Dr. Benson is a senior consultant with Maidstone Consulting Group, LLC. She has been nationally recognized for her innovative proactive approaches for addressing research integrity issues, including development of the pioneering ReaDI Program in research data management and integrity at Columbia University. Her scientific background includes technological expertise in various scientific imaging (AFM, SEM, TEM, STM) and spectroscopy (FTIR, XPS, XRD, NMR, etc.) platforms. She has extensive investigative experience in academic research data forensics specific to allegations of falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism, including advising faculty committees, federal partners (HHS ORI), and deciding officials (DO) following the conclusion of forensic data analysis. She is a subject matter expert in research misconduct and conflict of interest institutional policy development, and in performing in-depth institutional risk profile assessments for enhancing and protecting organizational research and data integrity.
Dr. Benson is currently the Director of Conflict of Interest Management at Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) where she also implements and oversees Research Misconduct Policies, the development of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) curricula and Foreign Influence (FI) assessment strategies. Prior to joining HMH, Dr. Benson was the Assistant Director for Research Integrity and Compliance at Columbia University. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Ohio University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison.