always been in the back of my mind that I should work here. So I signed up as a volunteer about three years ago, and then last January, I was hired as the research and project development manager.
What is the purpose of the research and development project?
This project handles the drug research projects that the health center participates in. Right now we are doing the Pfizer study that we started last January on Maraviroc, a CCR5 antagonist medication. We are more than halfway through phase three right now, and we expect to get into the extended access program sometime in the spring. That’s where the drug is offered through doctors’ offices and so on while the company is waiting on FDA approval.
What are your duties as research and project development?
I see the guys who are participating in the study. I draw their labs and dispense their medication. I handle setting up their appointments with the study’s principle investigator for their physicals, and then I enter all the data. I also work on developing new studies and projects for the center to take part in.
What new projects are on the horizon?
Well, we have started offering the new rapid HIV antibody tests and we are well into that now. It gives you results in about 30 minutes instead of a week like with the traditional tests. And we have a new study we hope to start in February, but I can’t discuss it yet.
What about your home life and family?
Well, I am a native of Dallas. My sister also lives in Dallas, but my parents retired to Gun Barrel City. Right now, I am single and focusing on work.
Soundout is a weekly column featuring people whose jobs and interests have an impact on the daily lives of members of the GLBT community. It features those who often go unnoticed by the press and community. If you’d like to recommend someone to cover in this column, contact senior editor Tammye Nash at nash@dallasvoice.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, November 10, 2006.