ASU grad finds her calling in advocating for people through clinical research
Rhiannon Elliott-McGaugh-Mask is Edson College’s Outstanding Graduate student for fall 2024. Courtesy photo
Rhiannon Elliott-McGaugh-Mask grew up hundreds of miles away from an ocean, but that wasn’t an issue when deciding her future career.
“I wanted to go into marine biology, which is pretty common with a lot of kids, but that was my initial dream and the reason why I got a biology degree,” Elliott-McGaugh-Mask said.
The Flagstaff, Arizona, native wanted to move after graduation; it was a battle between the ocean and home. After talks with her family, she and her now husband decided to stay closer to home.
Elliott-McGaugh-Mask found herself in Chandler. By chance, she landed a job at a clinical research facility in Tempe. To her surprise, she discovered a new passion.
“Just learning about the different pharmaceuticals and how they do different things and how it’s tested and why it's so important stood out to me and I was like, 'OK, this is really cool,'” she said.
With a new job and a new interest in clinical research, she searched for programs that could help her learn more and advance in the field. She found the Clinical Research Management, MS program offered at Arizona State University’s Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation. It hit all of her criteria: accredited, fully online with flexible start dates and impressive faculty.
“I loved every second of it. It totally changed my life it was different than anything I’d ever been involved in,” she said.
This December, she will officially receive her diploma, an accomplishment she says would not have been possible without a little luck in coming across this field to begin with and the support of her husband and parents who were by her side through it all.
“My husband was there on the late nights when I was crying because I didn’t know how to do my assignments and thought I was going to fail,” she said.
The program faculty were also integral in her success. Elliott-McGaugh-Mask credits them for making her feel like she belonged and offering help and encouragement the entire way through. In fact, her experience was so great she immediately enrolled in the Online Doctor of Professional Practice (DPP) in Regulatory and Clinical Research Management.
Below, Elliott-McGaugh-Mask shares what led her to go all in on this career path and what surprised her about the online program.
Question: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in?
Answer: If you had asked me five or six years ago when I was doing my undergrad if I thought I was going to be doing clinical research, it would not have even been on my radar. When I got that first job at the clinical research facility, I just felt so comfortable in that environment and was really happy with what I was doing. Some of the things I got to do included reading protocols, being assigned my own studies and working in quality control for the site, which included reviewing a lot of data.
Now I work in pharmacovigilance. I’m an adverse event reporting officer. I actually developed my whole capstone on that. A lot of patients and health care providers don’t realize that adverse events are used to continue to develop the product after it hits the market and goes into the hands of consumers.
It’s very humbling work and I feel a lot of gratitude when I go to work because I know what I’m doing is benefiting everybody who is going to touch any of those products. And knowing that the work I do is to keep patients and everybody safe is one of the things I really like about the job.
Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU — in the classroom or otherwise — that surprised you or changed your perspective?
A: Being in a master’s program was shocking to me because it’s such a different level of professionalism compared to undergraduate programs. These are the people that truly care, that want to be professionals in their field.
The biggest thing that stood out to me though was group projects. I used to hate them because I was always the person who ended up doing everything. But when I got into the master’s program and I got the first group project, it was so different because everyone cared so much about it, so they wanted to put the work in to learn and they wanted everyone to do well, which was a big shift.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?
A: Give it your all. If you put the effort in, your professors will work with you. They want you to succeed, they care. And no matter what, just finish. You will be better for it!
Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?
A: Being in the field that I’m in, I would say tackling the cost of medication and health care. The cost of pharmaceuticals is astronomical, especially since I work in it I can recognize the markups. A lot of people don’t have access to health care or the medications they need because they can’t afford it.
When I worked at the clinical research facility, we had people that we called frequent flyers because it was their job to do studies. They would come in and, from getting so many IVs, they would have a dent in their arm. ... But this was their job, it’s how they made a living to afford health care and other services. I would like to see that change.
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