The Pearls of Wisdom series features Debara L. Tucci, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., Director, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). In this Pearls of Wisdom video clip, Dr. Tucci talks about how to stay motivated.
Dr. Tucci is the NIDCD’s first woman in this role and the Institute’s fourth director since it was founded in 1988. Dr. Tucci leads the Institute’s research and research training programs in hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language, and oversees the NIDCD’s annual budget of approximately $500 million. Dr. Tucci has been recognized as a pioneer in her work to understand the causes and impact of hearing loss and to develop treatments to restore hearing. Before coming to NIH, Dr. Tucci was on faculty at Duke University, in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences, for 26 years. She was the founding co-chair of the Duke Hearing Center, which integrated auditory research and clinical otology practice on Duke campuses. Dr. Tucci also led NIDCD grants to train and mentor the next generation of clinician investigators in otolaryngology and communication sciences.
She has served in national leadership roles for most of the professional societies related to her specialty and subspecialty. She has also been president of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the American Otological Society, and the American Neurotology Society. Dr. Tucci currently serves as co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Global Hearing Loss, which allows her to pursue her passion for understanding and impacting hearing loss disability worldwide.
The Pearls of Wisdom online series of short videos aims to inspire, motivate, and inform individuals at all stages of their biomedical careers, with a particular focus on women in STEMM fields. Produced and funded by the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), it features prominent scientists and physicians at NIH and beyond — many from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups—sharing words of wisdom, perspectives, and advice to current and future women scientists.
The Pearls of Wisdom series is located on the NIH “Women in Science” website, which describes the history of the NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers and provides information on the working group’s subcommittees, supported programs, grants, career development resources, NIH diversity resources, and career flexibility initiatives.