KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Roxana Lescano, director of research administration for Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) SOUTH, received the 2024 Distinguished Service Award at the opening ceremony of the Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) on August 26.
Lescano, who has worked with NAMRU SOUTH for over 30 years, accepted the award from Dr. Lester Martinez-Lopez, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, during the MHSRS opening session.
Lescano is responsible for NAMRU SOUTH’s Research Administration program, which oversees the review of scientific protocols through the Institutional Review Board. Her duties include processing agreements that ensure funding for research, or that establish contacts with research collaborators. Her office is also responsible for NAMRU SOUTH’ Publications and Clearance Program, the training program on human subject protections and research integrity for the unit and its collaborators.
“I have been fortunate to be able to try to do something that I love,” Lescano said, “and to have received the tools at South to do it better and better.”
As part of her role, Lescano oversees a portfolio of over 70 active protocols by which NAMRU SOUTH studies infectious disease and disease prevention measures throughout Central and South America.
“This is critical, because the number one problem you have when you deploy military forces is actually infectious disease,” explained Capt. Michael Prouty, NAMRU SOUTH commanding officer. “We lose more time to these infectious diseases than we do to actual warfighting.”
Dr. Henju Marjuki, NAMRU SOUTH’s chief science officer, nominated Lescano for the MHSRS award because of what he describes as an impressive quality of work.
“She is making sure that we are compliant at the command with local government regulations,” Marjuku said, “and also U.S. and international regulation, and the ways we are conducting science.”
Research overseas requires compliance with all regulations set up by local governments, by the U.S. and by international law. Without this compliance, which Lescano oversees for NAMRY SOUTH, research data cannot be used in the pursuit of health solutions.
“Roxana works to ensure that the science we produce is top notch,” Prouty said. “She has not only taken it on herself to make sure that our command is performing at the highest level, but she has worked with networks in Central and South America to increase the quality of research throughout the region so that all researchers that we partner with are doing the same level and same quality of research.”
“NAMRU SOUTH is committed to finding ways to prevent diseases in the war fighter, but those diseases exist in our countries as well,” explained Lescano. “They affect our people, civilian and military as well. That is one reason why I believe in what I do. I think it's the right thing to do.”
“I'm helping my people, my country, and the region where I live,” Lescano added.
MHSRS is the DoD’s premier scientific meeting that focuses specifically on the unique medical needs of service members. This annual educational symposium brings together healthcare professionals, researchers, and DoD leaders for four days of critical learning, intensive idea sharing and relationship building.
NAMRU SOUTH, part of the Navy Medicine Research & Development enterprise, conducts research on a wide range of infectious diseases of military and public health significance, and supports Global Health Engagement through surveillance of those diseases, including dengue fever, malaria, diarrheal diseases and antimicrobial-resistant infections.
NMR&D, led by Naval Medical Research Command, is engaged in a broad spectrum of activity from basic science in the laboratory to field studies in austere and remote areas of the world to investigations in operational environments. In support of the Navy, Marine Corps, and joint U.S. warfighters, enterprise researchers study infectious diseases, biological warfare detection and defense, combat casualty care, environmental health concerns, aerospace and undersea medicine, medical modeling, simulation, operational mission support, epidemiology and behavioral sciences.
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Naval Medical Research Unit SOUTH Director of Research Administration Recognized at MHSRS 2024