Curriculum Vitae

Scott J. Pearson

Professional Biography

I am committed to the intersecting fields of healthcare, software engineering, biomedical informatics, and management. I have extensive formal education in the subjects of software and medicine and have over a dozen years’ experience writing computer code for healthcare applications. I use my knowledge of medicine to efficiently use biomedical computational resources to help the medical system.

Within the last couple of years, I have started in a new role as a senior program manager working with developers. Although the formal title doesn’t exist in my organization, my job assumes the responsibilities of a technical program manager – someone whose duty is to do whatever it takes to push software efforts forward. I work with several developers to produce paradigm-shifting software to aid biomedical researchers and continue to write some code myself.

Finally, I am deeply committed to being a contributor to my community. I support my family, coordinate an educational Sunday School class, serve on a community advisory board for medical research, and maintain a book blog of almost 1,000 book reviews, often of works related to my career. Personally and professionally, I seek to maintain the highest ethical standards while generally contributing as a good human being.

Education

Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, Computer Science, Clemson University, 1998-2001.

  • 4.0 GPA.
  • Applications Emphasis in Religion.
  • Additional coursework in philosophy.
  • Senior thesis: A phenomenology of modern computer interfaces.

Seminary studies, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, summer 2000.

  • Systematic theology sequence (2 courses, 2 audits).

Seminary studies, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2002-2003.

  • Learned Koine/BiblicalGreek (self-taught), Latin (self-taught), and Biblical Hebrew.
  • Worked on Dead Sea Scrolls project with Professor James Charlesworth.
  • Did not complete Master of Divinity due to a medical emergency and a subsequent change in career focus.

Pre-Medical studies, Clemson University, 2004-2007.

  • Studied part-time while working for pre-medical sequence.

Medical studies, Medical University of South Carolina, 2007-2012.

  • Independent project translating a differential diagnosis application from Apple 9 into PHP/MySQL.
  • Independent study developing mobile applications for vaccine scheduling in iOS/Objective C.
  • Received honors in Public Health, Community Surgery, and Family Medicine elective.
  • Interests in psychiatry and primary care medicine.
  • Completed 2 years of coursework.
  • Took Hippocratic Oath.
  • Did not complete the Medical Doctor degree due to a sleep disability inhibiting my performance in clinical rotations.

Work Experience

Senior Program Manager, Vanderbilt Health, December 2024-present.

  • Guide several software projects among a team of 2-3 developers. I co-invent the project ideas, design the application, educate developers about needed technology gaps, mentor the developers throughout the development lifecycle, manage the projects to their completion, publicize the projects locally and nationally, and provide technical support.

Consultant, University of Kentucky, 2024-present.

  • Act as a technical program manager for various projects related to their Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS).

Application Developer, Vanderbilt University/Vanderbilt Health, December 2013-November 2024.

  • Developed and guided software efforts with the Edge for Scholars team on the REDCap platform (PHP/JavaScript/MySQL/HTML/CSS). I developed an extensive software tool called Flight Tracker for Scholars to automatically collect data from diverse data sources and to present it in the form of reports, scientific visualizations, and individual profiles. I guide the software’s development from a tool for one project to a tool shared by 75 institutions and used locally in 130+ projects. I coordinate communications among all our partners with regular presentations, user support, and managerial guidance.
  • Developed REDCap Mobile App using PhoneGap (JavaScript/HTML/CSS); this is an intricate mobile app for Android and iOS that integrates with the leading data collection software for medical research using API calls. It allows for offline collection of data. It is changing the way medical research is conducted, especially in global health.
  • Developed plugins for PhoneGap using Java and Objective-C.
  • Developed and maintained on a mostly solo basis with team input on design.

Software Systems Engineer, Emdeon, August 2012-December 2013.

  • Met production needs of servers processing medical billing claims through installations, management of tickets, alert management, and monitoring.
  • Change Management person for team.
  • Wrote many, many Perl scripts that analyzed performance and the flow of production.
  • Tested scripts for team.
  • Ensured that servers were running properly.
  • Interacted with large MSSQL and Oracle databases at the user level and at the script level.
  • Occasionally involved with customer-facing phone calls.
  • Worked on making server processes ever-more efficient by working with application developers.

Independent Study, Medical University of South Carolina, July 2010-May 2011.

  • Developed My Shot Log, an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch application handling adult immunization records that told users which shots they were missing, displayed vaccination schedules, and facilitated communication with physicians.
  • ASTS Smart, mHealth applications to facilitate communication among transplant surgeons.

Software Engineer, Medical University of South Carolina, June 2008-August 2008.

  • Developed a web application that used a web-based interface that simulated the process of getting to a diagnosis from a patient encounter. Written for medical students.

Systems Programmer, The Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films, Clemson University, September 2004-July 2007.

