STARR Insider Session Recap: Creating a Connected Community

April 16, 2026

What does it take to build real trust between the clinical research world and the communities it aims to serve? That was the central question at the latest STARR Insider Session, Creating a Connected Community, where three industry voices – a pharma sponsor, a clinical research site network leader, and a global nonprofit – came together to explore what meaningful partnership actually looks like in practice.

Adam Simmons of Newleos Therapeutics opened with a frank acknowledgment: public trust in pharmaceutical companies is low, which makes the work of research sites and community partners all the more critical. “What people think of our involvement in research is not based on the work that I’m doing in Boston,” he noted. “It depends on where that research is happening – which is in the sites, in the community.” He pointed to STARR site certification as a key mechanism for ensuring partners are not just contractually compliant, but genuinely embedded in their communities – from NAMI walks to local Clubhouse affiliates.

Anna Sackett Rountree of Clubhouse International offered a window into what community partnership can and should look like. Clubhouse International supports a global network of over 370 community-based centers for people living with mental health conditions — built on dignity, purpose, and belonging, not clinical transactions. She was direct about what breaks trust: research teams arriving with a study in hand, expecting communities to reshape their work around external parameters. What works instead is co-development from the start, transparency about goals, and sustained engagement long after enrollment closes.

Lauren White of CenExel grounded the conversation in day-to-day site practice, emphasizing that consistency is everything. Sites that show up regularly – not just when they need participants – build the kind of credibility that opens doors. “The end goal is not to get a patient,” she said. “That’s just a bonus if it happens.”

Across all three perspectives, one theme ran clear: connected communities aren’t built through transactions. They’re built through relationships – and those relationships require listening, follow-through, and genuine investment in the people research is meant to help.