Jon Hennebold, Ph.D., Interim Director

Dr. Hennebold and his research team are leaders in the area of primate reproductive biology, specifically as related to ovarian physiology and processes required for fertilization and early embryonic development. Their research has led to the development of novel strategies for infertility and contraceptive treatments. Dr. Hennebold has participated in numerous scientific advisory panels, editorial boards, and NIH study sections. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Society for the Study of Reproduction. Dr. Hennebold came to the ONPRC in 2000 as a Staff Scientist in the Division of Reproductive & Developmental Sciences. In 2002, he was promoted to Assistant Scientist and, since May 2014, has served as the Chief of the Reproductive & Developmental Sciences Division. In addition, he holds an adjunct position in the Department of Obstetrics &Gynecology. Dr. Hennebold is actively involved in accelerating reproductive research by promoting interactions between basic and clinical scientists at OHSU and other universities through various leadership roles. Dr. Hennebold also participates as an advisor to institutional career development grant committees and oversees the research activities of the Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility fellowship.

​​​​​​​Lisa Kendig, Chief Operating Officer

Ms. Kendig joined the primate center in 2013. She started her career at OHSU in 1999 in Central Financial Services. Prior to that, OHSU was her audit client when she was working for a large public accounting firm. She was the Director of Finance for the Research mission at the university for nine years before stepping into the role as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the Center. As the COO, she is responsible for directing the operations, finances, grants management, human resources, information systems and facilities for the center. 

​​​​​​​Charles T. Roberts, Ph.D., Associate Director for Research 

Charles Roberts, Ph.D., is Associate Director for Research and Professor in the Divisions of Cardiometabolic Heath and Reproductive and Developmental Sciences at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) and Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Cell, Developmental, and Cancer Biology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), in 1975. Following an American Cancer Society-supported postdoctoral fellowship, he was an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at UCSB from 1978-1984. He was then recruited to the Diabetes Branch at the National Institutes of Health in 1984 as a Special Expert, was appointed Associate Chief of the Section of Molecular Physiology in 1989 with tenure, and promoted to Senior Investigator in 1992. In 1994, Dr. Roberts was recruited to OHSU as Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Chair for Research. He was subsequently recruited to ONPRC in 2007, where he currently serves as Associate Director for Research and Professor in the Divisions of Cardiometabolic Health and Developmental and Reproductive Science. Dr. Roberts has been continuously funded by the NIH for 40 years, has served on >50 NIH and DOD grant review panels, has co-founded four biotechnology companies in the diagnostic and device space, and holds six issued patents in the clinical therapeutics and diagnostics area. Dr. Roberts’ current research is focused on metabolic comorbidities associated with polycystic ovary syndrome, antiretroviral therapy for HIV, and long COVID using nonhuman primate models.

Lauren Drew Martin, D.V.M., DACLAM, Associate Director of Animal Resources & Research Support 

Dr. Martin received her veterinary degree from the Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2007. After completing a one-year internship in Primate Medicine & Surgery at the ONPRC, she joined the Center faculty as a surgical veterinarian in 2008, where along with the Unit Head, she helped oversee the daily functions of the ARRS Surgical Services Unit.  In 2012, in addition to her surgical duties, Dr. Martin took on leadership of the ARRS Small Laboratory Animal Unit, providing Center researchers the opportunity to perform translational work starting in the rodent model and working up to the NHP model. In 2014 Dr. Martin obtained board certification through the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM).  In November 2020 Dr. Martin became the ARRS Operations Unit Head and continues to oversee the largest ARRS Unit with over 70 animal care technicians and supervisory staff who provide the daily husbandry for the Center’s large NHP colony. Dr. Martin has also served as the Director of the Time-Mated Breeding (TMB) Program since 2016, which specializes in providing time-mated pregnancies for Center research projects. Dr. Martin’s primary areas of research focus and support include the effects of fetal and neonatal anesthesia on neurodevelopment, neonatal intensive care in infectious disease models, and the development of minimally invasive, permanent contraception techniques. She has more than 15 years of nonhuman primate management and surgical experience with a focus on minimally invasive surgery, including laparoscopy and assisted reproductive technologies. As the Associate Director of ARRS, in collaboration with the West Campus Attending Veterinarian, she oversees all aspects of the ONPRC animal care program, which includes approximately 5,000 nonhuman primates, and leads over 140 ARRS animal care staff. Dr. Martin remains active and serves or has served in leadership roles in several professional organizations including ACLAM, the Association of Primate Veterinarians (APV), the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS), the American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners (ASLAP) and the Academy of Surgical Research (ASR).