  • Developed the CAEFF Integrated Model user interface featuring an interactive visualized design that allowed for easy design of polymer processing simulations.
  • Co-designed the web-based Polymer Database containing polymer information for polymer processing simulations.

Systems Programmer, Clemson University Genome Institute, Clemson University, January 2002-July 2002.

  • Developed a web application that displayed chromosomal information that told researchers what parts of the chromosome had been sequenced.

Service Experience

June Ramsey Class Coordinator, First Presbyterian Church of Nashville, 2020-present.

  • Coordinate speakers from Vanderbilt Divinity School and Belmont School of Religion for Sunday School classes.
  • Provide educational presentations about religious topics for 3-4 months per year.
  • Coordinate annual class retreat to Monteagle, Tennessee.

Community Advisory Board Member, HIV Vaccine Trial Network, Vanderbilt Health, 2020-present.

  • Attended national HIV research meeting as a CAB representative in May 2025.

Mentor, Preston Taylor Ministries, 2014-present.

  • Mentor a young man identified at at-risk for over a decade.
  • Started in a lunch-buddy program but now work with his family in an unstructured environment.
  • Seek to open life opportunities to him.

Research Assistant, The Public Perception of Mental Illness, September 2010-June 2012.

  • Assisted in development of questions for a questionnaire, especially with those pertaining to psychiatry and religion.
  • Posted online advertisements for filling out the questionnaire weekly in several metropolitan areas.
  • Contributed to discussion of results at a meeting led by the resident.

Interdisciplinary Public Health course, Medical University of South Carolina, January 2010-May 2010.

  • Wrote term paper on the stigma of mental illness.

Administrative Internship, Downtown Community Fellowship, Athens, GA, June 2001-December 2001.

  • Developed church literature.
  • Maintained the church website.

Communication Ministries Leader, Downtown Community Fellowship, Clemson, SC, December 1998-May 2001.

  • Developed interactive church website and weekly church emails.
  • Developed church service liturgies and multimedia presentations.
  • Coordinated amongst various ministry teams to achieve a busy church calendar.
  • Developed church literature.
  • Volunteered an average of about 30 hours per week while pursuing university studies.

Awards

  • Marquis’ Who’s Who member, 2026.
  • Top 50 poster, Flight Tracker for Scholars, Association for Clinical and Translational Science conference, 2023.
  • Rhodes Scholar Finalist, 2003.
  • Faculty Scholarship Award (for 4.0 GPA), Clemson University, 2001.
  • Outstanding Senior in Computer Science, Clemson University, 2001.
  • Outstanding Junior in Computer Science, Clemson University, 2000.
  • Outstanding Sophomore in Computer Science, Clemson University, 1999.
  • Valedictorian, Eastside High School, 1998.
  • Brotherhood Award, Eastside High School, 1998.
  • National Merit Finalist, 1998.
  • South Carolina All-State Math Team Member, 1996-1998; Captain of B team, 1996.

Technologies

Proficient:

  • JavaScript/jQuery, Perl, PHP, C/C++, MySQL, Python, R, GitHub, XML, HTML5, LaTeX, Markdown, JSON, CSS3, D3.js, Artificial Intelligence (Azure/ChatGPT).

Experienced:

  • Objective C, SQLite, Android Java, MSSQL, Oracle, Docker, UML, MatLab/Octave.

Environments:

  • UNIX/Linux, Mac OSX, Windows, Visual Studio, PHPStorm.

Personal Strengths

  • Lateral thinking.
  • Breaking down silos.
  • Patient-centered decision-making.
  • Interpersonal skills.
  • Creative approaches to problem-solving.
  • Transforming data into eye-catching visualizations.

Publications and Writings

Contributing Scientific Author.
Harris PA, Delacqua G, Taylor R, Pearson S, Fernandez M, Duda SN. The REDCap Mobile Application: a data collection platform for research in regions or situations with internet scarcity. JAMIA Open. 2021 Sep 13;4(3):ooab078. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab078. PMID: 34527889; PMCID: PMC8435658.

Poet, Pectoriloquy, 2013.
What happens when I read PFTs. Chest Journal. 2013;143(3), 861. doi: 10.1378/chest.12-1352.

Editor and author, Scott’s Book Reviews, scottjpearson.com, 2018-present.

  • 950+ book reviews in various genres.

Contributor, englewoodreview.org, 2019-present.

  • Book reviews about religious topics.

Contributor, imedicalapps.com, 2015.

  • Two articles about programming mobile applications.

News Editor, The Eagle’s Cry, Eastside High School, 1997-1998.

  • Won statewide awards for articles and editorials.

Languages

  • Spanish (limited spoken and reading).
  • Biblical Greek (limited reading).
  • Biblical Hebrew (limited reading).
  • German (limited reading).
  • Latin (limited reading).