10 Women Now Lead NIH Institutes and Centers
Top, from left, Diana Bianchi, M.D., Director, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, Ph.D., FAAN, FACMI, Director, National Library of Medicine (NLM); Ann Cashion, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Acting Director, National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR); Nora D. Volkow, M.D., Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); Martha J. Somerman, D.D.S., Ph.D., Director, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR).
Bottom, from left, Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S., Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS); Noni Byrnes, Ph.D., Director, Center for Scientific Review (CSR); Helene Langevin, M.D., Director, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH); Andrea T. Norris, M.B.A., Director, Center for Information Technology (CIT); Judith A. Cooper, Ph.D., Acting Director, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).
In a recent “Musings from the Mezzanine” blog post, Director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, Ph.D., FAAN, FACMI, discusses a historic first: 10 women now lead NIH Institutes and Centers. Dr. Brennan shares insights and anecdotes from the women directors on women in biomedical leadership positions, on achieving a work–life balance, on advocating for greater diversity in the sciences, and on the “three M’s”—mentoring, modeling, and mothering.
Dr. Brennan and another director, Nora D. Volkow, M.D., of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), share additional insights in ORWH’s Pearls of Wisdom series, in which established women scientists offer advice on education, biomedical careers, mentoring, and related topics. Future installments of the Pearls of Wisdom series will feature videos from some of the other women directors.
The staff of ORWH congratulates recent appointees Noni Byrnes, Ph.D., of the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), and Helene Langevin, M.D., of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), and looks forward to their continuing contributions to the work of NIH.