(Posted August 18, 2020)

HUNTINGDON, Pa.— The Juniata College Board of Trustees has added four new members to begin the 2020-2021 academic year. The newly appointed trustees were elected in April and will begin their service Sept. 1, 2020, for three-year terms. The new trustees are Dr. Parisha Shah, a senior research investigator and instructor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine; Joy Hadley, a member of the Senior Executive Service at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD); Dr. Nicole C. Close, founder and principal biostatistician of EmpiriStat, Inc., based in Kitty Hawk, NC; and Dr. Randy Kochel, managing physician at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.

Shah and Close have previously served on the Board of Trustees as alumni trustees and Kochel will serve as an alumni trustee.

Dr. Parisha Shah, of Philadelphia, Pa., earned her bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and communication at Juniata College in 2001 and her Ph.D. in molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 2008. In 2001, prior to doctoral study, Shah spent a year as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Md. Shah completed her post-doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, studying the epigenetics of age and age-related disease. Since 2016, Shah has been a senior research investigator and instructor in the Department of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, leading research studies on the role of nuclear organization in establishing cellular identity and memory. Shah is a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society and a member of the Philadelphia Medical Reserve Corps.

Shah served on the Juniata College Alumni Council from 2006 to 2010. From 2010 to 2013, she served one-year terms as vice president, president, and past president of the Alumni Council.

Joy L. Hadley, of Alexandria, Va., began her professional career in 1985 as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). She has spent her entire career in federal service at HUD. Hadley is a member of the Senior Executive Service and currently is responsible for risk management operations and compliance strategy for HUD’s Federal Housing Administration single family mortgage insurance portfolio. She leads the organization that monitors lender compliance, assesses risk, implements controls, and takes enforcement actions. 

Hadley earned her bachelor’s degree in political science at Juniata College in 1984 and her master’s degree in public administration from Penn State University.

Dr. Nicole C. Close, of Kitty Hawk, N.C., virtually founded the clinical and statistical research organization EmpiriStat, Inc., based in Mount Airy, Md., in 2008 where she serves as the principal biostatistician. She has worked on over 400 clinical protocols in various therapeutic, biologic, and device areas, participating in hundreds of regulatory meetings with clients for devices, drugs, and therapeutics with regulatory agencies in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Currently, Dr. Close is working strategically on different areas of research with clients for reducing and preventing the cytokine storms occurring with COVID-19 patients as well as using super natural killer cells for the prevention of COVID-19. She is a member of Omnicron Delta Kappa and The National Leadership Honor Society, the secretary of the regulatory affairs committee for the International Society for Clinical Biostatics, Co-Chair of the Development Committee for Society for Clinical Trials, and was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year for Women in Technology, Washington, D.C. in 2011.

Close earned her bachelor’s degree in biology at Juniata College in 1992; her master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1994; and her Ph.D. in epidemiology at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 2007.

Dr. Randy L. Kochel, of Lancaster, Pa., earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Juniata College in 1979 and his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1983 at the Penn State College of Medicine. He completed his residency in family medicine from 1983-1986 at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C., and is board certified in family medicine. Kochel has worked in family practice since 1986, beginning in a private group practice, County Line Family Medicine, which is now a part of University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine. He currently practices with Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health County Line, Gap, Pa. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Pennsylvania Medical Society, and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.

Kochel received the Health Professions Alumni Appreciation Award at Juniata College in 2006, the Penn State Hershey Teaching award in 2014, and the Brumbaugh Alumni Service Award at Juniata in 2019. He has also served on Juniata College’s Alumni Council. 

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.