Haven Wilvich, BS
Haven Wilvich is a Site Operations Clinical Trials Associate in the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) at Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
HVTN and CoVPN both include a large network of Clinical Research Sites (CRSs) around the world, including across the U.S., Latin America, and Africa. Haven coordinates operational logistics throughout that global network. She is also the founder of the LGBTQIA+ employee resource group at Fred Hutch, an advocate for trans workplace inclusion and health care equity, and the founder of a new community choir.
What is a Site Operations Clinical Trials Associate?
As a Site Operations Clinical Trials Associate, Haven’s job is highly collaborative and requires skills in communication, organization, and project management. Haven’s primary role is as the “official voice of the HVTN and CoVPN to our large network of Clinical Research Sites (CRSs) around the world.” She explained, “I am the final step in the process of sending out any communications and instructions on how to operate a specific clinical trial.” In this highly collaborative role, Haven explained, “I work closely with and support the Clinical Trials Managers who coordinate the daily operational logistics of running the trials at the sites.” This position requires a high degree of coordination across organizations and government agencies across the U.S. and around the globe. Haven explained, “I assist with official documentation and reporting to our study sponsors such as the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID).” She also helps launch new research sites across the U.S., Latin America, and Africa. In addition, she manages the HIV testing service, which she explained is for “former vaccine trial participants who have successfully developed antibodies.”
Her job requires extreme attention to detail and thorough documentation. Haven explained that the most challenging part of her job is “staying focused and carefully proofreading everything that comes across my desk to avoid having to send corrections to hundreds of busy staff across the world.” However, she reflected, “even when my daily duties feel mundane or repetitive, my coworkers and teammates are what keeps me focused and happy in my job.”
“I wish that I had been exposed to the field of health equity early on.”
— Haven Wilvich
Haven's Story
A rural childhood with dreams of being a Zookeeper. Haven grew up in rural King County in Washington State. Her mother was an artist and graphic designer, and her father was an electrical engineer who designed 911 dispatch equipment for emergency responders. As a child, she raised chickens and “fell in love with the forest.” For most of her life she wanted to be a zookeeper, but it would be her attention to details that would lead her to Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
In college, Haven followed that passion for nature and animals to study biology and ecology. Through her college years, she found the opportunity to study in the field, including in the San Juan Islands and the Galapagos Islands. During that time, she had also started working in administrative support positions “as a way to utilize my detail-oriented skill set,” she explained. She also worked as a Zoo Ambassador and Animal Unit Volunteer at the Woodland Park Zoo, connecting back to that childhood dream of being a zookeeper. After graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Ecology, Haven found that there were few job opportunities in the ecology field at that time. Instead, she continued working for several years in administrative and executive assistant positions for local non-profit organizations and a veterinarian clinic.
Participating in a Clinical Trial
In 2015, Haven volunteered as a participant in an HIV vaccine trial at the Fred Hutch HIV Vaccine Trial Unit. She explained, “I was newly out as transgender and it was the first medical setting where I felt truly included and accepted.” This experience led her to want to work at Fred Hutch. “I had such a great experience in the study,” Haven said, “that when it ended I decided to apply to the company organizing the trial so I could help make a difference for other transgender research participants.”
Working at Fred Hutch
Haven’s first job at Fred Hutch was providing administrative support for a team of cancer researchers in the Hutch Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research (HICOR). In that role, she enjoyed being able to leverage her background in biology. Later, she transferred to a Project Coordinator position with the HVTN and CoVPN, which allowed her to “work more closely with the research.” After two years, she was promoted in 2021 to her current position as Site Operations Clinical Trials Associate.
Advocating for Transgender People
Haven identifies as a white, queer, disabled, nonbinary trans woman. She began her LGBTQ+ advocacy work while attending what she described as a “very homophobic” university. She recalled having to fight “just for the right to discuss the topic on campus.” However, Haven found her voice and learned “how to push back for inclusivity and change.”
In 2018, she co-founded the Fred Hutch Rainbow Employees for Equity (FHREE), a LGBTQIA+ employee resource group at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. She described the group “as a place for members of the community to support each other and advocate for better inclusion in our workplace and research.” Haven explained, “we have put a lot of focus on making our work more inclusive of transgender and nonbinary employees and participants like myself through incorporating more accurate language in our data collection and making structural changes such as gender-neutral restrooms across campus.”
Outside of her work, Haven is the founder of Seattle’s first trans and nonbinary choir (STANCE). She is “passionate about queer community building and chosen family.” She also finds time to connect with nature through birdwatching and kayaking.
About HVTN and CoVPN
HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN)
For more than twenty years, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) has focused on preventing HIV infection around the world by bringing together the fields of vaccinology, social and behavioral sciences, statistics, and immunology to develop and test vaccines. The network is also focused on leveraging its cumulative expertise in vaccine development to prevent COVID-19 and tuberculosis. With headquarters at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, the network has worked with thousands of volunteers in its clinical trials at over 70 sites across four continents.
This integrated science infographic from HVTN shows how experts across different fields are brought together in collaboration to develop and test vaccines for HIV, COVID-19, and tuberculosis. Also, view this interactive map of the HVTN clinical sites around the world.
COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN)
The COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) was formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to bring together infectious disease experts from across the globe. The network has focused on developing and testing vaccines and monoclonal antibodies to prevent COVID-19 disease. The headquarters of the CoVPN vaccine clinical study operations are located at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle.
This infographic communicates the importance of continuing with COVID-19 vaccine research.
Advice for Students
Learn about the social sciences and the sociocultural aspects of healthcare and medicine. Haven noted that she didn’t discover the field of sociology until her senior year of college, but “I feel like those few classes I had have done more to inform my work than many of the biology classes I took.” With hindsight, she wishes she would have minored in sociology “as a way to bring together those two sciences.” She also reflected that had she known more at the time, she may have gone straight from college into a Masters in Public Health program. She shared, “I have really fallen in love with that approach to healthcare.”
“The best part of working at a well-regarded mission-based nonprofit like Fred Hutch is the passion and commitment of the people I work with. Each of us is there for a reason, many involving deeply personal stories, and it shines through in our work.”
— Haven Wilvich
U.S. Wage Information
According to Zippia.com, the 2023 average wage for clinical trial associates in the U.S. is $74,952.
Additional Resources
Credit: Thank you to Haven Wilvich for graciously participating in this project. Some information used in this profile was from LinkedIn. Career profile written by Dr. Kristen Clapper Bergsman.