Jeff Stanton, D.V.M., M.A., DACLAM, Attending Veterinarian OHSU West Campus

Dr. Stanton joined the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) on the OHSU West Campus in 2012, beginning as a clinical veterinarian in the Clinical Medicine Unit, primarily supporting research conducted by the Division of Pathobiology and Immunology. Dr. Stanton has worked with multiple investigators supporting nonhuman primate (NHP) infectious disease models. This work has involved supporting the NHP model of HIV/AIDS, helping to develop a bone marrow transplant model in cynomolgus macaques, and, most recently, a novel therapeutic study for COVID-19 in rhesus macaques. In addition, Dr. Stanton is Head of the Compliance, Education, and Training Unit in Animal Resources and Research Support (ARRS), which is working to develop a robust Quality Assurance Program to ensure that high-quality animal care and research support continue at the ONRPC. Additionally, Dr. Stanton is the Training Program Director for the Oregon State Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Consortium. Before joining the ONPRC, Dr. Stanton completed a post-doctoral training program in laboratory animal medicine with the Gulf Coast Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Consortium in Houston, Texas. Before entering residency, Dr. Stanton practiced small animal medicine for seven years in O’fallon, Missouri. He earned a Master’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Washington University in St. Louis before attending veterinary school at the University of Missouri – Columbia. Dr. Stanton became a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) in 2013. As the Attending Veterinarian (AV) for the OHSU West Campus, Dr. Stanton is responsible for the health and well-being of all laboratory animals on the West Campus. He works closely with the Associate Director for ARRS, ONPRC and OHSU leadership, West Campus researchers, and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to provide training and oversight to assure the proper and humane care for laboratory animals in compliance with applicable regulations and guidelines. Dr. Stanton is a member of and has held leadership positions in multiple professional organizations, including the Association of Primate Veterinarians (APV), the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS), the American Society for Laboratory Animal Practitioners (ASLAP), and the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM).

Jacob Estes, Ph.D., Chief, Division of Pathobiology & Immunology

Dr. Estes has established an exceptional research program that focuses on the immunopathology and persistence of lentiviral (HIV/SIV) infections. Dr. Estes's group has pioneered novel in situ hybridization, immunopathological and tissue analyses approaches to better understand: i) HIV/SIV transmission and viral establishment, ii) mechanisms underlying pathological inflammation and immune activation, iii) progressive immunopathology of lymphoid tissues, and iv) reservoir biology and viral persistence. In addition, his group generated the first nonhuman primate (NHP) model of experimental acute and chronic colitis that is being explored as a preclinical model of IBD. Dr. Estes received his training at Brigham Young University and the University of Minnesota prior to joining the AIDS and Cancer Virus Program at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research/NCI/NIH, where he was a Senior Principal Investigator of the Retroviral Immunopathology Section and Head of the Tissue Analysis Core. Dr. Estes joined the ONPRC as the Chief of the Division of Pathobiology &Immunology in 2017 and holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute at OHSU.

Kathleen Grant, Ph.D., Chief, Division of Neuroscience

Dr. Grant over the past two decades has achieved eminence as a leading investigator of the behavioral pharmacology of alcohol abuse and alcoholism.  Dr. Grant's laboratory has helped to define the receptor mechanisms that mediate the addictive potential of ethanol in the brain.  Further her research has developed a monkey model of alcoholic drinking that is the basis for over 30 laboratories involved in collaborative research on the genetic, physiological, endocrinological and neuropharmacological risk for and consequences of heavy drinking. Dr. Grant directs the consortium on the Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Stress and Alcoholism funded by NIH and has served on the National Advisory Council for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. After training at the University of Washington, University of Chicago, and the National Institutes of Health she rose up through the faculty ranks at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.  Dr. Grant moved to OHSU in 2005 to be jointly appointed in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and the ONPRC. In 2011, she became Division Head of Neuroscience and remains actively involved in the Behavioral Neuroscience Department where she will continue to hold an appointment as Professor.  

Shawn Chavez, Ph.D., Chief, Division of Reproductive & Developmental Sciences

Shawn L. Chavez is an Associate Professor and the Interim Chief of the Division of Reproductive & Developmental Sciences at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), where she has been a faculty member since September of 2013. She also has affiliate appointments in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Molecular & Medical Genetics, and Biomedical Engineering at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). She obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from Yale University and completed her Postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University. Her research interests focus on the use of real-time imaging and low-input next-generation sequencing to investigate the genetic, epigenetic, and chromosomal requirements of early embryogenesis and placentation in humans, non-human primates (NHPs), and other mammals. In particular, her laboratory is investigating the underlying mechanisms mediating mitotic chromosome mis-segregation, embryonic micronuclei formation, and potential aneuploidy resolution during mammalian preimplantation development. Moreover, she is also examining the molecular connections between the formation of the placental-derived trophectoderm layer in embryos and subsequent placentation in normal versus abnormal pregnancies in both humans and NHPs. Collectively, the goals of this research are to enhance our understanding of embryogenesis and placentation across primate species, whilst improving assisted reproduction outcomes for infertile couples by preventing embryo or fetal loss during pregnancy.

Paul Kievit, Ph.D., Chief, Division of Cardiometabolic Health

Donald Conrad, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Genetics

Dr. Conrad is a world-renowned expert in genetics/genomics and the development of bioinformatics pipelines/platforms for the efficient assessment and management of genetic data. He played a leading role in mapping and characterizing the functional impact of human chromosomal structural variants. He also developed novel statistical methods for identifying de novo point mutations from next-generation sequencing data and used this to estimate germline mutation rates from parent-offspring trios as part of the 1000 genomes project. Another major emphasis of his research includes defining the origins of mutation and the distribution of mutation frequencies that impact gametogenesis, fertilization, and pregnancy. Dr. Conrad received his training at the University of Chicago and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute prior to joining Washington University in St. Louis, where he led a successful research group in the Department of Human Genetics. Dr. Conrad joined the ONPRC in 2018 to lead the newly established Division of Genetics.