Unsung But Impactful Voices of Clinical Research Heroes: Featuring Crystal Bruner, Recruitment and Marketing Coordinator at Center for Clinical Studies

If you’ve ever thought clinical research was all charts and checklists, Crystal Bruner will quickly change your mind. She brings warmth, creativity, and just the right amount of introspection to a role that often stays behind the scenes, but is absolutely essential to getting studies off the ground. As the Recruitment and Marketing Coordinator at Center for Clinical Studies, Crystal plays a key part in helping connect people with trials that could change or even save their lives.

Crystal Sees Her Role in Clinical Trials as..

When Crystal joined the team, she was brought on to support recruitment efforts through design and media planning. In a small and dynamic team environment, her role naturally expanded over time. Today, she contributes across multiple areas of patient outreach and supports key initiatives.

“I’ve learned so much about how clinical trials work and the necessity of enrolling eligible patients that meet our diverse population,” she shares.

Building Trust Through Connection

With nearly 12 years at the Center for Clinical Studies, Crystal has played a central role in shaping how the organization connects with patients. Her work is grounded in the belief that effective outreach isn’t just about information — it’s about connection, trust, and impact.

She sees that trust as a bridge:

“By raising awareness of clinical trials, we reduce misconceptions and bias, thereby increasing our opportunities to recruit and identify potentially suitable participants so we have a diverse and adequately sized participant pool available to choose from.”

And that’s just the start.

“By connecting patients with researchers, they gain access to valuable resources, support, and education to assist them.”

Crystal’s work helps make clinical trials from something distant into something accessible. By bringing clarity and compassion to her outreach, she helps more people see participation as an opportunity to make informed choices, receive care, and be part of something that could benefit future generations.

Changing the Narrative, One Ad at a Time

Crystal’s work isn’t just about getting the word out — it’s about helping people see trials in a more patient-friendly way.

“Effective recruitment is essential as under-enrollment can lead to trial delays, a decrease in payments, or even premature study termination.”

Her approach?

Make it visual. Make it human. Make it real.

With a background in photography and marketing, she knows first impressions matter and a well-designed flyer or digital ad can be the difference between someone scrolling past or pausing to learn more.

“You need to get their attention,” she adds, “as well as connect on a personal level.”

And that connection is increasingly happening online. “Patients are more engaged through social media,” Crystal observes.

She’s also noticed clear generational trends: “People under 40 typically respond to social media, emails and text messages more than any age group from what I noticed. Older generations still respond to traditional TV, radio, and print advertising.”

Her work emphasizes personalized outreach, inclusive branding, and messaging that resonates with target audiences, especially underserved communities. 

What Keeps Her Motivated

What truly drives Crystal is the deep connection she feels to her work and the people she helps. 

“Connecting people to clinical research trials is an incredible opportunity to not only improve their lives but also positively impact future generations and how they perceive medical innovation. Observing the impact it has on patients directly, while seeing how therapies and technology evolve over time from that research, has been an exciting and humbling experience.”, she shares.

What is the Toughest Part of Her Job?

For Crystal, one of the most challenging aspects of her role is reaching the right people and helping them see clinical trials as something meant for them.

“Targeting individuals with the conditions needed to enroll in our trials can be a challenge. Often, people aren’t aware of trial opportunities, don’t have the ability to attend visits, or they have a bias against clinical research due to misinformation. Reaching patients through local engagement, whether it’s at their community center, religious organization, or family doctor’s office, is just as important as other advertising platforms. We need to understand the community we are targeting to understand what will resonate with them and gain their trust.”

That lack of awareness doesn’t just make recruitment harder—it affects representation and access.

“Spreading awareness of clinical trials is important, but the diversity of study participants is as well. Lack of representation (whether it’s an ethnic group, people with a specific condition, a certain age group, etc.) hinders our ability to evaluate the overall effectiveness of a treatment or intervention for that group. That’s why understanding how to advertise in your community and which advertising platforms to use is essential to ensuring that a trial enrolls on time and with qualified participants.”

There’s also the broader challenge of how clinical research is perceived.

“There’s still a lot of misconception and bias around clinical trials, and a general lack of understanding about their role in creating new medications and devices. If we focus on engaging local communities, educating people on how clinical trials impact the advancement of medicine, and helping patients get access to trial opportunities, it may help increase patient engagement and retention in the long run.”

That’s why Crystal leads every interaction with empathy and clarity—replacing hesitation with trust.

A Glimpse Beyond Work

Outside of work, Crystal describes herself as reliable, creative, friendly, and organized, with a bit of an eclectic streak.

She’s got a soft spot for classic and pop rock (and we’re pretty sure her playlists are as carefully curated as her recruitment materials). And when it comes to football? She’s a proud fan of the Houston Texans.

🎵Listen to Crystal’s personalized song here. 

Want to craft one for yourself, your team, or a clinical research professional you’d like to recognize? Create a song here.

So Next Time…

…you see a flyer at your local health center or an ad on your phone about a clinical trial, take a second to think about the people behind it — people like Crystal Bruner, who are quietly (but impactfully) changing the way we think about health, access, and possibility.

Stay tuned for more from “Unsung But Impactful”—a spotlight series honoring the everyday heroes of clinical research.