Rella Christensen, RDH, PhD, co-founded Clinical Research Associates (CRA) in 1976 and directed it for 27 years before founding TRAC Research in 2002, the human-studies arm of the nonprofit CR Foundation devoted to long-term clinical study of restorative materials, preventive dentistry, and dental caries. A dental hygienist by training with a PhD in physiology and microbiology, she has been lead scientist and author on more than 1,800 studies reported in the CRA Newsletter, now Clinicians Report. In 2023 the University of Utah School of Dentistry invited TRAC Research into a funded collaboration to further develop the caries research methods the lab pioneered, and she continues to lecture nationally, including at the American Academy of Fixed Prosthodontics 2025 scientific session.
